Graylog vs Elastic Stack (ELK) Pricing (2026)

Graylog vs Elastic Stack (ELK)

Log Management pricing comparison · 2026

Graylog pricing ranges from $0–$1550/month, while Elastic Stack (ELK) uses custom pricing. Elastic Stack (ELK) is typically 100% more affordable, though your actual cost depends on tier and team size.

Log Management

Graylog

$0–$1550
/month
5 plans · Free tier
Full pricing breakdown →
VS
Log Management

Elastic Stack (ELK)

Custom pricing
/varies
1 plan
Full pricing breakdown →

Graylog and Elastic Stack (ELK) both operate in the log management category. This page compares their list pricing.

Plan-by-Plan Pricing

Plan Graylog Elastic Stack (ELK)
Open Source (Free) Free /free (self-hosted) Custom
Graylog Cloud - Operations $1.3K /$1,250/month for 10GB/day
Graylog Cloud - Security $1.6K /$1,550/month for 10GB/day
Graylog Enterprise (Self-Hosted) Custom
Graylog API Security $1.5K /$1,500/month minimum

Cost at Scale

Total cost of ownership — licenses, implementation, and hidden costs included.

Graylog

4 scenarios
$1,500
Startup - Open Source Self-Hosted (10GB/day)
2,500/month - Infrastructure: 3 Graylog nodes, 3 Elasticsearch nodes, MongoDB, load balancer ($1,000-2,000/month) + DevOps time 20 hours/month ($500-1,000). Total: $1,500-2,500/month for unlimited logs.
$3,000
Mid-Size SaaS - Graylog Cloud Operations (25GB/day)
3,500/month - Graylog Cloud Operations with 25GB/day ingestion, 30-day retention, HA, auto-scaling, email/chat support. Negotiate 10-15% discount on annual contract: $2,700-3,000/month.
$6,000
Security Team - Graylog Cloud Security (50GB/day)
7,500/month - Graylog Cloud Security with 50GB/day, 90-day retention, Sigma rules, threat intelligence, incident investigation, compliance reporting. Negotiate 15-20% discount: $5,000-6,000/month.
See all 4 scenarios →

Elastic Stack (ELK)

2 scenarios
$30,000/year
Mid-Size Self-Managed Enterprise Deployment
$150,000/year
Equivalent Elastic Cloud Deployment

Hidden Costs

Beyond the sticker price — what catches buyers off guard.

Graylog 3 hidden costs

medium
Infrastructure Setup Complexity 10-20% of license costs
high
Disk Storage Management and Index Corruption 5-15% of license costs
low
Manual Update Management Required $500-$2,000
See all Graylog hidden costs →

Elastic Stack (ELK) 2 hidden costs

high
Elastic Cloud vs. Self-Managed Cost Premium $120,000-$150,000
medium
Platinum Per-Node Pricing Complexity 10-30% of license costs
See all Elastic Stack (ELK) hidden costs →