Who should use what?
Elasticsearch (ELK)
Score: 8.8/10
Organizations needing powerful full-text search and log analytics
Free / Cloud from $95/mo
Grafana Loki
Score: 8.5/10
Teams wanting cost-effective log aggregation with Grafana
Free / Cloud from $49/mo
Feature Showdown
Overall Score
Elasticsearch (ELK)
Grafana Loki
The Good & The Bad
Elasticsearch (ELK)
Distributed search and analytics engine
Strengths
- Powerful full-text search
- Highly scalable architecture
- Rich ecosystem (ELK Stack)
- Flexible schema and queries
Weaknesses
- Resource-intensive operation
- Complex cluster management
- Licensing changes caused concerns
Grafana Loki
Like Prometheus, but for logs
Strengths
- Cost-effective (indexes labels only)
- Native Grafana integration
- Prometheus-like label system
- Easy to operate
Weaknesses
- No full-text indexing
- Query performance depends on labels
- Less powerful search than Elasticsearch
Pricing Breakdown
Elasticsearch (ELK)
Free / Cloud from $95/mo
Pricing varies by data volume and features. Contact Elasticsearch (ELK) for a custom quote based on your infrastructure needs.
Grafana Loki
Free / Cloud from $49/mo
Pricing varies by data volume and features. Contact Grafana Loki for a custom quote based on your infrastructure needs.
Our Recommendation
Winner
Elasticsearch (ELK)
8.8/10 Overall Score
Both Elasticsearch (ELK) and Grafana Loki are excellent observability platforms. Elasticsearch (ELK) edges ahead with a score of 8.8/10, particularly excelling in . Choose Elasticsearch (ELK) if you prioritize these capabilities.