Who is each tool for?
Gr
Grafana Mimir
Teams needing horizontally scalable Prometheus storage
El
Elasticsearch (ELK)
Organizations needing powerful full-text search and log analytics
Pros and Cons
Gr
Grafana Mimir
Pros
- Unlimited horizontal scalability
- 100% PromQL compatible
- Multi-tenant architecture
- Cost-effective long-term storage
Cons
- Complex to self-host at scale
- Requires Kubernetes expertise
- Steeper learning curve than SaaS options
El
Elasticsearch (ELK)
Pros
- Powerful full-text search
- Highly scalable architecture
- Rich ecosystem (ELK Stack)
- Flexible schema and queries
Cons
- Resource-intensive operation
- Complex cluster management
- Licensing changes caused concerns
Feature Comparison
Feature
Gr
Grafana MimirEl
Elasticsearch (ELK)APM
4
6
Log Management
3
9.5
Infrastructure Monitoring
9
7.5
Alerting
8
7.5
Integrations
8.5
8.5
Ease of Use
6.5
6.5
Support
7.5
8
Value for Money
9.5
8
Overall Score
8.7
8.8
Pricing
Gr
Grafana Mimir
Free / Cloud from $49/mo
Pricing varies by data volume and features. Contact Grafana Mimir for a custom quote.
El
Elasticsearch (ELK)
Free / Cloud from $95/mo
Pricing varies by data volume and features. Contact Elasticsearch (ELK) for a custom quote.
Our Verdict
Both Grafana Mimir and Elasticsearch (ELK) are excellent observability platforms. Elasticsearch (ELK) edges ahead with a score of 8.8/10, particularly excelling in APM and Log Management.
