Graylog
Open-source log management that grew into SIEM - European alternative based in Germany
Quick Overview
| Company | Graylog |
|---|---|
| Category | SIEM & Security Monitoring |
| Headquarters | Hamburg, Germany (with US operations in Houston) |
| EU/European | Yes - Germany |
| GDPR Compliant | Yes |
| Main Features | Open source core, Log management & SIEM, Self-hostable |
| Pricing | Open source + enterprise licence |
| Best For | Teams that want to self-host log management and add security on top |
| Replaces | Splunk, Elastic Security, Sumo Logic |
Detailed Review
Graylog began in Hamburg as an open-source log management project and has grown into a security platform: centralised log collection and search, with SIEM detection and anomaly analytics layered on the same data.
What Makes Graylog Stand Out
Graylog is the practical entry point. The open-source core solves log centralisation on your own hardware for nothing, and security detection can be added later on data you are already collecting — rather than requiring a platform decision and a budget round before the first log arrives.
What the Platform Covers
Log ingestion, parsing and search at scale, dashboards and alerting, SIEM detection content with anomaly detection, and an API-driven architecture, available as open source, self-managed enterprise or cloud.
European Jurisdiction and NIS2
Graylog's engineering roots and a substantial part of the company are in Hamburg, with US operations in Houston — so unlike the rest of this list it is not purely European, and the entity you contract with is worth confirming. The open-source core is the practical answer: self-hosted, the data never leaves your infrastructure regardless.
Security logs describe an organisation's defences, its blind spots and its incidents. Under NIS2, in-scope organisations across energy, transport, health, digital infrastructure and public administration now have reporting duties and supply chain obligations that make the origin of the security stack part of the compliance question rather than a preference.
Pricing
Open-source edition free to self-host, with enterprise licensing by data volume for the security features, support and cloud. A free tier of the enterprise product covers small deployments.
Graylog vs Splunk and Microsoft Sentinel
Against Splunk, Elastic Security, Sumo Logic, the two European arguments are cost model and jurisdiction. Volume-based pricing turns every new log source into a budget decision, which is how SIEM deployments end up blind in exactly the places that matter; and security telemetry is the last data set most European public bodies want under foreign jurisdiction.
Who Should Use Graylog
Graylog suits engineering-led teams that want to start with self-hosted log management and grow into security detection on the same stack.
Pros and Cons
Pros
- Open-source core, free to self-host
- Strong log search and dashboards at scale
- SIEM detection on the same data
- API-driven architecture
- Free enterprise tier for small deployments
Cons
- Not purely European — US operations in Houston
- Enterprise features licensed by data volume
- Self-hosting is real operational work
- Detection content thinner than SEKOIA's
Alternatives to Graylog
Looking for other European security monitoring platforms? Here are the alternatives worth comparing:
Frequently Asked Questions
Graylog is based in Germany and operates under European data-protection rules including the GDPR. Security logs contain personal data — usernames, IP addresses, access times — so this is a processing question as well as a security one.
Graylog is based in Germany. Security telemetry describes an organisation's defences and its failures, which is why the vendor's jurisdiction carries unusual weight here.
Log ingestion, parsing and search at scale, dashboards and alerting, SIEM detection content with anomaly detection, and an API-driven architecture, available as open source, self-managed enterprise or cloud.
Open-source edition free to self-host, with enterprise licensing by data volume for the security features, support and cloud. A free tier of the enterprise product covers small deployments.
Graylog is a European alternative to Splunk, Elastic Security, Sumo Logic, generally with a cost model that does not scale directly with log volume.
Detection and logging are foundational to the NIS2 obligations around incident handling and reporting, and this category is where most of that capability sits. No product delivers compliance on its own — the directive covers governance, supply chain and reporting timelines too — but you cannot report an incident within the deadline if nothing detected it.