Graylog vs mtail
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted monitoring & status options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Graylog
Centralized log management and analysis platform
VS
mtail
Extract Prometheus metrics from application log files
| Feature | Graylog | mtail |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 90 · Excellent | 54 · Fair |
| Category | Monitoring & Status | Monitoring & Status |
| License | SSPL-1.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Language | Java | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 2,048 MB | 64 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal | docker, binary, kubernetes |
| GitHub stars | ★ 8,144 | ★ 4,032 |
| First released | 2010 | 2015 |
| Replaces | Splunk, Datadog Logs | Splunk, Datadog Log Metrics |
What are Graylog and mtail?
Graylog
Graylog is a centralized log management platform that collects, indexes, and analyzes machine data in real time. It offers powerful search, dashboards, and alerting for troubleshooting and security monitoring.
- Centralized log collection
- Fast full-text search
- Dashboards and alerts
- Stream-based routing
mtail
mtail is a tool from Google for extracting metrics from application logs to be exported into a time series database. It runs small programs that parse log lines and increment counters or gauges, bridging log data into Prometheus monitoring.
- Turns log lines into metrics
- Compact pattern language
- Prometheus export endpoint
- Low overhead tailing
Graylog vs mtail: key differences
Graylog is written in Java, while mtail is built with Go. Licensing differs — SSPL-1.0 for Graylog versus Apache-2.0 for mtail. Mtail is the lighter option, starting around 64 MB of RAM against 2,048 MB for Graylog. Graylog is the more established project (first released 2010), while mtail arrived in 2015. Graylog has the considerably larger community, at 8,144 GitHub stars versus 4,032.
Why pick each one
Choose Graylog if…
- Powerful search and pipelines
- Polished web UI
Watch out for
- Needs OpenSearch and MongoDB
- Memory hungry
Choose mtail if…
- Bridges legacy logs to metrics
- Tiny footprint
Watch out for
- Custom program language to learn
- Not a full log pipeline
Frequently asked questions
Is Graylog or mtail better?
Neither is universally better. Graylog has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Graylog and mtail free and open-source?
Yes. Graylog is licensed under SSPL-1.0 and mtail under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Graylog and mtail with Docker?
Graylog: yes. mtail: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Graylog or mtail?
mtail has the smaller minimum footprint at 64 MB of RAM, compared to about 2,048 MB for Graylog. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.