Kibana vs Logstash
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted monitoring & status options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Not the right match-up?
Kibana
Visualization and exploration for Elasticsearch data
VS
Logstash
Server-side data processing pipeline for logs
| Feature | Kibana | Logstash |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Monitoring & Status | Monitoring & Status |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Language | TypeScript | Java |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 1,024 MB | 1,024 MB |
| Deployment | docker, kubernetes, binary | docker, kubernetes, binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 21,230 | ★ 14,912 |
| First released | 2013 | 2009 |
| Replaces | Splunk, Datadog | Fluentd |
Why pick each one
Frequently asked questions
Is Kibana or Logstash better?
Neither is universally better. Kibana has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Kibana and Logstash free and open-source?
Yes. Kibana is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Logstash under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Kibana and Logstash with Docker?
Kibana: yes. Logstash: yes.