Grafana Loki vs Shinken

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?
FeatureGrafana LokiShinken
CategoryMonitoring & StatusMonitoring & Status
LicenseAGPL-3.0AGPL-3.0
LanguageGoPython
Setup difficultyMediumHard
Min. RAM512 MB512 MB
Deploymentdocker, kubernetes, helmbare-metal, source
GitHub stars★ 28,687★ 1,136
First released20182009
ReplacesSplunk, Datadog LogsSolarWinds

Why pick each one

Choose Grafana Loki if…

  • Cheap to run compared to full-text indexers
  • Familiar Prometheus-style labels
Grafana Loki details

Choose Shinken if…

  • Scales horizontally
  • Reuses Nagios ecosystem
Shinken details

Frequently asked questions

Is Grafana Loki or Shinken better?

Grafana Loki is the stronger all-round pick: it has both the larger community and the simpler medium setup. Consider Shinken if its specific feature set fits your needs better.

Are Grafana Loki and Shinken free and open-source?

Yes. Grafana Loki is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Shinken under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run Grafana Loki and Shinken with Docker?

Grafana Loki: yes. Shinken: check the project docs for container support.

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