Log management · September 2026 Edition
Grafana Loki vs Graylog
Zero of twelve models named Grafana Loki first on the direct prompt; one named Graylog. Both were named by all twelve models and Grafana Loki carries 44 labels and Graylog 37, so the shares are not directly comparable.
Named in four categories this edition.
Named in three categories this edition.
First-choice share16%10%Of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, 0 to 100.
Negative rate7%14%Negative labels as a share of the product's labels, 0 to 100.
Rank in category#2#3A position in a field of 11; printed, not drawn.
Labels4437A count; the two differ.
The two percentage rows are drawn on one 0 to 100 track, Grafana Loki reading right to left. Rank and label count are printed, not drawn.New Relic Logs was named alongside these two in nine of the twelve direct answers. Datadog Log Management vs Grafana Loki · Datadog Log Management vs Graylog
Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts over all twelve models, for a mid-market B2B company; rank is within the category; every quote names the model and the prompt it came from. Both figures come from the log management page.
By framing
How many of the twelve models made each the first choice, per way of asking, and how many argued against it.
Grafana LokiFirst choices, of twelve modelsGraylog
Direct01
Paraphrase24
Comparative001 against Graylog
Budget-constrained501 against Graylog
Scale-constrained10
Negative003 against Grafana Loki · 3 against Graylog
Bars are first choices, 0 to 12 each sideModels that argued againstA model can name both, so the two sides of a row do not sum to twelve.
The direct prompt
The plain question, one answer per model, grouped by where Grafana Loki and Graylog stood in it.
Graylog first, Grafana Loki not the choice
1 of 12 modelsGrafana Loki was named in the answer but not as the choice, or not at all.Mistral SmallGraylog alternatives: New Relic Logs, Sematext
Neither was the first choice, one was named
5 of 12 modelsThe answer put something else first and named one of the two as an alternative.Gemini 3.5 FlashCoralogix alternatives: Better Stack, Grafana Loki
Grok 4.1 FastDatadog Log Management, New Relic Logs alternatives: Grafana Loki, Graylog, ManageEngine Log360
DeepSeek V4 FlashNew Relic Logs, SigNoz alternatives: Grafana Loki, ManageEngine Log360, Splunk
Llama 4 MaverickMiddleware.io alternatives: Graylog, ManageEngine Log360, New Relic Logs
Kimi K2Datadog Log Management alternatives: Graylog, Middleware.io, New Relic Logs, OpenObserve
Neither was named
6 of 12 modelsThe answer made no first choice from these two in this category.Claude Haiku 4.5no first choice
GPT-5.4 miniDatadog Log Management alternatives: New Relic Logs, Splunk
Perplexity SonarNew Relic Logs alternatives: ManageEngine Log360, Middleware.io, Sematext
Qwen 3.7 FlashDatadog Log Management, New Relic Logs alternatives: Elastic Stack, OpenObserve, Sumo Logic
GLM 4.7 FlashXDatadog Log Management alternatives: Elastic Stack, Splunk
MiniMax M2.5New Relic Logs alternatives: Datadog Log Management, Elastic Stack, LogRhythm, ManageEngine Log360
Bold names in an answer are the products the judge labeled a first choice; a model naming several gives each of them that label. The full answer text for every row is in the record.
By buyer segment
The same question asked on behalf of a different buyer. Each standing is computed within its segment and they are never added together. The figures above are the mid-market standing, which is the one the category orders by.
Small business
Grafana Loki leads by thirteen points.
Grafana Loki17%#2 of 13Graylog4%#6 of 13Mid-marketThe figures above
Grafana Loki leads by six points.
Grafana Loki16%#2 of 11Graylog10%#3 of 11Enterprise
Grafana Loki leads by two points.
Grafana Loki2%#7 of 13Graylog0%#13 of 13What the models said about Grafana Loki
Every negative label with a quote, up to three, then the highest-weighted positives, up to three. Six of seven in this category shown.
“Avoid Loki if your primary use case is unstructured full-text search across massive amounts of log data.” DeepSeek V4 Flash · negative prompt · hard negative
“Avoid Loki if your developers log high-cardinality identifiers or you need deep ad-hoc text search.” Kimi K2 · negative prompt · hard negative
“This can make ad-hoc, deep text queries incredibly slow.” Gemini 3.5 Flash · negative prompt · soft negative
“strongly consider an OpenTelemetry-native, cost-predictable option (Loki with Grafana, or SigNoz/OpenObserve)” DeepSeek V4 Flash · scale prompt · first choice
“I'd suggest evaluating Grafana Loki (if cost-conscious and comfortable with DevOps)” Claude Haiku 4.5 · paraphrase prompt · first choice
“Small team / startup / mostly Kubernetes or microservices: Grafana Loki” GPT-5.4 mini · budget prompt · first choice
What the models said about Graylog
Every negative label with a quote, up to three, then the highest-weighted positives, up to three. Six of seven in this category shown.
“Had a privilege escalation vulnerability (CVE-2025-53106)... Ensure you're running version 6.2.4 or 6.3.0-rc.2 or later.” MiniMax M2.5 · negative prompt · soft negative
“Gartner 2024–2025 SIEM Magic Quadrant places these as Niche Players: limited vision/execution for broad log management” Grok 4.1 Fast · negative prompt · soft negative
“Avoid: Graylog versions < 7.1 ... Ensure you are strictly on Graylog 7.1 (supported through May 2027)” GLM 4.7 FlashX · negative prompt · soft negative
“Especially recommended for mid-market and larger organizations seeking a robust, scalable, and cost-effective centralized log management solution” Mistral Small · direct prompt · first choice
“Graylog - Best for mid-size teams that want open-source log management with a reasonable UI.” Llama 4 Maverick · paraphrase prompt · first choice
“Graylog if you want open-source with better ease-of-use than ELK” MiniMax M2.5 · paraphrase prompt · first choice
Also compared
Comparisons are drawn for the top three products in each category. The output is the models' output; nothing here is a recommendation by the index.