Everyone must be aware in today's world that the collection, parsing, and analysis of logs has become a hectic task nowadays. It is because the logs are a wealth of data which can tell you everything you can ask them. Therefore it is a necessity to use some log management tools available in the industry to facilitate your work.
In this article, we shall discuss the best free and paid log management tools which you can use to get the maximum benefits from the analysis of logs. All of them are free but are with limitations. The paid versions do not have any such restrictions though.
Top 5 Free & Paid Log Management Tools
Papertrail
Papertrail is undoubtedly the best one among a lot of log management tools, and it centralizes the technique of handling the data of logs. The filtering ability of a device like Papertrail is fantastic and you can extract your records in some ways to increase your productivity and analysis.
Using the services of Papertrail to analyze various log files, firewall, server logs, etc. the whole management process becomes excellent and comfortable. Hence, this is also one of the reasons for calling it the best one among many.
Since this log management tool runs on the cloud, you need to worry about your operating system, and you can always view the progress using the web dashboard efficiently. The service is available for free as well as is paid.
The free version only allows you to use the logs of the past two days or 48 hours, which might not be comfortable for everyone. Hence, it is advisable to use the paid plan which costs very little when compared to the returns it provides. Also, you can easily have an analysis of up to 1 GB data per month in the paid plan.
GrayLog is a brilliant online log management tool which can help you to manage all your logs efficiently. It provides a web-based user interface to its users with additional devices for searching and analyzing the log data in various forms. An exciting feature of GrayLog is that it provides many features such as pipeline customization, user management, alerts and many more for no additional costs.
These are some features that are generally paid ones, but with GrayLog, you can access them for free. It uses charts efficiently and visualizes the metrics, but a significant issue with this log management tool is that it is difficult to set up. Also, it's reporting capacity is also not up to the mark, hence this can be a concern for many users.
LogWatch is also a fantastic log management tool which is preferred by a lot of users across the globe. The main reason for this amount of acceptance is the lightweight and straightforward structure of LogWatch.
It easily compiles the reports based on log activity and then efficiently analyses all the log files which are held by some external host, as per your choice.
After the reports have been generated, this log management tool can also email you these reports. LogWatch is a fast tool for reviewing the log data because it primarily focuses on log analysis only and has nothing to do with indexing, storage, or even sharing of the log files.
It is straightforward to set up and hence is hugely, and it can consolidate all of its analysis in just a couple of pages so that you can easily take a look at it in a short time. But the main issue with this tool is that it is highly outdated as its last update came back in 2016. However, it is still one of the best tools to use.
This particular log management tool claims to have the lowest TCO in the entire industry. The LogDNA provides the users with a ready to use log management tool without any limits or caps whatsoever so that you can use it as per your needs. It also provides only the exact features that are necessary for the functioning of the organization smoothly.
This is better than many other log management tools as well because free tools rarely provide the desired quality of output. Hence, using this tool won't require you to spend more money outside in the long run.
The LogDNA has undoubtedly a lot of useful features like a modern user interface which is web-based as well. It also allows the automatic parsing and custom parsing whenever required. It is also straightforward to use, and unlike most other tools, even an average person can use it without any hassles. It is available both in a free as well as a paid plan so you can choose for yourself as per your needs and requirements.
Splunk is again a comprehensive and one of the best you can find as the log management tool in the industry. It works perfectly fine for various platforms such as Linux, Windows and Mac Operating System. It is a paid tool, but some of its features are also available for free to the users so that they can first test it before actually purchasing it.
However, the free version has its limitations just like all others. The users can only use up to 500 MB data per day, and the users can analyze their logs by simply feeding their logs or even the live data into the analyzer. The network alert feature is also provided for the benefit of the users.
The highest paid version of Splunk is available for more than $150 per month, which may or may not be affordable for all. Hence, having a free plan also makes this log management tool a good one. Also, the feature of sorting the data and filtering it on various parameters is an integral part of this tool.
Conclusion
These were the best free and paid log management tools which could provide immense help in the analysis of the logs and solve various management issues.
