Fluent Bit
6.1#20 in telemetry pipeline softwareFree planFree planLinuxmacOSSelf-hostedWindows
VisitFluent Bit vs syslog-ng
What both publish
| Fact | Fluent Bit | syslog-ng |
|---|---|---|
| Integrations | Output destinations include Splunk, Elasticsearch, OpenSearch, Kafka, and other services. | The product pages list destinations and integrations including Elasticsearch, Hadoop, Kafka, MongoDB, SQL databases, Redis, Splunk, and SIEM tools. |
| License | Fluent Bit, its core, plugins, and tools are distributed under the Apache License 2.0. | The public project combines LGPL and GPL licensing: core reusable code is generally LGPL 2.1-or-later while many modules are GPLv2-or-later. |
| Parsing | Built-in parsers support JSON, Regex, LTSV, and Logfmt. | Built-in parsers include CSV, database and key-value parsers, with macros and rewrite capabilities for normalizing messages in flight. |
| Performance | The project is designed for high throughput with low resource consumption. | The project reports 600,000–800,000 messages per second in a simple single-node use case, with lower throughput when parsing and filtering are enabled. |
| Purpose | Fluent Bit is an open-source telemetry agent for collecting and processing telemetry across constrained systems and cloud infrastructures. | syslog-ng collects logs from infrastructure sources, processes them, and routes or stores them for analysis. |
| Reliability | It provides backpressure handling and buffering in memory and on the file system. | Premium Edition uses disk buffering, client-side failover, and application-layer acknowledgement to help transfer logs without message loss. |
Fluent Bit plans
- Open-source Fluent BitFree
syslog-ng plans
- syslog-ng Open Source EditionFree
- syslog-ng Premium Edition trialFree
- Syslog-ng Basic$2,800, paid once
- syslog-ng Premium EditionPriced on request
- syslog-ng Premium EditionPriced on request
- syslog-ng Premium Edition MarketplacePriced on request
Pick Fluent Bit if…
Fluent Bit suits teams that need to collect and process telemetry across constrained systems or cloud infrastructure. It may also fit users seeking a self-hosted agent with multiple output destinations and plugin options.
Pick syslog-ng if…
You want what its maker publishes above — check its page for the details.