# Fluentd vs Splunk

**Leader by vioscaleAI score:** Fluentd

| Attribute | Fluentd | Splunk |
|---|---|---|
| **vioscaleAI score** | 57 (54% (medium)) | 51.3 (41% (low)) |
| activity.commits_last_30d | 29 | - |
| adoption.dependent_repos | 3,044 | - |
| adoption.github_stars | 13,607 | - |
| content.faq | `[{"answer":"Fluentd is an open source data collector that consolidates logs and events from multiple applications and systems into a unified pipeline, enabling better data routing, processing, and consumption across your infrastructure. It is indexed under Log Management Software.","source":"https://www.fluentd.org/","question":"What is Fluentd?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Fluentd is open source, so it can be self-hosted and used at no licence cost. It is released under the Apache-2.0 licence. Pricing changes often, so verify at source before relying on it.","source":"https://www.fluentd.org/","question":"Is Fluentd free to use?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Fluentd supports Windows, macOS, Linux and a command-line interface. Platforms we have not confirmed are simply not listed here rather than ruled out.","source":"https://www.fluentd.org/","question":"What platforms does Fluentd support?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Yes. Fluentd can be deployed self-hosted, so it does not have to run on the vendor's infrastructure.","source":"https://www.fluentd.org/","question":"Can Fluentd be self-hosted?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Yes. Fluentd is published under the Apache-2.0 licence, a permissive licence that generally allows commercial use and modification. Licence terms can change between releases, so verify against the repository for the version you intend to use.","source":"https://github.com/fluent/fluentd","question":"Is Fluentd open source?","confidence":0.95}]` | `[{"answer":"A centralized analytics system that ingests and analyzes machine data at scale to enable security threat detection, operational visibility, and AI-powered automation. Supports cloud and self-managed deployment models. It is indexed under Log Management Software.","source":"https://www.splunk.com/en_us/products/pricing.html","question":"What is Splunk?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Splunk offers a free tier, so you can start without paying. Pricing changes often, so verify at source before relying on it.","source":"https://www.splunk.com/en_us/products/pricing.html","question":"Is Splunk free?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have confirmed browser-based access to Splunk. That is the extent of what we could verify from public sources, so it may well offer desktop or mobile clients we have not indexed.","source":"https://www.splunk.com/en_us/products/pricing.html","question":"What platforms does Splunk support?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Yes. Splunk can be deployed cloud / SaaS, hybrid, on-premise, air-gapped and self-hosted, so it does not have to run on the vendor's infrastructure.","source":"https://www.splunk.com/en_us/products/pricing.html","question":"Can Splunk be self-hosted?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have confirmed 14 integrations for Splunk, including OpenTelemetry, Cisco Talos, AWS, Amazon CloudWatch, Datadog, Google Stackdriver, Grafana and Honeybadger, plus 6 more. This is what we could verify from public sources, so the vendor may support others we have not indexed.","source":"https://www.splunk.com/en_us/products/pricing.html","question":"What does Splunk integrate with?","confidence":0.6}]` |
| deployment.options | `{"self_hosted":true}` | `{"cloud":true,"hybrid":true,"air_gapped":true,"self_hosted":true}` |
| description.long | Collects event data from various sources and forwards it to multiple destinations including databases, cloud services, and data platforms. Designed to centralize log infrastructure across applications and systems. | Splunk consolidates data from various sources and enables real-time analysis for security monitoring, system observability, and AI applications. It supports analyzing data in place across different storage backends, reducing costs and data movement while providing complete operational visibility. |
| features.capabilities | `{"hosting":"self","log_role":"shipper","structured_parsing":true}` | `{"hosting":"both","alerting":true,"log_role":"platform","dashboards":true,"otel_support":"native","pii_redaction":true,"full_text_search":true,"retention_tiering":true,"structured_parsing":true}` |
| integrations.count | 500 | 2,000 |
| integrations.list | - | `[{"name":"OpenTelemetry"},{"name":"Cisco Talos"},{"name":"AWS"},{"name":"Amazon CloudWatch","native":true,"category":"monitoring"},{"name":"Datadog","native":true,"category":"monitoring"},{"name":"Google Stackdriver","native":true,"category":"monitoring"},{"name":"Grafana","native":true,"category":"monitoring"},{"name":"Honeybadger","native":true,"category":"monitoring"},{"name":"Loadster","native":true,"category":"testing"},{"name":"New Relic","native":true,"category":"monitoring"},{"name":"Observium","native":true,"category":"monitoring"},{"name":"Opsview","native":true,"category":"monitoring"},{"name":"Pingdom","native":true,"category":"monitoring"},{"name":"Slack","native":true,"category":"chat"},{"name":"Amazon S3","direction":"inbound"},{"name":"Cisco Cloud Connect"}]` |
| language.primary | Ruby | - |
| license.spdx | Apache-2.0 | - |
| market.availability | - | `{"primaryMarkets":[],"availabilityScope":"global","availableCountries":[],"notAvailableCountries":[]}` |
| platform.support | `{"cli":true,"mac":true,"linux":true,"windows":true}` | `{"web":true}` |
| pricing | `{"type":"open_source","freeTier":true,"sourceUrl":"https://www.fluentd.org/","retrievedAt":"2026-08-14T11:05:37.414Z"}` | `{"type":"usage","summary":"Activity-based, ingest, workload, and entity pricing models. Free 14-day trial.","currency":"USD","freeTier":false,"sourceUrl":"https://www.splunk.com/en_us/products/pricing.html","retrievedAt":"2026-09-23T13:31:47.239Z","freeTrialDays":14}` |
| pricing.free_tier | yes | no |
| pricing.model | open_source | commercial |
| pricing.price_level | free | unknown |
| pricing.transparent | - | no |
| release.cadence_days | 70 | - |
| release.history | `[{"url":"https://github.com/fluent/fluentd/releases/tag/v1.19.4","date":"2026-09-28T05:54:15Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.19.4"},{"url":"https://github.com/fluent/fluentd/releases/tag/v1.19.3","date":"2026-06-25T09:16:05Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.19.3"},{"url":"https://github.com/fluent/fluentd/releases/tag/v1.19.2","date":"2026-02-19T04:41:23Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.19.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/fluent/fluentd/releases/tag/v1.16.11","date":"2025-12-10T04:43:59Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.16.11"},{"url":"https://github.com/fluent/fluentd/releases/tag/v1.19.1","date":"2025-11-10T02:13:37Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.19.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/fluent/fluentd/releases/tag/v1.16.10","date":"2025-09-12T01:52:17Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.16.10"},{"url":"https://github.com/fluent/fluentd/releases/tag/v1.19.0","date":"2025-07-30T07:31:21Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.19.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/fluent/fluentd/releases/tag/v1.16.9","date":"2025-05-14T08:02:54Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.16.9"},{"url":"https://github.com/fluent/fluentd/releases/tag/v1.16.8","date":"2025-05-01T05:44:23Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.16.8"},{"url":"https://github.com/fluent/fluentd/releases/tag/v1.16.7","date":"2025-01-30T01:44:35Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.16.7"},{"url":"https://github.com/fluent/fluentd/releases/tag/v1.18.0","date":"2024-11-29T05:30:48Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.18.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/fluent/fluentd/releases/tag/v1.16.6","date":"2024-08-20T08:09:25Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.16.6"},{"url":"https://github.com/fluent/fluentd/releases/tag/v1.17.1","date":"2024-08-20T01:34:50Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.17.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/fluent/fluentd/releases/tag/v1.17.0","date":"2024-04-30T09:14:06Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.17.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/fluent/fluentd/releases/tag/v1.16.5","date":"2024-03-27T09:07:47Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.16.5"},{"url":"https://github.com/fluent/fluentd/releases/tag/v1.16.4","date":"2024-03-14T08:12:40Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.16.4"},{"url":"https://github.com/fluent/fluentd/releases/tag/v1.16.3","date":"2023-11-14T05:23:28Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.16.3"},{"url":"https://github.com/fluent/fluentd/releases/tag/v1.16.2","date":"2023-07-14T08:27:02Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.16.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/fluent/fluentd/releases/tag/v1.16.1","date":"2023-04-17T07:51:15Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.16.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/fluent/fluentd/releases/tag/v1.16.0","date":"2023-03-29T04:04:47Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.16.0"}]` | - |
| reliability.status_page | - | yes |
| security.certifications | `[{"name":"Third-party security audit","status":"active","auditor":"Cure53"}]` | - |
| security.disclosure_policy | - | yes |
| security.scorecard | 8.6 | - |
| security.vulnerabilities | `{"count":7,"source":"https://advisories.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/advisories?ecosystem=rubygems&package_name=fluentd&per_page=100","last_12m":4,"max_severity":"CRITICAL"}` | - |

## Capabilities (Log Management Software)

| Capability | Fluentd | Splunk |
|---|:--:|:--:|
| **Core** |  |  |
| Pipeline role | Shipper | End-to-end platform |
| **Search** |  |  |
| Full-text log search | - | ✓ |
| Live tail / stream | - | - |
| **Processing** |  |  |
| Structured parsing | ✓ | ✓ |
| PII redaction at ingest | - | ✓ |
| **Ops** |  |  |
| Log-based alerting | - | ✓ |
| Dashboards / visualisation | - | ✓ |
| **Storage** |  |  |
| Retention tiering | - | ✓ |
| Object-store columnar backend | - | - |
| **Interop** |  |  |
| OpenTelemetry logs | - | Native |
| Query language | - | - |
| **Deployment** |  |  |
| Hosting | Self-hosted only | Cloud + self-hosted |

*Source: vioscaleAI. Generated 2026-10-16T20:12:40.204Z. "-" = undocumented, not absent.*