# Fluent Bit vs Grafana Loki

**Leader by Vioscale score:** Grafana Loki

| Attribute | Fluent Bit | Grafana Loki |
|---|---|---|
| **Vioscale score** | 52.7 (42% (low)) | 67.7 (76% (high)) |
| activity.commits_last_30d | 100 | 100 |
| adoption.dependent_repos | 0 | 334 |
| adoption.github_stars | 8,062 | 28,789 |
| deployment.options | `{"cloud":true,"hybrid":true,"on_prem":true,"self_hosted":true}` | `{"cloud":true,"self_hosted":true}` |
| description.long | Collects and routes telemetry data from distributed systems with high efficiency and built-in support for the OpenTelemetry standard. | Loki is a distributed log aggregation platform designed for simplicity and cost efficiency. It stores logs with only label metadata indexed rather than full-text content, making it straightforward to operate and integrate with Prometheus and Grafana for unified observability. |
| features.capabilities | `{"hosting":"both","log_role":"shipper","otel_support":"native","structured_parsing":true}` | `{"hosting":"both","alerting":true,"log_role":"backend","live_tail":true,"dashboards":true,"full_text_search":false,"structured_parsing":true,"object_store_backed":true}` |
| integrations.count | 100 | 4 |
| integrations.list | `[{"name":"AWS S3"},{"name":"Google Cloud Storage"},{"name":"Kubernetes"},{"name":"OpenTelemetry"},{"name":"Syslog"},{"name":"Prometheus"},{"name":"Windows Event Log"},{"name":"Podman"},{"name":"NVIDIA GPU"},{"name":"HTTP"},{"name":"Google Chronicle"},{"name":"Fluent Forward"}]` | `[{"name":"Prometheus"},{"name":"Grafana"},{"name":"Kubernetes"},{"name":"Docker"}]` |
| language.primary | C | Go |
| license.spdx | Apache-2.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| market.availability | - | `{"hqCountry":"US","primaryMarkets":[],"availabilityScope":"global","availableCountries":[],"notAvailableCountries":[]}` |
| platform.support | `{"cli":true,"mac":true,"linux":true,"windows":true}` | `{"cli":true,"web":true}` |
| pricing | `{"type":"open_source","freeTier":true,"sourceUrl":"https://fluentbit.io/","retrievedAt":"2026-08-14T11:06:42.544Z"}` | `{"type":"hybrid","plans":[{"free":true,"name":"Free","summary":"Always free, no credit card required","features":["All Grafana Cloud services with limited usage","Community support","14 days retention for metrics, logs, traces, profiles, & k6 performance tests"],"components":[{"kind":"fixed","amount":0,"period":"month","currency":"USD"}],"description":"Perfect for personal projects, exploring new ideas, and early-stage startups","contactSales":false,"includedLimits":{"retention":"14 days","logs_ingested":"50 GB/mo","metrics_series":"10k active series"}},{"free":false,"name":"Pro","summary":"From $19/month + usage with volume discounts","features":["Pay as you go above the Free tier","8X5 email support","13 months retention for metrics","30 days retention for logs, traces, profiles, & k6 performance tests","Automatic volume discounts"],"commitment":"monthly","components":[{"kind":"fixed","amount":19,"period":"month","currency":"USD"},{"per":{"qty":1,"unit":"GB"},"kind":"metered","amount":0.05,"currency":"USD","description":"Process rate (logs)"},{"per":{"qty":1,"unit":"GB"},"kind":"metered","amount":0.4,"currency":"USD","description":"Write rate (logs)"},{"per":{"qty":1,"unit":"GB"},"kind":"metered","amount":0.1,"currency":"USD","description":"Retain rate (logs)"},{"per":{"qty":1,"unit":"1k series"},"kind":"metered","amount":6.5,"currency":"USD","description":"Metrics (overage)"}],"description":"Ready for scaling with more retention, basic support, and usage-based pricing","contactSales":false,"includedLimits":{"retention":"30 days","logs_ingested":"50 GB/mo included","metrics_series":"10k active series included"}},{"free":false,"name":"Enterprise","summary":"From $25,000/year minimum commit with custom pricing","features":["Premium support","Custom retention","Deployment flexibility (Public Cloud, Federal Cloud, Bring Your Own Cloud)","Scalable pricing based on annual commit and volume discounts"],"commitment":"annual","components":[{"per":{"qty":1,"unit":"1k series"},"kind":"metered","amount":3,"currency":"USD","description":"Metrics (as low as with volume discount)"}],"description":"Full-service offering for companies with security, compliance, and deployment requirements","contactSales":true,"includedLimits":{"minimum_annual_spend":"$25,000"}}],"summary":"Free tier available. Pro from $19/month + metered usage with volume discounts. Enterprise from $25,000/year.","currency":"USD","freeTier":true,"sourceUrl":"https://grafana.com/oss/loki/","retrievedAt":"2026-08-05T13:24:26.849Z","startingPrice":{"amount":0.05,"period":"month","currency":"USD"},"billingPeriods":["month","year"]}` |
| pricing.free_tier | yes | yes |
| pricing.model | commercial | freemium |
| pricing.price_level | free | free |
| pricing.transparent | - | yes |
| release.cadence_days | 8 | 7 |
| release.history | `[{"url":"https://github.com/fluent/fluent-bit/releases/tag/v5.1.1","date":"2026-08-16T04:40:56Z","type":"stable","version":"v5.1.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/fluent/fluent-bit/releases/tag/v5.1.0","date":"2026-08-06T02:29:07Z","type":"stable","version":"v5.1.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/fluent/fluent-bit/releases/tag/v4.2.8","date":"2026-08-04T05:56:56Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.2.8"},{"url":"https://github.com/fluent/fluent-bit/releases/tag/v4.2.7","date":"2026-07-09T08:29:44Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.2.7"},{"url":"https://github.com/fluent/fluent-bit/releases/tag/v5.0.9","date":"2026-07-04T16:00:11Z","type":"stable","version":"v5.0.9"},{"url":"https://github.com/fluent/fluent-bit/releases/tag/v4.2.6","date":"2026-06-26T05:43:32Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.2.6"},{"url":"https://github.com/fluent/fluent-bit/releases/tag/v5.0.8","date":"2026-06-24T15:05:57Z","type":"stable","version":"v5.0.8"},{"url":"https://github.com/fluent/fluent-bit/releases/tag/v5.0.7","date":"2026-06-06T04:22:23Z","type":"stable","version":"v5.0.7"},{"url":"https://github.com/fluent/fluent-bit/releases/tag/v4.2.5","date":"2026-06-03T06:04:25Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.2.5"},{"url":"https://github.com/fluent/fluent-bit/releases/tag/v5.0.6","date":"2026-05-21T23:19:01Z","type":"stable","version":"v5.0.6"},{"url":"https://github.com/fluent/fluent-bit/releases/tag/v5.0.5","date":"2026-05-07T19:53:24Z","type":"stable","version":"v5.0.5"},{"url":"https://github.com/fluent/fluent-bit/releases/tag/v5.0.4","date":"2026-05-01T18:06:29Z","type":"stable","version":"v5.0.4"},{"url":"https://github.com/fluent/fluent-bit/releases/tag/v5.0.3","date":"2026-04-14T21:13:53Z","type":"stable","version":"v5.0.3"},{"url":"https://github.com/fluent/fluent-bit/releases/tag/v4.2.4","date":"2026-04-10T07:57:40Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.2.4"},{"url":"https://github.com/fluent/fluent-bit/releases/tag/v5.0.2","date":"2026-04-01T18:54:40Z","type":"stable","version":"v5.0.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/fluent/fluent-bit/releases/tag/v5.0.1","date":"2026-03-31T03:52:57Z","type":"stable","version":"v5.0.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/fluent/fluent-bit/releases/tag/v4.2.3.1","date":"2026-02-20T04:22:33Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.2.3.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/fluent/fluent-bit/releases/tag/v4.2.3","date":"2026-02-18T17:39:51Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.2.3"},{"url":"https://github.com/fluent/fluent-bit/releases/tag/v4.2.2","date":"2025-12-24T03:23:11Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.2.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/fluent/fluent-bit/releases/tag/v4.2.1","date":"2025-12-18T04:57:38Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.2.1"}]` | `[{"url":"https://github.com/grafana/loki/releases/tag/operator/v0.11.0","date":"2026-08-18T15:48:41Z","type":"stable","version":"operator/v0.11.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/grafana/loki/releases/tag/v3.7.6","date":"2026-08-06T09:42:29Z","type":"stable","version":"v3.7.6"},{"url":"https://github.com/grafana/loki/releases/tag/v3.7.5","date":"2026-08-05T03:41:08Z","type":"stable","version":"v3.7.5"},{"url":"https://github.com/grafana/loki/releases/tag/v3.6.15","date":"2026-08-06T09:59:23Z","type":"stable","version":"v3.6.15"},{"url":"https://github.com/grafana/loki/releases/tag/v3.6.14","date":"2026-08-05T00:25:17Z","type":"stable","version":"v3.6.14"},{"url":"https://github.com/grafana/loki/releases/tag/v3.6.13","date":"2026-07-24T07:37:20Z","type":"stable","version":"v3.6.13"},{"url":"https://github.com/grafana/loki/releases/tag/v3.7.4","date":"2026-07-24T07:49:34Z","type":"stable","version":"v3.7.4"},{"url":"https://github.com/grafana/loki/releases/tag/v3.7.3","date":"2026-06-24T16:32:37Z","type":"stable","version":"v3.7.3"},{"url":"https://github.com/grafana/loki/releases/tag/v3.6.12","date":"2026-06-24T15:04:58Z","type":"stable","version":"v3.6.12"},{"url":"https://github.com/grafana/loki/releases/tag/operator/v0.10.2","date":"2026-06-09T17:51:17Z","type":"stable","version":"operator/v0.10.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/grafana/loki/releases/tag/v3.7.2","date":"2026-05-13T12:22:43Z","type":"stable","version":"v3.7.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/grafana/loki/releases/tag/v3.6.11","date":"2026-05-13T12:06:16Z","type":"stable","version":"v3.6.11"},{"url":"https://github.com/grafana/loki/releases/tag/operator/v0.10.1","date":"2026-04-16T11:06:37Z","type":"stable","version":"operator/v0.10.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/grafana/loki/releases/tag/v3.6.10","date":"2026-04-03T15:41:29Z","type":"stable","version":"v3.6.10"},{"url":"https://github.com/grafana/loki/releases/tag/v3.7.1","date":"2026-03-27T11:47:38Z","type":"stable","version":"v3.7.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/grafana/loki/releases/tag/v3.7.0","date":"2026-03-26T16:20:44Z","type":"stable","version":"v3.7.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/grafana/loki/releases/tag/v3.6.8","date":"2026-03-25T17:26:42Z","type":"stable","version":"v3.6.8"},{"url":"https://github.com/grafana/loki/releases/tag/operator/v0.10.0","date":"2026-03-18T16:38:26Z","type":"stable","version":"operator/v0.10.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/grafana/loki/releases/tag/v3.5.12","date":"2026-03-12T14:29:12Z","type":"stable","version":"v3.5.12"},{"url":"https://github.com/grafana/loki/releases/tag/v3.6.7","date":"2026-02-23T10:32:57Z","type":"stable","version":"v3.6.7"}]` |
| reliability.status_page | - | yes |
| security.disclosure_policy | - | yes |
| security.fedramp | - | yes |
| security.gdpr | - | yes |
| security.iso27001 | - | yes |
| security.pci | - | yes |
| security.scorecard | 6.2 | 8.1 |
| security.soc2 | - | yes |
| security.vulnerabilities | `{"count":0,"source":"https://advisories.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/advisories?ecosystem=helm&package_name=stevehipwell-helm-charts-fluent-bit-collector%2Ffluent-bit-collector&per_page=100","last_12m":0,"max_severity":null}` | `{"count":1,"source":"https://advisories.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/advisories?ecosystem=go&package_name=github.com%2Fgrafana%2Floki&per_page=100","last_12m":0,"max_severity":"MODERATE"}` |

## Capabilities (Log Management Software)

| Capability | Fluent Bit | Grafana Loki |
|---|:--:|:--:|
| **Core** |  |  |
| Pipeline role | Shipper | Backend |
| **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 | Cloud + self-hosted | Cloud + self-hosted |

*Source: Vioscale. Generated 2026-09-01T16:27:48.963Z. "-" = undocumented, not absent.*