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Self-hosted log management tools in 2026

Store and search logs, and alert on patterns or counts in them. This list has 17 log management tools. Of these, 13 are open source, 16 have a free plan and 17 can be self-hosted. Checked by hand on 30 September 2026.

  1. 1

    CrowdStrike Falcon LogScale

    Index-free log store (formerly Humio) that compresses and searches large log volumes quickly; sold by CrowdStrike for security and operations logging.

    Paid Self-hosted LogsDashboards
  2. 2

    Dozzle

    Small web UI that streams and searches live Docker container logs across hosts, with no log storage. Optional Dozzle Cloud adds grouped alerts and log analysis.

    Free plan Open source (MIT) Self-hosted LogsInfrastructure
  3. 3

    Elastic Stack (ELK)

    Elasticsearch, Logstash, Kibana and Beats: full-text indexing and search of logs with Kibana dashboards and alerting. Self-host the free distribution or buy Elastic Cloud.

    Free plan Open source (AGPL-3.0-only OR SSPL-1.0 OR Elastic-2.0) Self-hosted LogsDashboardsMetricsAPM
  4. 4

    Fluent Bit

    Lightweight C log and metrics processor from the Fluentd project, common as the node-level agent in Kubernetes. Ships to Loki, Elasticsearch, cloud logging and OTLP.

    Free Open source (Apache-2.0) Self-hosted LogsKubernetesOpenTelemetry
  5. 5

    Fluentd

    CNCF graduated log collector that reads, parses, buffers and forwards logs to hundreds of outputs through a plugin system. Written in Ruby and C.

    Free Open source (Apache-2.0) Self-hosted LogsKubernetes
  6. 6

    Grafana Loki

    Log aggregation system that indexes only labels, not full log text, and stores chunks in object storage. Queried with LogQL from Grafana; hosted as part of Grafana Cloud.

    Free plan Free: Grafana Cloud: 50 GB logs/month, 14-day retention Open source (AGPL-3.0-only) Self-hosted LogsDashboardsKubernetes
  7. 7

    Graylog

    Centralised log collection with parsing pipelines, stream routing, search and alert conditions. Graylog Open is free to self-host; paid editions add security analytics and archiving.

    Free plan Self-hosted LogsDashboardsAlert routing
  8. 8

    lnav

    Terminal log file navigator that merges several log files into one timeline, highlights errors, and lets you query log lines with SQL. Runs locally, no server.

    Free Open source (BSD-2-Clause) Self-hosted Logs
  9. 9

    Logflare

    Log ingestion and search backed by Google BigQuery, popular with Cloudflare Workers, Vercel and Elixir apps. Now part of Supabase and open source.

    Free plan Free: 12.96M events/month, 3-day retention Open source (Apache-2.0) Self-hosted LogsDashboards
  10. 10

    OpenObserve

    Single-binary store for logs, metrics and traces on object storage, with SQL search, dashboards and alerts. Self-host the open source build or use the pay-as-you-go cloud.

    Free plan Open source (AGPL-3.0-only) Self-hosted LogsMetricsTracesOpenTelemetry
  11. 11

    OpenSearch

    Apache-licensed fork of Elasticsearch and Kibana run under the Linux Foundation. Indexes and searches logs, with OpenSearch Dashboards, alerting and trace analytics plugins.

    Free Open source (Apache-2.0) Self-hosted LogsDashboardsTraces
  12. 12

    Parseable

    Log and telemetry store written in Rust that keeps data as Parquet on object storage and queries it with SQL. Open source server, plus a hosted cloud and enterprise edition.

    Free plan Open source (AGPL-3.0-only) Self-hosted LogsOpenTelemetryDashboards
  13. 13

    Quickwit

    Rust search engine for logs and traces that indexes into object storage and searches there directly, with Elasticsearch-compatible and Jaeger APIs. The team joined Datadog in January 2025.

    Free Open source (Apache-2.0) Self-hosted LogsTracesOpenTelemetry
  14. 14

    Seq

    Self-hosted server for structured logs and traces, popular in .NET shops via Serilog. Search with a SQL-like syntax, build dashboards and send alerts.

    Free plan Free: Individual: 1 user, 50 GB storage Self-hosted LogsTracesDashboardsOpenTelemetry
  15. 15

    Splunk

    Log indexing and search platform (Splunk Enterprise, self-hosted, or Splunk Cloud) with the SPL query language, dashboards and alerting. Widely used for security and IT operations.

    Free plan Free: Splunk Free: 500 MB/day, one instance, no alerting Self-hosted LogsDashboardsMetrics
  16. 16

    Vector

    Rust observability pipeline from Datadog that collects, transforms and routes logs and metrics between sources and sinks, run as agent or aggregator.

    Free Open source (MPL-2.0) Self-hosted LogsMetrics
  17. 17

    VictoriaLogs

    Log database from the VictoriaMetrics team, run as a single binary or cluster, queried with LogsQL and viewable in Grafana. Accepts Loki, Elasticsearch and OTLP ingestion.

    Free plan Open source (Apache-2.0) Self-hosted LogsKubernetes

Side by side

Tool Pricing Free plan Open source Self-hosted Full-text searchStructured log parsingOTLP logs ingestLog alertsLive tailMetrics from logsArchive or tiered retentionDashboardsQuery languageAccess control
CrowdStrike Falcon LogScale Paid No No Yes Yes--YesYes--YesYes-
Dozzle Free plan Yes Yes Yes YesYesNoYesYesYesNo-YesYes
Elastic Stack (ELK) Free plan Yes Yes Yes YesYesYesYes-YesYesYesYesYes
Fluent Bit Free Yes Yes Yes NoYesYesNo-YesYesNo-No
Fluentd Free Yes Yes Yes NoYesYesNo--YesNo-No
Grafana Loki Free plan Grafana Cloud: 50 GB logs/month, 14-day retention Yes Yes YesYesYesYesYesYesYesYesYes-
Graylog Free plan Yes No Yes YesYesYesYes-YesYesYesYesYes
lnav Free Yes Yes Yes YesYesNoNoYesYesNo-YesNo
Logflare Free plan 12.96M events/month, 3-day retention Yes Yes YesYes-YesYesYes--Yes-
OpenObserve Free plan Yes Yes Yes YesYesYesYes-YesYesYesYesYes
OpenSearch Free Yes Yes Yes YesYesYesYesYesYesYesYesYesYes
Parseable Free plan Yes Yes Yes YesYesYesYes-YesYesYesYesYes
Quickwit Free Yes Yes Yes YesYesYes--YesYes-Yes-
Seq Free plan Individual: 1 user, 50 GB storage No Yes YesYesYesYes-Yes-YesYesYes
Splunk Free plan Splunk Free: 500 MB/day, one instance, no alerting No Yes YesYes-YesYesYesYesYesYesYes
Vector Free Yes Yes Yes NoYesYesNoYesYesYesNo-No
VictoriaLogs Free plan Yes Yes Yes YesYesYesYesYesYesNoYesYes-

Yes: confirmed in the tool's documentation. No: documented as not offered. -: not confirmed. Plans and prices change; check each tool's own site before you decide.

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