Elasticsearch is a free, open-source search and analytics engine ideal for cost-conscious organizations with technical expertise, while Splunk is a proprietary enterprise platform with advanced machine learning features and dedicated support, commanding premium pricing starting at $3,000+ annually. The choice depends on budget constraints and required feature complexity.
Elasticsearch vs Splunk — Side-by-side comparison on A Versus B
Proprietary distributed search and analytics engine by Elastic with cloud-native architecture.
Data analytics and SIEM platform for log aggregation, monitoring, and operational intelligence.
Licensing Model. Starting Annual Cost. Machine Learning Capabilities. Setup Complexity. Data Ingestion Rate (per day). Enterprise Support. Compliance Features (HIPAA, SOC2, etc.)
Choose Elasticsearch if you have in-house technical teams, need cost-effective log aggregation at scale, and can invest time in maintenance and configuration. Choose Splunk if you require advanced machine learning analytics, prefer minimal setup overhead, need guaranteed enterprise support, and have regulatory compliance requirements with built-in certifications.
Elasticsearch: $0.10 - $0.20 | Splunk: N/A
Elasticsearch: 30+ days (self-hosted) | Splunk: N/A
Elasticsearch: 40-80 (self-hosted) | Splunk: 4-8 (managed cloud)
Elasticsearch: Unlimited (via client libraries) | Splunk: N/A
Elasticsearch: Petabyte-scale (1000+ TB) | Splunk: N/A
Elasticsearch: 7 (Lucene/DSL - steep learning curve) | Splunk: N/A
Elasticsearch: Self-hosted, SaaS (Elastic Cloud), or Kubernetes | Splunk: N/A
Elasticsearch: $0 (self-hosted) | Splunk: $3,000 - $5,000
Elasticsearch: $0 (unlimited after infrastructure cost) | Splunk: $0.80 - $1.50
Elasticsearch: 50-200ms | Splunk: 100-300ms
Elasticsearch: 0 (requires custom hardening) | Splunk: 6 (HIPAA, SOC2, PCI-DSS, FedRAMP, GDPR, ISO27001)
Elasticsearch: 3 (anomaly detection, forecasting, outlier detection) | Splunk: 15+ (threat detection, predictive analytics, correlation, clustering)
Elasticsearch: Unlimited (enterprise only) | Splunk: Unlimited (license-dependent)
Elasticsearch: 12-48 (community forums) | Splunk: 1 (24/7 enterprise SLA)
Elasticsearch: 1,000+ (tested to 10,000 with advanced tuning) | Splunk: N/A
Elasticsearch: Native (analyzers, relevance tuning, fuzzy matching) | Splunk: N/A
Elasticsearch: 1-3 days (schemaless indexing) | Splunk: N/A
Elasticsearch: SQL via plugin (Elastic SQL), primary is Query DSL | Splunk: N/A
Elasticsearch: 32-64GB for equivalent throughput | Splunk: N/A
Elasticsearch: $0-$10,000 (self-hosted) or $20,000-$60,000 (managed) | Splunk: N/A
Elasticsearch: 45-120 (manual investigation required) | Splunk: N/A
Elasticsearch: 6-12 weeks | Splunk: 14-42 days
Elasticsearch: 1000+ via community/Beats | Splunk: N/A
Elasticsearch: Unlimited (storage-dependent) | Splunk: N/A
Elasticsearch: 500,000+ EPS per cluster | Splunk: N/A
Elasticsearch: Complex Query DSL requiring technical expertise | Splunk: N/A
Elasticsearch: 68,000+ stars | Splunk: N/A
Elasticsearch: 5-10 minutes | Splunk: N/A
Elasticsearch: 65 docs/sec per thread | Splunk: N/A
Elasticsearch: $5,000-$50,000 | Splunk: N/A
Elasticsearch: Via aggregations (requires custom queries) | Splunk: N/A
Monthly Cost (100GB index, 1M queries/month)
Elasticsearch: $200-500 self-hosted | Splunk: N/A
Elasticsearch: Petabyte-scale (unlimited) | Splunk: N/A
Elasticsearch: Requires DevOps expertise | Splunk: N/A
Elasticsearch: 9/10 (plugins, analyzers, scripting) | Splunk: N/A
Elasticsearch: Community-based or 4+ hours (enterprise) | Splunk: N/A
Elasticsearch: 14-28 days (self-hosted) | Splunk: N/A
Elasticsearch: $3,000-$8,000 | Splunk: N/A
Elasticsearch: $0.02-$0.05 | Splunk: N/A
Elasticsearch: ~300 integrations | Splunk: 700+ integrations
Elasticsearch: Unlimited (configurable) | Splunk: 30 days included
Elasticsearch: 1.0-2.0 FTE | Splunk: N/A
Elasticsearch: Advanced EQL with full customization | Splunk: N/A
Elasticsearch: 120-240 minutes | Splunk: N/A
Elasticsearch: 1+ Billion (across clusters) | Splunk: N/A
Elasticsearch: 40+ aggregation types | Splunk: N/A
Elasticsearch: Manual configuration required | Splunk: N/A
Elasticsearch: ~60,000 stars | Splunk: N/A
Elasticsearch: $50,000-150,000 | Splunk: N/A
Elasticsearch: 30-40 (via Beats) | Splunk: N/A
Elasticsearch: $0 (open-source) or $12,000 | Splunk: $4,500
Elasticsearch: Requires third-party integrations | Splunk: N/A
Elasticsearch: Full Elasticsearch Query DSL and custom scripts | Splunk: N/A
Elasticsearch: 1M+ active developers | Splunk: N/A
Mean Time to Resolution (MTTR) Improvement
Elasticsearch: Depends on manual investigation | Splunk: N/A
Elasticsearch: 80-200 hours (extensive) | Splunk: N/A
Total Cost of Ownership (3-year, 500GB/month ingestion)
Elasticsearch: $120,000 (self-hosted licensing + 2 FTEs infrastructure) | Splunk: N/A
Elasticsearch: Logs, metrics (via plugins), custom JSON data | Splunk: N/A
Elasticsearch: 100-2000ms (depends on tuning) | Splunk: N/A
Required Infrastructure Team Size (100 users)
Elasticsearch: 2-3 (cluster management + optimization) | Splunk: N/A
Elasticsearch: 180,000+ (open-source) | Splunk: N/A
Elasticsearch: Unlimited (petabyte-scale) | Splunk: N/A
Elasticsearch: 60-120 minutes | Splunk: N/A
Elasticsearch: 1000+ plugins/integrations | Splunk: N/A
Elasticsearch: 30+ languages | Splunk: N/A
Elasticsearch: Requires configuration/plugin | Splunk: N/A
Elasticsearch: 500,000+ companies worldwide | Splunk: N/A
Typical Query Latency (1B rows, GROUP BY)
Elasticsearch: Native, highly optimized (primary feature) | Splunk: N/A
Elasticsearch: Via Beats and Logstash (indirect) | Splunk: N/A
Elasticsearch: Low-Medium (simpler operations) | Splunk: N/A
Elasticsearch: 5+ PB (operational limit) | Splunk: N/A
Elasticsearch: SQL plugin available (limited JOIN support) | Splunk: N/A
Elasticsearch: $180,000-$240,000 | Splunk: N/A
Elasticsearch: 2-4 full-time engineers | Splunk: N/A
Elasticsearch: Lucene, KQL, SQL, JavaScript | Splunk: N/A
Elasticsearch: $0.50-$1.50 | Splunk: N/A
Elasticsearch: Varies by deployment (self-hosted: customer responsibility) | Splunk: N/A
Elasticsearch: Yes (SSPL/Elastic License) | Splunk: N/A
Elasticsearch: $0 (self-hosted) / $884 (cloud) | Splunk: N/A
Elasticsearch: Unlimited (user-configured) | Splunk: N/A
Elasticsearch: 40-80 hours for production cluster | Splunk: N/A
Elasticsearch: Requires ML plugins or third-party tools | Splunk: N/A
Elasticsearch: Query DSL (complex, steep learning curve) | Splunk: N/A
Elasticsearch: 45+ via Logstash and Beats | Splunk: N/A
Elasticsearch: $10,600-$40,000 (Elastic Cloud) | Splunk: N/A
Elasticsearch: Native with advanced analyzers | Splunk: N/A
Elasticsearch: 5/10 (moderate) | Splunk: N/A
Elasticsearch: 10-50 billion (performance degradation) | Splunk: N/A
Annual Licensing Cost (Small Deployment)
Elasticsearch: $0 (self-managed) | Splunk: $36,000 (minimum SaaS)
Elasticsearch: 1,000,000+ | Splunk: 10,000
Elasticsearch: 2-4 weeks | Splunk: 1-2 weeks
Elasticsearch: 50-200ms | Splunk: 100-500ms
Elasticsearch: 67,000+ stars | Splunk: N/A (proprietary)
Elasticsearch: Via plugin (not native) | Splunk: Native (SPL is SQL-like)
Elasticsearch: Proprietary SSPL/Elastic License (features restricted) | Splunk: N/A
Elasticsearch: $1.95/hour minimum ($429/month) | Splunk: N/A
Elasticsearch: Free (open source core) | Splunk: N/A
Elasticsearch: ~50,000 documents/second | Splunk: N/A
Elasticsearch: ~45ms average across distributions | Splunk: N/A
Elasticsearch: 1000+ verified integrations | Splunk: 2,000+ apps
Elasticsearch: 23+ years in market | Splunk: N/A
Elasticsearch: N/A | Splunk: $3,500-$5,500
Elasticsearch: N/A | Splunk: $450,000-$750,000
Elasticsearch: N/A | Splunk: 8-12 seconds
Elasticsearch: N/A | Splunk: 50+ algorithms
Elasticsearch: N/A | Splunk: 15-60 minutes (depends on alert configuration)
Starting Annual Cost (single user/endpoint)
Elasticsearch: N/A | Splunk: $3,000-6,000
Elasticsearch: N/A | Splunk: Varies by threat rules configured
Elasticsearch: N/A | Splunk: 800+ apps in Splunkbase
Elasticsearch: N/A | Splunk: Heavy (varies, 500MB+)
Elasticsearch: N/A | Splunk: Via SOAR integration (external)
Elasticsearch: N/A | Splunk: 120 months (10 years)
Elasticsearch: N/A | Splunk: 10-30 seconds
Elasticsearch: N/A | Splunk: $10,000-25,000
Elasticsearch: N/A | Splunk: 15-30 minutes
Default Data Retention (included in pricing)
Elasticsearch: N/A | Splunk: Sampling-dependent (configurable)
Elasticsearch: N/A | Splunk: 12 (HIPAA, PCI, SOC2, NIST)
Elasticsearch: N/A | Splunk: 10,000+ (2024)
Elasticsearch: N/A | Splunk: $4,500+ (minimum commitment)
Elasticsearch: N/A | Splunk: $54,000-$108,000
Elasticsearch: N/A | Splunk: 12+ algorithms
Elasticsearch: N/A | Splunk: Enterprise Security module, threat detection, compliance dashboards
Elasticsearch: N/A | Splunk: Not applicable (generates alerts)
Elasticsearch: N/A | Splunk: Limited (dashboards only)
Elasticsearch: N/A | Splunk: Full ML for anomaly detection, forecasting, root cause analysis
Elasticsearch: N/A | Splunk: FedRAMP Authorized
Base Monthly Pricing (1GB/day ingestion)
Elasticsearch: N/A | Splunk: $1,500-$2,000
Elasticsearch: N/A | Splunk: 2,000-5,000ms
Elasticsearch: N/A | Splunk: 30-365 days
Elasticsearch: N/A | Splunk: 400+ built-in detections
Elasticsearch: N/A | Splunk: Limited (add-on required)
Maximum Data Ingestion Per Day (Enterprise)
Elasticsearch: N/A | Splunk: Unlimited (licensing dependent)
Elasticsearch: N/A | Splunk: $5,000 minimum
Elasticsearch: N/A | Splunk: $50,000-$200,000
Elasticsearch: N/A | Splunk: 150+ (broader enterprise data ecosystem)
Elasticsearch: N/A | Splunk: Yes (native)
Elasticsearch: N/A | Splunk: 1-5 seconds
Elasticsearch: N/A | Splunk: 20+ (anomaly detection, forecasting, UEBA)
Elasticsearch: N/A | Splunk: 2,500+ (proprietary, less open)
Elasticsearch: N/A | Splunk: $3,600 ($120/day minimum)
Elasticsearch: N/A | Splunk: 30 (upgradeable to unlimited)
Elasticsearch: N/A | Splunk: Not offered
Elasticsearch: N/A | Splunk: Requires add-on license ($X additional)
Elasticsearch: N/A | Splunk: $36,000-$180,000
Elasticsearch: N/A | Splunk: Limited by ingestion
Elasticsearch: N/A | Splunk: Advanced: forecasting, clustering, outlier detection
Elasticsearch: N/A | Splunk: High (SPL requires training)
Elasticsearch: N/A | Splunk: 1,024 GB/day (1TB)
Elasticsearch: N/A | Splunk: 75% of new users need training
Elasticsearch: N/A | Splunk: Hybrid (on-premise, cloud, multi-cloud)
Elasticsearch: N/A | Splunk: 85% adoption
Elasticsearch: N/A | Splunk: 500+ integrations
Elasticsearch: N/A | Splunk: Yes (Splunk Cloud, on-premise, hybrid)
Elasticsearch: N/A | Splunk: Hours to days (after log ingestion/analysis)
Elasticsearch: N/A | Splunk: 30-120 minutes (manual investigation)
Starting Price (Annual, 100 Endpoints/1TB Data)
Elasticsearch: N/A | Splunk: $50,000-$75,000
Elasticsearch: N/A | Splunk: Windows, Mac, Linux, cloud-native environments
Elasticsearch: N/A | Splunk: 100+ (PCI-DSS, HIPAA, SOC 2, GDPR, NIST, CIS, FedRAMP)
Elasticsearch: N/A | Splunk: Configurable (30-2000+ days)
How to choose between Elasticsearch and Splunk
Elasticsearch vs Splunk — Structured Comparison Data
Machine-readable comparison dataset for Elasticsearch vs Splunk. Contains 215 attribute comparisons, 5 FAQ pairs.
Elasticsearch vs Splunk — Attribute Category Vocabulary
Taxonomy of attribute categories used to classify comparison data for Elasticsearch vs Splunk.
How much does Splunk cost compared to Elasticsearch?
Elasticsearch is free open-source (self-hosted) but requires infrastructure and operational costs of $5,000–$15,000 annually for a small team. Splunk Cloud starts at $3,000–$5,000 annually for entry-level deployments but scales to $50,000+ for large organizations with high data volume. For 100GB/day ingestion, Elasticsearch with infrastructure typically costs $12,000/year, while Splunk costs $30,000+/year in licensing alone.
Which is better for log aggregation and monitoring?
Elasticsearch excels at raw log aggregation speed and cost-efficiency, processing terabytes of logs daily without per-gigabyte charges. Splunk wins for production monitoring with pre-built dashboards, alerting, and threat detection. Choose Elasticsearch for log storage/search; choose Splunk for comprehensive operational insights with minimal configuration.
Can Elasticsearch handle enterprise-scale deployments?
Yes, Elasticsearch powers log pipelines at Netflix, Uber, and Goldman Sachs processing petabytes daily. However, enterprise deployments require dedicated DevOps teams for cluster management, security hardening, and disaster recovery. Splunk Cloud provides this infrastructure automatically, making it lower-risk for organizations without deep Kubernetes expertise.
What are the machine learning differences?
Elasticsearch ML offers basic anomaly detection, forecasting, and outlier identification—sufficient for standard use cases. Splunk ML Toolkit provides 15+ advanced models including predictive analytics, event correlation, clustering, and supervised learning with custom algorithms. For predictive security threat detection, Splunk is significantly more capable.
Which meets regulatory compliance requirements?
Splunk includes built-in certifications: HIPAA, SOC2 Type II, PCI-DSS, FedRAMP, GDPR, and ISO 27001. Elasticsearch requires manual implementation of security controls and auditing to meet these standards. For regulated industries (healthcare, finance, government), Splunk's pre-certified architecture reduces compliance risk by 6-12 months.
How to Choose Between Elasticsearch and Splunk
Licensing Model: Elasticsearch has Free and open-source (SSPL for some features), while Splunk has Proprietary with subscription pricing.
Starting Annual Cost: Elasticsearch has $0 (self-hosted) to $15,000+ (managed), while Splunk has $3,000 - $50,000+ per year.
Machine Learning Capabilities: Elasticsearch has Basic anomaly detection with Elastic ML, while Splunk has Advanced ML Toolkit with predictive analytics.
Setup Complexity: Elasticsearch has High (requires Java, Kubernetes knowledge), while Splunk has Lower (managed cloud deployment).
Data Ingestion Rate (per day): Elasticsearch has Up to 500GB+ (unlimited potential), while Splunk has Up to 1TB+ (license-dependent).
Enterprise Support: Elasticsearch has Community-driven + paid support optional, while Splunk has 24/7 dedicated enterprise support included.
Consider: Compliance Features (HIPAA, SOC2, etc.)
Compliance Features (HIPAA, SOC2, etc.): Elasticsearch has Limited; requires custom configuration, while Splunk has Full certifications included (HIPAA, SOC2, PCI-DSS).