head to head · open source
Grafana Loki vs logging-log4j2
Grafana Loki has 28,917 GitHub stars, 4,115 forks, 1,620 open issues and last shipped yesterday. logging-log4j2 has 3,636 stars, 1,744 forks, 212 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Grafana Loki leads on adoption by 695% (28,917 vs 3,636 stars). Grafana Loki is written in Go under AGPL-3.0; logging-log4j2 is written in Java under Apache-2.0. Grafana Loki has attracted 14% as many forks as stars, logging-log4j2 48%. Grafana Loki was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (logging), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
← all 20902 open source comparisons
Side by side
| Grafana Loki | logging-log4j2 | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 29K | ★ 3.6K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | Java |
| Last push | 2026-09-19 | 2026-09-19 |
| Forks | ⑂ 4.1K | ⑂ 1.7K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Grafana Loki if
- You weight community size — 29K stars and counting
- You want the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick logging-log4j2 if
- You want the logging-log4j2 feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Java
- You evaluated both and logging-log4j2 fits your workflow better
About Grafana Loki
Grafana Loki is a log aggregation system designed as the log oriented counterpart to Prometheus. It operates within the cloud native observability ecosystem, specifically targeting Kubernetes and containerized environments. Loki avoids expensive full text indexing by indexing only metadata labels attached to log streams, storing the raw log content in compressed form. This design choice makes Loki significantly simpler to operate and more cost effective than traditional log systems that index every word.
read the full Grafana Loki overview →
About logging-log4j2
Apache Log4j 2 is a versatile, industrial grade Java logging framework, composed of a logging API, its implementation, and components that assist deployment for various use cases, built for Java and JVM developers who need a logging stack inside their applications.
read the full logging-log4j2 overview →
More in Infrastructure & Operations
Related comparisons
More Monitoring & Observability projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the Monitoring & Observability field.
Frequently asked questions
Is Grafana Loki or logging-log4j2 more popular?
Grafana Loki has 28,917 GitHub stars and logging-log4j2 has 3,636. Grafana Loki has the larger community by that measure.
Are Grafana Loki and logging-log4j2 free?
Both are open source. Grafana Loki is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and logging-log4j2 under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Grafana Loki and logging-log4j2?
Grafana Loki is written in Go and logging-log4j2 in Java. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Grafana Loki or logging-log4j2?
Choose Grafana Loki if you want the larger community (28,917 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose logging-log4j2 if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.