head to head · open source
Grafana Loki vs OpenSearch
Grafana Loki has 28,908 GitHub stars, 4,112 forks, 1,620 open issues and last shipped today. OpenSearch has 13,727 stars, 2,957 forks, 3,167 open issues and last shipped today. Grafana Loki leads on adoption by 111% (28,908 vs 13,727 stars). Grafana Loki is written in Go under AGPL-3.0; OpenSearch is written in Java under Apache-2.0. Grafana Loki has attracted 14% as many forks as stars, OpenSearch 22%. Grafana Loki was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| Grafana Loki | OpenSearch | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 29K | ★ 14K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | Java |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 4.1K | ⑂ 3.0K |
| 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 OpenSearch if
- You want the OpenSearch 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 OpenSearch 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 OpenSearch
OpenSearch is an open source, distributed, and RESTful search engine, described in its README as an enterprise grade search and observability suite. It lives in the open source search and analytics ecosystem, is written in Java, and is licensed under Apache 2.0. The project states that it includes certain Apache licensed Elasticsearch code from Elasticsearch B.V., and that OpenSearch is a registered trademark of LF Projects, LLC.
read the full OpenSearch overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Grafana Loki or OpenSearch more popular?
Grafana Loki has 28,908 GitHub stars and OpenSearch has 13,727. Grafana Loki has the larger community by that measure.
Are Grafana Loki and OpenSearch free?
Both are open source. Grafana Loki is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and OpenSearch under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Grafana Loki and OpenSearch?
Grafana Loki is written in Go and OpenSearch 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 OpenSearch?
Choose Grafana Loki if you want the larger community (28,908 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose OpenSearch if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.