head to head · open source
Grafana vs rsyslog
Grafana has 76,792 GitHub stars, 14,752 forks, 3,326 open issues and last shipped today. rsyslog has 2,336 stars, 736 forks, 207 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. Grafana leads on adoption by 3,187% (76,792 vs 2,336 stars). Grafana is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0; rsyslog is written in C under LGPL-3.0. Grafana has attracted 19% as many forks as stars, rsyslog 32%. Grafana was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (elasticsearch), 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.
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Side by side
| Grafana | rsyslog | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 77K | ★ 2.3K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | LGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | C |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-16 |
| Forks | ⑂ 15K | ⑂ 736 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Grafana if
- You weight community size — 77K stars and counting
- You want the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick rsyslog if
- You want the rsyslog feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the LGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches C
- You evaluated both and rsyslog fits your workflow better
About Grafana
Grafana is an open source observability platform for visualizing metrics, logs, and traces across diverse data sources. It runs in the infrastructure and operations ecosystem, designed for teams needing unified visibility into system behavior without vendor lock in. Built with TypeScript and Go, it provides a composable architecture that integrates with existing toolchains.
read the full Grafana overview →
About rsyslog
Rsyslog – What Is It? Rsyslog is a r ocket fast sys tem for log processing pipelines. It offers high performance, advanced security features, and a modular microkernel like architecture . Originally a regular syslogd, rsyslog has evolved into a highly versatile logging solution capable of ingesting data from numerous sources, transforming it, and outputting it to a wide variety of destinations. Rsyslog can deliver over one million messages per second to local destinations under minimal processing (based on v7, Dec 2013). Even with complex routing and remote forwarding, performance remains excellent. Table of Cont…
read the full rsyslog overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Grafana or rsyslog more popular?
Grafana has 76,792 GitHub stars and rsyslog has 2,336. Grafana has the larger community by that measure.
Are Grafana and rsyslog free?
Both are open source. Grafana is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and rsyslog under LGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Grafana and rsyslog?
Grafana is written in TypeScript and rsyslog in C. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Grafana or rsyslog?
Choose Grafana if you want the larger community (76,792 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose rsyslog if its feature set, stack or LGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.