head to head · open source
huginn vs rsyslog
huginn has 50,269 GitHub stars, 4,339 forks, 698 open issues and last shipped yesterday. rsyslog has 2,345 stars, 743 forks, 207 open issues and last shipped yesterday. huginn leads on adoption by 2,044% (50,269 vs 2,345 stars). huginn is written in Ruby under MIT; rsyslog is written in C under LGPL-3.0. huginn has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, rsyslog 32%. rsyslog 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
| huginn | rsyslog | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 50K | ★ 2.3K |
| License | MIT | LGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Ruby | C |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 4.3K | ⑂ 743 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick huginn if
- You weight community size — 50K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Ruby
- 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 huginn
What is Huginn? Huginn is a system for building agents that perform automated tasks for you online. They can read the web, watch for events, and take actions on your behalf. Huginn's Agents create and consume events, propagating them along a directed graph. Think of it as a hackable version of IFTTT or Zapier on your own server. You always know who has your data. You do. Here are some of the things that you can do with Huginn: Track the weather and get an email when it's going to rain (or snow) tomorrow ("Don't forget your umbrella!") List terms that you care about and receive email when their occurrence on…
read the full huginn 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…
read the full rsyslog overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is huginn or rsyslog more popular?
huginn has 50,269 GitHub stars and rsyslog has 2,345. huginn has the larger community by that measure.
Are huginn and rsyslog free?
Both are open source. huginn is licensed under MIT and rsyslog under LGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between huginn and rsyslog?
huginn is written in Ruby 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, huginn or rsyslog?
Choose huginn if you want the larger community (50,269 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose rsyslog if its feature set, stack or LGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.