head to head · open source
telegraf vs Logstash
telegraf has 17,893 GitHub stars, 5,846 forks, 449 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Logstash has 14,972 stars, 3,503 forks, 2,254 open issues and last shipped yesterday. telegraf leads on adoption by 20% (17,893 vs 14,972 stars). telegraf is written in Go under MIT; Logstash is written in Java under a custom or non-standard licence. telegraf has attracted 33% as many forks as stars, Logstash 23%. Logstash 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
| telegraf | Logstash | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 18K | ★ 15K |
| License | MIT | Custom / other |
| Written in | Go | Java |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.8K | ⑂ 3.5K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick telegraf if
- You weight community size — 18K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Logstash if
- You want the Logstash feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches Java
- You evaluated both and Logstash fits your workflow better
About telegraf
Telegraf Telegraf is an agent for collecting, processing, aggregating, and writing metrics, logs, and other arbitrary data. Offers a comprehensive suite of over 300 plugins, covering a wide range of functionalities including system monitoring, cloud services, and message passing Enables the integration of user defined code to collect, transform, and transmit data efficiently Compiles into a standalone static binary without any external dependencies, ensuring a streamlined deployment process Utilizes TOML for configuration, providing a user friendly and unambiguous setup experience Developed with contributions…
read the full telegraf overview →
About Logstash
Logstash Logstash is part of the Elastic Stack along with Beats, Elasticsearch and Kibana. Logstash is a server side data processing pipeline that ingests data from a multitude of sources simultaneously, transforms it, and then sends it to your favorite "stash." (Ours is Elasticsearch, naturally.). Logstash has over 200 plugins, and you can write your own very easily as well. For more info, see Documentation and Getting Started You can find the documentation and getting started guides for Logstash on the elastic.co site For information about building the documentation, see the README in Downloads You can…
read the full Logstash overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is telegraf or Logstash more popular?
telegraf has 17,893 GitHub stars and Logstash has 14,972. telegraf has the larger community by that measure.
Are telegraf and Logstash free?
Both are open source. telegraf is licensed under MIT, and Logstash has no licence declared in this registry. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between telegraf and Logstash?
telegraf is written in Go and Logstash 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, telegraf or Logstash?
Choose telegraf if you want the larger community (17,893 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose Logstash if its feature set, stack or Custom / other licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.