Amazon CloudWatch vs Loggly

March 20, 2025 | Author: Michael Stromann
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Amazon CloudWatch
CloudWatch collects monitoring and operational data in the form of logs, metrics, and events, providing you with a unified view of AWS resources, applications, and services that run on AWS and on-premises servers.
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Loggly
Solve Operational Problems Faster. Make all of your logs accessible to everyone in one place. No more logging into individual machines. Use searches, filters and graphs to spot trends and narrow down potential root causes. Set up in minutes. No software or agents to install. Works with all standard logging facilities. Owned by SolarWinds.

Amazon CloudWatch and Loggly are both highly sophisticated ways of staring at vast amounts of log data in the hope that something useful emerges before your coffee gets cold. They both collect logs, let you search through them and even send you alarming messages when things go horribly wrong—though often, by the time you read the alert, the damage is already done. They also integrate with various other systems, which is great if you enjoy configuring integrations, which nobody does.

CloudWatch, being a proud product of the AWS ecosystem (est. 2009, USA), is naturally obsessed with AWS services and can tell you everything from how your EC2 instance is feeling today to whether your Lambda function is having an existential crisis. It doesn’t just do logs—it also does metrics, events and traces, all of which are subtly different ways of saying, “Something happened and you might care.” It charges you based on how much data you throw at it, how often you ask it questions and how long you dare to keep its secrets.

Loggly, also born in 2009 (by the folks at SolarWinds, also in the USA), takes a more relaxed, agentless approach to collecting logs, as if to say, “You worry about your logs; we’ll just take them however you send them.” It works across AWS, on-premises and other clouds, making it a hit with those who refuse to be tied down. Instead of charging you for each query like an insidious quiz machine, Loggly just asks how much data you’ll be dumping into it daily and sets a price accordingly. Perfect for IT teams, SaaS companies and anyone who has long since given up hope of understanding their own infrastructure.

See also: Top 10 IT Monitoring software
Author: Michael Stromann
Michael is an expert in IT Service Management, IT Security and software development. With his extensive experience as a software developer and active involvement in multiple ERP implementation projects, Michael brings a wealth of practical knowledge to his writings. Having previously worked at SAP, he has honed his expertise and gained a deep understanding of software development and implementation processes. Currently, as a freelance developer, Michael continues to contribute to the IT community by sharing his insights through guest articles published on several IT portals. You can contact Michael by email [email protected]