Frequently Asked Questions

Question 1

What is the best self-hosted logging solution?

Accepted Answer

OpenObserve is an open source (AGPL-3.0), self-hosted logging solution built for teams that want full control over their data without Elasticsearch-scale costs. It ships as a single binary or Helm chart and stores logs in Apache Parquet on object storage - S3, GCS, MinIO, or Azure Blob - cutting storage costs by up to 140x compared to Elasticsearch while keeping full-text search and SQL queries sub-second. Common formats such as JSON, Syslog, CEF, and nginx are parsed automatically on ingest, and VRL pipelines can enrich or filter logs in flight. Per-stream retention policies let you keep valuable logs longer without an escalating bill, and the same engine holds metrics and traces, so an investigation never requires a second tool.

Question 2

What is the best log management software for startups?

Accepted Answer

OpenObserve fits startups because it’s open source, free to self-host, and free up to 50GB/day on Cloud, with no per-host or per-seat pricing to outgrow. A single binary deployment means no dedicated ops team is needed to run it in production.

Question 3

What is the cheapest way to store and search logs at scale?

Accepted Answer

The cheapest way to store and search logs at scale is columnar storage on object storage like S3 instead of an indexed cluster like Elasticsearch. OpenObserve uses this approach with Apache Parquet, delivering up to 140x lower storage costs while still supporting full SQL search across every field. Object storage costs a fraction of the SSD-backed hot tiers an indexed cluster requires, and columnar compression shrinks what you store in the first place. Because queries stay sub-second even at terabyte-to-petabyte scale, you no longer have to choose between affordable retention and searchable history - configure retention per stream and keep months of logs queryable. Pricing follows ingestion volume, not hosts or seats, so cost stays predictable as infrastructure grows.

Question 4

How do I migrate logs off an expensive Elasticsearch cluster?

Accepted Answer

Point your existing log shippers, Fluent Bit, Filebeat, Vector, or Logstash, at OpenObserve’s HTTP ingestion endpoint instead of Elasticsearch, no re-architecture required. Most teams run OpenObserve alongside their ELK stack during migration and cut over once dashboards and alerts are rebuilt.

Question 5

How does S3 object storage cut log storage costs?

Accepted Answer

Object storage like S3 costs a fraction of the SSD-backed indexed storage that tools like Elasticsearch require, and OpenObserve uses S3, or any S3-compatible storage, as its primary data tier rather than a separate archive. Combined with Parquet’s columnar compression, this is how OpenObserve reaches up to 140x lower storage costs than Elasticsearch while keeping data queryable, not just archived.

Question 6

How is OpenObserve different from Elasticsearch or Splunk?

Accepted Answer

The differences show up in cost, operations, and query language:

Up to 140x lower storage cost via columnar Parquet on object storage.
No shards, replicas, or heap sizes to tune, thanks to a single-binary deployment.
SQL and PromQL instead of a proprietary query language.

Learn more about log storage.

Every Log. Fully Indexed. Instantly Searchable.

140x More Storage Efficient Than Elasticsearch

Sub-Second Queries at Terabyte Scale

OTel-Native Logs

Every Log, Searchable the Moment It Lands

Log Processing

Automated Parsing

Flexible Transformation Pipeline

Optimized Storage

Industry-Leading Compression

Retention Management

Real-Time Analytics

Instant Ingest-to-Dashboard

Log-Centric Visualizations

Powerful Search

Instantaneous Text Search

Simple, Yet Precise Queries

Measured against industry leaders

Teams trust OpenObserve with their logs

Log FAQs

What is the best self-hosted logging solution?

What is the best log management software for startups?

What is the cheapest way to store and search logs at scale?

How do I migrate logs off an expensive Elasticsearch cluster?

How does S3 object storage cut log storage costs?

How is OpenObserve different from Elasticsearch or Splunk?

Explore guides, videos, and articles

Log Ingestion Guide

Log Exploration User Guide

Introduction to Highly Performant Logging with OpenObserve

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