Cribl Stream vs Grafana Alloy

Cribl Stream9.4Visit Grafana Alloy8.9Visit

Higher score Cribl Stream #1 in Telemetry Pipeline Software 9.4/10 Free plan Free plan✓ 6 of 6 features Visit Cribl Stream

vs

Grafana Alloy #5 in Telemetry Pipeline Software 8.9/10 Open source ✓ 6 of 6 features Visit Grafana Alloy

• Cribl Stream fits best

  Teams needing broad, flexible telemetry routing

• Grafana Alloy fits best

  Grafana and Prometheus ecosystem teams

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Side by side

Feature	Cribl Stream 9.4/10 Visit ↗	Grafana Alloy 8.9/10 Visit ↗
At a glance
Editor score	9.4	8.9
Ranking	#1 in Telemetry Pipeline Software	#5 in Telemetry Pipeline Software
Best for	Teams needing broad, flexible telemetry routing	Grafana and Prometheus ecosystem teams
Pricing model	Free plan + paid	Free
Starting price	—	Open source
Free plan	✓ (best)	Not checked yet
Free trial	—	—
Deployment	Cloud, Self-hosted	Self-hosted
Platforms	Web	Windows, macOS, Linux
Support	Community, Docs · 24/7	Community, Docs
Integrations	80+ integrations	13 integrations
Built for	Enterprise	Solo, Small business, Mid-market, Enterprise
Features Cribl Stream 6/6 · Grafana Alloy 6/6
Logs support	✓	✓
Metrics support	✓	✓
Traces support	✓	✓
Transform rules	✓	✓
Multi-destination routing	✓	✓
Data enrichment	✓	✓
Specs
Deployment model	Both	Self_hosted
Our review
Pros	Supports logs, metrics, and traces across diverse telemetry sources Filters, transforms, enriches, routes, samples, and replays telemetry Portable Packs plus REST APIs, SDKs, and Terraform support	Collects metrics, logs, traces, and profiles in one pipeline Supports programmable transformation, enrichment, filtering, and routing Connects with Grafana, Prometheus, OpenTelemetry, and major clouds
Cons	Advanced workspace and identity controls are limited to Enterprise tiers Dedicated 24×7 support is available only with Enterprise plans Broad configuration options may exceed the needs of simple pipelines	Self-hosted deployment requires infrastructure and operational ownership Pipeline configuration uses a programmable expression-based model Its broad feature set may exceed the needs of simple collectors
Our verdict	Cribl Stream is observability pipeline software for IT and security teams that need to collect, prepare, and route telemetry before it reaches analytics, security, observability, or storage systems. It supports logs, metrics, and traces,… Read the review →	Grafana Alloy is Grafana Labs’ open-source distribution of the OpenTelemetry Collector. It is designed for teams that need to collect metrics, logs, traces, and profiles from infrastructure and applications, then process and forward that… Read the review →

Strengths and trade-offs

• Cribl Stream — where it wins

  • Supports logs, metrics, and traces across diverse telemetry sources
  • Filters, transforms, enriches, routes, samples, and replays telemetry
  • Portable Packs plus REST APIs, SDKs, and Terraform support

  Where it doesn't

  • Advanced workspace and identity controls are limited to Enterprise tiers
  • Dedicated 24×7 support is available only with Enterprise plans
  • Broad configuration options may exceed the needs of simple pipelines

• Grafana Alloy — where it wins

  • Collects metrics, logs, traces, and profiles in one pipeline
  • Supports programmable transformation, enrichment, filtering, and routing
  • Connects with Grafana, Prometheus, OpenTelemetry, and major clouds

  Where it doesn't

  • Self-hosted deployment requires infrastructure and operational ownership
  • Pipeline configuration uses a programmable expression-based model
  • Its broad feature set may exceed the needs of simple collectors

• Cribl Stream9.4/10 · Free plan

  A broad routing and transformation layer for teams managing varied telemetry flows.

  Visit Cribl StreamFull verdict →
• Grafana Alloy8.9/10 · Open source

  A self-hosted collector for teams routing metrics, logs, traces, and profiles across observability backends.

  Visit Grafana AlloyFull verdict →