Fluentd vs Telegraf
Fluentd and Telegraf are both telemetry pipeline software. Fluentd is open source under Apache-2.0, with 14k GitHub stars. Telegraf is open source under MIT, with 18k GitHub stars.
Which to pick
- Pick Fluentd when
- You need a central log aggregator with plugins for unusual sources or destinations.
- Pick Telegraf when
- You need to gather metrics from many kinds of systems, including industrial equipment, with one agent.
Side by side
A CNCF data collector that unifies logging by routing events from many sources to many outputs through a large plugin ecosystem.
A plugin-driven agent that collects metrics and logs from systems, databases, MQTT, Modbus, OPC UA and more, and writes them to InfluxDB, Prometheus and other outputs.
Ruby-based and heavier than Fluent Bit or Vector; many teams now use Fluent Bit at the edge.
Configuration files for many plugins get long, and defaults lean toward InfluxDB.
Production-ready (both)
Self-hosted server (both)
Ruby
Go
Open source, Apache-2.0 (permissive)
Open source, MIT (permissive)
You can build it into a product you sell, as long as you keep its copyright notice. (both)
14k GitHub stars
18k GitHub stars
Established: started 15 years ago, latest release v1.20.1.
Established: started 11 years ago, latest release v1.40.3.
Other comparisons
More telemetry collectors and pipelines
Both sides were judged on 2026-11-03 from each project's README and GitHub data. License, age and popularity lines are worked out directly.