Splunk vs Quickwit oss
Self-hosted for $4/mo on hetzner CAX11, versus $150-$1800/user/mo on Splunk.
Side-by-side
| Splunk | Quickwit oss (self-hosted) | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | $150-$1800/user/mo | $4.13/mo flat (any team size) |
| Hosting | Splunk's servers | Your VPS (hetzner CAX11) |
| Data ownership | Splunk controls the data | Your disk, your encryption |
| Source code | Closed | Open (Apache-2.0) |
| Customization | API + integrations only | Full source access; modify freely |
| Maintenance burden | Zero | Backups + updates (manual) |
| Health score (ossreplace) | — | 71 / 100 |
Why teams leave Splunk
- Pricing model so opaque enterprises hire consultants to model it
- Index-volume billing punishes verbose logging
- License compliance audits are intrusive
- Cloud-locked at the high tiers
Quickwit oss answers this by: OpenObserve, Quickwit, and ELK-style stacks give the same log search + dashboards on a single VPS.
The cost math
Assumes 5-person team using Splunk at the midpoint price ($975/user/mo).
| Period | Splunk | Quickwit oss on hetzner | You save |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly | $4875 | $4.13 | $4870.87 |
| Yearly | $58500 | $49.56 | $58450.44 |
| 3 years | $175,500 | $149 | $175,351 |
Deploy Quickwit oss now
One-click deploys at the cheapest provider for this workload:
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Common questions
Is Quickwit oss a good alternative to Splunk?
Quickwit oss is an open-source, self-hostable alternative to Splunk with an ossreplace health score of 71/100 — a composite of project activity, maturity, community, security, and adoption. It runs on your own hetzner VPS from $4.13/mo with full source access under the Apache-2.0 license, versus Splunk's $150–1800/user/mo hosted plans.
How much cheaper is Quickwit oss than Splunk?
A 5-person team pays about $4875/mo on Splunk. Self-hosting Quickwit oss on hetzner CAX11 costs a flat $4.13/mo regardless of team size — roughly $175,351 less over three years (100% lower).
Is Quickwit oss hard to self-host?
Quickwit oss self-hosts on your own VPS. You handle the install, backups, and updates yourself in exchange for full data ownership and no per-seat fees.
Do you keep control of your data with Quickwit oss vs Splunk?
Yes. Because Quickwit oss runs on your own server, the data lives on your disk under your encryption. With Splunk, Splunk controls the hosting, storage, and access.