Fluentd & Fluent Bit

Data collection matters and nowadays the scenarios from where the information can come from are very variable. For hence to be more flexible on certain markets needs, we may need different options. On this page we will describe the relationship between the Fluentd and Fluent Bit open source projects.

Fluentd and Fluent Bit projects are both created and sponsored by Treasure Data and they aim to solves the collection, processing and delivery of Logs.

Both projects share a lot of similarities, Fluent Bit is fully based in the design and experience of Fluentd architecture and general design. Choosing which one to use depends of the final needs, from an architecture perspective we can consider:

  • Fluentd is a log collector, processor and aggregator.
  • Fluent Bit is a log collector and processor (it doesn’t have strong aggregation features such as Fluentd).

The following table describes a comparison on different areas of the projects:

Fluentd Fluent Bit
Scope Containers / Servers Containers / Servers
Language C & Ruby C
Memory ~40MB ~450KB
Performance High Performance High Performance
Dependencies Built as a Ruby Gem, it requires a certain number of gems. Zero dependencies, unless some special plugin requires them.
Plugins More than 650 plugins available Around 35 plugins available
License Apache License v2.0 Apache License v2.0

Considering Fluentd as a main Aggregator and Fluent Bit as a Log Forwarder, we can see both projects complement each other providing a full reliable solution.