Kibana or Grafana for Elastic? Why Smart Teams Sometimes Use Both

1. Introduction

If you're using the Elastic Stack for observability, logs, or security, you've probably encountered Kibana. But what if your team also uses Grafana? Or is debating whether to integrate both?

This blog helps demystify that decision. We'll explore why Kibana and Grafana both add value, when mixing them makes sense, and when one tool may be all you need—depending on your use case and team.

At Hyperflex, we guide Elastic users through these exact choices every day. Let’s break it down.

2. What is Kibana?

Kibana is the native UI of the Elastic Stack, tightly integrated with Elasticsearch. It offers:

• Visualizations and dashboards (with Lens, TSVB, Vega)
• Integrated apps for APM, SIEM, and ML
• Role-based access and Spaces
• Elastic Maps for geo data
• Deep log analysis and anomaly detection
  
  

Kibana is ideal when your stack is primarily Elastic, especially for advanced features like security rules, machine learning jobs, or real-time observability.

3. What is Grafana?

Grafana is an open-source visualization tool known for beautiful dashboards and multi-source support. Originally built for metrics (e.g., Prometheus), it now integrates with:

• Elasticsearch
• AWS CloudWatch
• MySQL/Postgres
• Azure Monitor
• Graphite, InfluxDB, and more
  
  

Grafana excels in infrastructure and operations monitoring, particularly when teams want a single pane of glass combining Elastic data with external sources.

4. Kibana vs. Grafana: Core Differences

Summary: Kibana is best for full-stack Elastic insight. Grafana is best for unifying data across platforms.

5. Deeper Technical Comparison

🔍 Querying

Kibana offers powerful schema-level queries, ideal for exploring raw logs. Grafana is optimized for metrics and prebuilt views.

📊 Visualization Examples

🔢 Data Types Best Handled

6. When Using Both Makes Sense

Many teams use Kibana + Grafana together for maximum flexibility. Here's how it works:

Use Grafana for:

• Central dashboards merging Elastic, Prometheus, SQL
• Ops team visualizing cross-cloud infra in real-time
• Clean dashboards for execs or NOC rooms
  
  

🔍 Use Kibana for:

• Deep troubleshooting in logs and traces
• Security investigations with SIEM
• Running ML jobs for anomaly detection
  
  

Hyperflex often helps clients build Grafana dashboards for visibility and Kibana dashboards for investigation—a powerful combo.

7. When One Tool Is Enough

Use only Kibana when:

• You're fully invested in Elastic (cloud or on-prem)
• You want to activate features like SIEM, APM, ML
• You need detailed search on nested documents
  
  

Use only Grafana when:

• You already use Prometheus, MySQL, or AWS data
• You want a lightweight view into Elastic metrics
• You're not using Elastic apps (APM, Security, etc.)

8. Two Industry Use Cases

Retail E-commerce (Kibana-only)

A retail company uses Elastic Agents to collect logs, metrics, and traces. They:

• Track checkout latency with Kibana APM
• Alert on order failure spikes
• Visualize regional sales using Lens
  
  

Why it works: Their stack is 100% Elastic-native. Kibana gives them powerful, all-in-one observability.

Fintech (Kibana + Grafana)

A fintech platform combines:

• Elastic for logs and security events
• Prometheus for infra metrics
• MySQL for financial metrics

They:

• Use Grafana to show metrics and SLAs to execs
• Use Kibana to investigate incidents and build detection rules
  
  

Why it works: Grafana gives the multi-source view; Kibana supports deep investigations.

9. Key Questions to Ask

Before deciding on a tool (or both), ask:

• Do we need Elastic-native features like APM or SIEM?
• Are we using other data sources (SQL, Prometheus, etc.)?
• Who are our users—engineers, analysts, execs?
• Is real-time alerting or deep data slicing more important?

10. Final Takeaway

Kibana and Grafana aren’t rivals—they’re complementary tools with different strengths. Kibana delivers native power and deep analytics for Elastic users. Grafana provides beautiful, unified dashboards across systems.

At Hyperflex, we help teams architect Elastic visualizations that scale. Whether it’s Kibana, Grafana, or both, we guide you to the right fit.

Contact us at marketing@hyperflex.co to explore how we can support your Elastic journey.

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