A Splunk Universal Forwarder alternative

For the vast majority of Splunk forwarder use cases, yes. NXLog Platform can ingest and forward all the same logs that the Splunk UF handles – then go even further with multi-platform support, edge parsing, secure transport, built-in storage, and centralized management. In many deployments, you can simply install NXLog agents on your servers and direct them to send logs to Splunk (or any target) as before, effectively swapping out the Universal Forwarder with NXLog. This lets you eliminate the UF layer while gaining significant new capabilities without disrupting your downstream systems.

Absolutely. NXLog Platform is tool-agnostic – it integrates with any log analysis or SIEM stack. You can continue sending data to Splunk Enterprise, Splunk Cloud, or other platforms like Elasticsearch and Datadog with NXLog as the shipper. NXLog outputs logs in standard formats (JSON, syslog, etc.), so your existing dashboards and alerts will work just as before. Think of NXLog as a powerful upgrade to your log shipping layer, not a replacement for your entire monitoring ecosystem. 

No. NXLog Platform is an all-in-one log collector. One NXLog agent on a host can completely replace the Splunk Universal Forwarder and any specialized log shippers or scripts. It handles files, Windows events, Linux syslog, network device logs, cloud service logs – all within one agent and one configuration. This means you won’t need to deploy separate forwarders (like heavy forwarders for parsing or Windows Event Collector services) for different sources. Fewer components and a unified config syntax across all log types let you spend less time managing collectors and more time on analysis. 

NXLog Platform was designed with Windows in mind (unlike many traditional Linux-focused tools). It uses a native module (im_msvistalog) to tap directly into Windows Event Log channels (Application, System, Security, etc.) and even supports Event Tracing for Windows (ETW) to capture low-level OS or application events. In practice, NXLog can collect anything that Windows can log, without needing any separate “event log forwarder” service. This native approach preserves the full detail of each Windows event (including the rich metadata that might be lost if you convert events to syslog). It’s a major advantage for Windows-heavy environments, as you get complete log fidelity and coverage that Splunk’s forwarder can’t match (for example, grabbing EVTX and ETW events directly). 

Yes – NXLog Platform is built for highly scalable, reliable operations. Its architecture supports deployments with thousands of agents and extremely high event volumes. Out of the box, NXLog includes automatic failover, load-balancing across multiple destinations, and intelligent buffering (spooling to disk or memory) to handle backpressure. If a network link or target system goes down, NXLog will queue data or switch to a secondary route automatically, ensuring you don’t lose logs during outages. In terms of scalability, large fleets (tens of thousands of endpoints) are managed through the central NXLog console with template configs and group policies, making expansion straightforward. In short, it’s ready for enterprise scale and resilience from day one.