What is Vector used for?

Vector is a Rust-based observability data pipeline from Datadog's open-source team that collects, transforms and routes logs and metrics to any destination. It is a good fit for reducing observability costs by filtering data, switching log vendors without reconfiguring apps, and central log and metric routing.

Is Vector open source?

Yes. Vector is open source under the MPL-2.0 licence. Its source code is on GitHub at vectordotdev/vector and is written mainly in Rust.

Yes. Vector is open source, so the software itself is free to use.

Can I self-host Vector?

Yes. Vector can be self-hosted on your own server or infrastructure; there is no official hosted version.

What is Vector an alternative to?

Vector is an open-source alternative to Cribl and Mezmo. Other open-source alternatives to Cribl include OpenTelemetry Collector, Telegraf and Grafana Alloy.

Is Vector actively maintained?

Yes. The most recent commit to Vector was on 2 October 2026. The project has 23k stars on GitHub.

Vector: open-source alternative to Cribl, Mezmo

About Vector

Vector is a high-performance observability data pipeline that works both as an agent and as an aggregator. It collects logs and metrics from many sources, transforms them, and routes them to whichever vendors or storage systems you choose, so you can switch or combine backends without changing how data is collected.

The project argues that this gives you control over your telemetry: you can cut costs by filtering and shaping data before it reaches a paid vendor, enrich events in new ways and apply data security where you need it rather than where it is most convenient for a vendor. It also claims to be substantially faster than comparable tools. Built in Rust, its primary design goal is reliability, and topics mention traces, stream processing and ETL.

Datadog's open-source engineering team maintains Vector, which is licensed under MPL-2.0. The README offers a quickstart, installation guides, integrations and container images. Because it is software you run yourself, it needs no hosted service, and it suits platform and SRE teams that manage large volumes of logs and metrics.

Key features

Collects logs and metrics from many sources
Transforms and enriches events in flight
Routes data to multiple destinations
Runs as agent or aggregator
Written in Rust for reliability
Container images and install guides

Good fit for

→Reducing observability costs by filtering data
→Switching log vendors without reconfiguring apps
→Central log and metric routing

Built with: Rust
Tags: observability; logs; metrics; data-pipeline; rust; telemetry; etl; monitoring; datadog

Vector: questions and answers

What is Vector used for?: Vector is a Rust-based observability data pipeline from Datadog's open-source team that collects, transforms and routes logs and metrics to any destination. It is a good fit for reducing observability costs by filtering data, switching log vendors without reconfiguring apps, and central log and metric routing.
Is Vector open source?: Yes. Vector is open source under the MPL-2.0 licence. Its source code is on GitHub at vectordotdev/vector and is written mainly in Rust.
Is Vector free?: Yes. Vector is open source, so the software itself is free to use.
Can I self-host Vector?: Yes. Vector can be self-hosted on your own server or infrastructure; there is no official hosted version.
What is Vector an alternative to?: Vector is an open-source alternative to Cribl and Mezmo. Other open-source alternatives to Cribl include OpenTelemetry Collector, Telegraf and Grafana Alloy.
Is Vector actively maintained?: Yes. The most recent commit to Vector was on 2 October 2026. The project has 23k stars on GitHub.