Splunk Light: An Introduction and Beginner's Guide

Splunk Light was a version of Splunk’s flagship log search and analysis software that launched in 2015, designed specifically for small IT environments. Splunk Light enabled users to gather and correlate date from all types of sources, formats, and locations. In addition to logfile search and analysis, Splunk Light’s alerts and dashboards helped users get started with critical IT monitoring & observability features quickly and easily.

If you were thinking about trying Splunk Light, you can get all of the benefits of that platform in Splunk Enterprise or Splunk Cloud (depending on your deployment preference).

Splunk Light End-of-Life (EoL)

In March 2020, it was announced that Splunk Light and Splunk Light Cloud would reach End-of-Sale on May 1, 2020 and eventually would reach End-of-Support and End-of-Life. Customers of Splunk Light and Splunk Light Cloud have the option to migrate to Splunk Enterprise.

Per the announcement, the End-of-Life Timetable was as follows:

Splunk Light vs Splunk Light Cloud

In September of 2015, the cloud service (SaaS) version of Splunk Light was made available. This deployment option included the same benefits of the original on-premises version of Splunk Light, but without the headaches of purchasing, setting up, and maintaining a server. As mentioned previously, both Splunk Light and Splunk Light Cloud were officially End-of-Life’d in June 2021.

Splunk Light vs Splunk Light Free

There were a variety of differences between Splunk Light and Splunk Light Free. This table elaborates on the differences.

Features
Splunk Light Free
Splunk Light
Daily Indexing Volume
Up to 500MB
Up to 20GB
Search and Reporting
Yes
Yes
Dashboards
Yes
Yes
Alerting
No
Yes
Accounts
1 Admin
Up to 5, Admin and User
Add-ons
Yes
Yes

Splunk Light vs Splunk Enterprise

Differences between Splunk Light and Splunk Enterprise included:

Features
Splunk Enterprise
Splunk Light
Maximum daily indexing volume
Unlimited
20GB
Maximum users
Unlimited
5
Data collection add-ons
Yes
Yes
Apps
Yes
No
Monitoring and alerting
Yes
Yes
Dashboards and reports
Yes
Yes
Search and analysis
Yes
Yes
Automatic data enrichment
Yes
Yes
Anomaly detection
Yes
Yes
Scalability
Unlimited
Single Server
Access control
Customizable
User and Admin only

Related Articles

What Cybersecurity Means in 2026: A Complete Overview of Cybersecurity
Learn
8 Minute Read

What Cybersecurity Means in 2026: A Complete Overview of Cybersecurity

Learn about cybersecurity and its importance. Take a look at various kinds of cyber threats, risks, and tools and frameworks to mitigate them.
What are Diffusion Models?
Learn
4 Minute Read

What are Diffusion Models?

Learn about diffusion models, a groundbreaking AI development that generates high-quality images, videos, and text. Explore their applications, how they work, and future potential.
How To Create Successful SOPs: Standard Operating Procedures
Learn
5 Minute Read

How To Create Successful SOPs: Standard Operating Procedures

Need to write SOPs? Check out this complete guide to creating successful standard operating procedures, including how to write one and manage it over time.
What Is a SOC? Security Operations Centers: A Complete Overview
Learn
11 Minute Read

What Is a SOC? Security Operations Centers: A Complete Overview

In this article, we'll discuss security operations center (SOC), which acts as the central hub for all cybersecurity activities in an organization.
RSAC™ 2025 Conference: The Complete Guide
Learn
5 Minute Read

RSAC™ 2025 Conference: The Complete Guide

This blog post is the complete guide to the 2025 RSA conference.
The OWASP Top 10 Explained: Today’s Top Risks in Web Apps and LLMs
Learn
9 Minute Read

The OWASP Top 10 Explained: Today’s Top Risks in Web Apps and LLMs

Learn about OWASP top 10, a critical benchmark for your web application security, and now LLM security, since its inception in 2003.
Shift Left Security Today: Adoption Trends & How To Shift Security Left
Learn
7 Minute Read

Shift Left Security Today: Adoption Trends & How To Shift Security Left

Get the lowdown on shift left security: build security earlier into the software development process (aka to the left) to improve overall application security.
API Monitoring Explained: How To Monitor APIs Today
Learn
8 Minute Read

API Monitoring Explained: How To Monitor APIs Today

In this blog post, we'll define API Monitoring and explore common challenges and benefits of monitoring APIs.
Dark Data: An Introduction
Learn
6 Minute Read

Dark Data: An Introduction

Explore the growing impact of dark data on businesses, its potential for AI, operational efficiency, and risk management, and strategies for unlocking its value.