Splunk vs Amazon OpenSearch vs CloudWatch

Cost-effective:

• CloudWatch: Best bet for monitoring AWS stuff, super cheap.
• OpenSearch: More for deeper log analysis, still cheaper than Splunk.

Ease of use:

• CloudWatch: Easiest, integrates seamlessly with AWS.
• OpenSearch: Requires some config and learning, like Kibana for visuals.

Features:

• CloudWatch: Basic monitoring, less security and compliance than Splunk.
• OpenSearch: Powerful search, needs plugins for extra security/compliance.

In short:

• Mostly just monitoring? CloudWatch FTW.
• Need deep log analysis? OpenSearch might work, but expect some effort.