The Uncompromised Pipeline: Why Tenzir is the Flexible, Open-Core Alternative to Cribl

The security data pipeline is no longer just a nice-to-have—it's the mission-critical backbone of the modern security stack. As data volumes explode and SIEM costs spiral, the ability to intelligently route, shape, and enrich data before it hits your expensive analytics platforms has become paramount.

But this has led to what feels like an impossible choice.

On one side, you have powerful, feature-rich platforms like Cribl. They promise ultimate flexibility, but this power comes at a cost: a steep learning curve, complex GUI-driven configurations, and a high operational overhead that often requires a dedicated team of specialists. On the other side, you have simpler tools that promise ease of use but often lock you into rigid, opinionated workflows that can't adapt to your unique environment.

For too long, security teams have been forced to choose between flexibility and control. This lack of control manifests directly as a failure to scale—operationally, architecturally, and economically. You get locked into complex systems that are brittle, expensive to run, and slow your team down.

Tenzir breaks the mold. It is the only data pipeline solution that matches the unopinionated, build-anything flexibility of Cribl while offering the intuitive ease of a low-code approach. And it’s built on the industry’s only open-core model, making it the most transparent, adaptable, and future-proof choice for forward-thinking security teams.

The Illusion of Choice: Unpacking "Flexibility"

Every vendor claims their tool is flexible. But how that flexibility is delivered makes all the difference.

The "Pro-Code" Complexity Trap. Platforms like Cribl offer a vast canvas, which is powerful. However, creating your masterpiece requires navigating a labyrinth of GUI menus, proprietary functions, and, when the going gets tough, custom JavaScript. This "pro-code" complexity means that while you can do anything, the time, training, and resources required to do it are immense. Your pipeline becomes a delicate, high-maintenance system that only a few high-priests understand, creating bottlenecks and slowing down your security operations.

The "No-Code" Rigidity Trap. In response to this complexity, some tools swing the pendulum to the other extreme. They offer simple, no-code interfaces that are easy to start with. The problem? You’re stuck on their rails. When you need to parse a non-standard log format or implement a nuanced piece of routing logic that the vendor didn't anticipate, you hit a wall. The tool's opinionated design becomes a cage.

The Tenzir Paradigm: Unopinionated, Low-Code. Tenzir offers a third way. We believe that security practitioners are the experts. Our philosophy is to provide you with powerful, modular building blocks (we call them operators) and let you chain them together as you see fit. This is achieved through the Tenzir Query Language (TQL).

TQL is built on the elegant, pipe-based philosophy of the Unix shell. You take data from a source, and pipe it (| is optional between operators, as in PRQL) through a series of operators that filter, shape, enrich, and route it.

// Perform a paginated API request.
from_http "api.example.org", max_retry_count=3, paginate=(x => x.next_url?)
// Unroll nasty array of records in response.
unroll data
// Reshape as you see fit
set src_ip = data.src.ip()
set src_port = data.port.int()
set hostname = data.host
...
// Enrich with threat intelligence.
context::enrich "iocs", field=hostname
// Escalate high-severity events immediately to Splunk.
if (iocs.severity > 0.8) {
  to_splunk "https://splunk.local:8088", hec_token=secret("splunk-token")
}
// Always write full data feed as Hive-partitioned Parquet files into S3.
set year = data.year()
set month = data.month()
to_hive "s3://my-bucket/some/subdirectory",
  partition_by=[year, month],
  format="parquet",
  max_size=10G

This is low-code for professionals. It’s readable, intuitive, and requires no complex programming. Yet, because you can chain these operators in infinite combinations, it's completely unopinionated. You have the ultimate freedom to build the exact logic you need without the overhead of a complex GUI or the constraints of a rigid, no-code system.

The Power of Open-Core: A Class of Its Own

Here is the single biggest structural difference between Tenzir and every other player in the market: Tenzir is open-core. Cribl and its direct competitors are closed-source.

This isn't just a philosophical point; it provides tangible, strategic advantages. Being open-core means Tenzir has a robust C++ foundation that is free and open for all, with enterprise features built on top. This gives you two superpowers.

1. A Hackable Foundation for Unparalleled Control. For power users and organizations with truly unique demands, our open-core model means you can go under the hood. You have access to the source code of the pipeline engine itself. This provides a level of transparency, trust, and customization that is simply impossible with a closed-source black box. You can be certain of how your data is being handled and, if needed, modify the core to meet extreme requirements.

2. The Tenzir Library: Community-Powered Innovation. The true magic of open-source lies in the community. The Tenzir Library on GitHub is a living, breathing ecosystem of pipeline templates, parsers, and context packages contributed by users and the Tenzir team.

• Need to parse logs from a niche firewall appliance? There’s probably a package for it.

• Want a ready-made pipeline to hunt for signs of a new CVE? Grab it from the library.

• Built a clever enrichment using a new threat feed? Share it with the community.

This collaborative model means Tenzir adapts at the speed of the community, not at the speed of a vendor's release cycle. It's a force multiplier for your team, allowing you to stand on the shoulders of your peers instead of reinventing the wheel.

Head-to-Head: Where Tenzir's Model Creates Tangible Advantages

Let's move from theory to practice.

Scenario 1: Onboarding a Custom Data Source Your organization buys a new piece of equipment that produces a quirky, multi-line log format.

• With Cribl: You begin clicking through the GUI, trying to configure a custom parser. You might find yourself writing RegEx in a web form or, for complex cases, scripting a custom JavaScript function. If you get stuck, you're dependent on vendor support or professional services.

• With Tenzir: Your first step is to check the tenzir/library. There’s a good chance someone has already solved this. If not, you use Tenzir's powerful parsing operators in a simple TQL program. The process is transparent, text-based, and version-controllable in Git. Once you're done, you can contribute it back to the community.

Scenario 2: Slashing SIEM Costs with Surgical Precision You need to cut your Splunk or Sentinel ingest costs by 30% without losing critical visibility.

• With Cribl: You can certainly implement routing rules. But for fine-grained filtering and aggregation, you're back to building complex logic within the GUI.

• With Tenzir: With TQL, you can build surgically precise pipelines. You can easily drop noisy, low-value events, aggregate repetitive status messages into a single summary event, and transform verbose logs into lean, mean, valuable data. This low-code approach makes it simple to iterate and refine your "data diet" with a precision that is cumbersome to achieve elsewhere.

Scenario 3: Building a Future-Proof Security Data Fabric You are designing a modern architecture built around a data lake, aiming for flexibility for the next decade.

• With Cribl: You are betting on a single, proprietary vendor. Your entire data strategy becomes dependent on their roadmap, their pricing, and their vision. Your team's skills are tied to a specific, closed product.

• With Tenzir: You are building on an open platform. An open-core engine is inherently more future-proof. It can be adapted to any new technology, threat, or data destination. Your team builds skills in a query language that is based on universal principles, and you are never locked in. The platform can evolve with you, and even by you.

Choose Flexibility AND Control. Choose Tenzir.

For too long, the security data pipeline market has demanded a compromise. To get flexibility, you had to accept complexity. To get simplicity, you had to sacrifice control.

Tenzir was built to end that compromise.

It offers the unopinionated, build-anything power that rivals Cribl, but with an intuitive, low-code approach that empowers analysts, not just data engineers. It is the only solution built on a transparent, hackable, and community-driven open-core model.

Don't settle for a black box. Don't get locked into a rigid framework. Build your security data pipelines on a foundation of flexibility, transparency, and community innovation.

Ready to stop compromising?

• Explore the Tenzir Library and see what our community is building today.

• Spin up the free Community Edition and experience true pipeline flexibility in minutes.

• Request a personalized demo to see how our open-core model can de-risk your data strategy and empower your team.