Fluentbit
Fluent Bit is an open-source, CNCF-graduated telemetry agent for logs, metrics, and traces, written in C and designed for low-overhead collection at the edge.
Profile
Fluent Bit is a lightweight, high-performance telemetry agent that collects, processes, and forwards logs, metrics, and traces from edge devices and Kubernetes clusters to various backends.
Fluent Bit is an open-source, CNCF-graduated telemetry agent for logs, metrics, and traces, written in C and designed for low-overhead collection at the edge. Created by Eduardo Silva in 2015 while at Treasure Data, the project now lives under the Fluent umbrella alongside Fluentd. As of early 2026, Fluent Bit v5.0.6 is the latest stable release, with v4.2.x still maintained.
The project has been downloaded over one billion times as of March 2022, and is embedded in major Kubernetes distributions. It is used in production by AWS, Google Cloud, DigitalOcean, VMware, Cisco, Lyft, LinkedIn, and Walmart. Fluent Bit is not a standalone company; it is a community project governed by the CNCF.
There is no corporate entity named 'Fluentbit' with revenue or funding. The search results for 'Fluentbit 2026 revenue' and 'Fluentbit funding news 2025 2026' returned data for two unrelated public companies: Fluent, Inc. (NASDAQ: FLNT), a commerce media firm, and FLUENT Corp. (CSE: FNT.U), a cannabis company. Neither has any connection to the Fluent Bit project.
The project's financial trajectory is not publicly disclosed, as it is not a commercial entity. The project's blog and release notes indicate active maintenance and community growth, with a security audit completed in December 2025 and new Helm charts released in March 2026. The project's primary risk is its reliance on volunteer maintainers and corporate sponsors for continued development.
Who buys this
- Cloud service providers embedding telemetry collection into their platforms
- Enterprise DevOps and SRE teams managing Kubernetes clusters at scale
- IoT and edge computing deployments requiring a small-footprint data processor
- Observability platform vendors using Fluent Bit as a vendor-neutral collector
Publicly disclosed clients
- AWS
- Google Cloud
- DigitalOcean
- VMware
- Cisco
- Lyft
- Walmart
Strengths and what to watch
Strengths
- Extremely low resource footprint: ~1 MB baseline memory, 15-30 MB under load, making it suitable for edge and containerized environments.
- CNCF-graduated project with a large community: over 1 billion downloads, 7,900 GitHub stars, and 1,900 forks as of June 2026.
- Multi-signal support: handles logs, metrics, and traces with ~80 built-in plugins, reducing the need for additional agents.
Watch for
- No commercial entity: Fluent Bit is a community project with no dedicated company or revenue stream, relying on corporate sponsors and volunteers for development.
- Security vulnerabilities: recent CVEs (e.g., CVE-2024-4323) and a 2025 security audit by Ada Logics identified 11 issues, including path traversal and buffer overflow flaws.
- Competition from vendor-specific agents: cloud providers (e.g., AWS CloudWatch agent, Google Ops Agent) may reduce adoption of a generic collector like Fluent Bit.
Recent moves
Key Information
- Industry
- Logging & Monitoring
- Founded
- 2015
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Fluent Bit and what does it do?
Fluent Bit is a lightweight, open-source telemetry agent that collects, processes, and forwards logs, metrics, and traces from edge devices and Kubernetes clusters to various backends. It is a CNCF-graduated project written in C for low overhead.
How does Fluent Bit compare to Fluentd?
Fluent Bit is designed for lower resource usage, with a baseline memory footprint of about 1 MB compared to Fluentd's higher consumption. It supports logs, metrics, and traces with around 80 built-in plugins, while Fluentd focuses primarily on logs with a larger plugin ecosystem.
What are the system requirements for running Fluent Bit?
Fluent Bit has an extremely low resource footprint, using approximately 1 MB of memory at baseline and 15-30 MB under load. This makes it suitable for edge devices, IoT deployments, and containerized environments like Kubernetes where efficiency is critical.
Is Fluent Bit a commercial product with a company behind it?
No, Fluent Bit is a community-governed open-source project under the CNCF. It has no dedicated company or revenue stream. Development relies on volunteer maintainers and corporate sponsors like AWS and Google Cloud, which embed it in their platforms.
What security issues have been found in Fluent Bit recently?
A security audit completed in December 2025 by Ada Logics identified 11 issues, including path traversal and buffer overflow flaws. Previous vulnerabilities like CVE-2024-4323 were also addressed. Fluent Bit v4.1 and backported fixes resolved these in October 2025.
How do I install Fluent Bit on Kubernetes using Helm?
Fluent Bit provides official Helm charts for Kubernetes deployment, with new charts released in March 2026. You can install it via the Helm repository at https://fluentbit.io/announcements/. The charts simplify configuration for collecting logs, metrics, and traces from clusters.
Sources
- github.com — Project repository, commit history, stars, forks, and latest release information.
- fluentbit.io — Release notes for v5.0.6 and download links.
- fluentbit.io — Blog posts on security audit, Helm charts, and version releases.
- www.cncf.io — Announcement of 1 billion downloads and list of notable users.
- nxlog.co — Comparison of Fluent Bit and Fluentd, including memory footprint and plugin counts.