Edge collection at fleet scale
Cribl Edge manages agents across very large fleets from one console and replaces a lot of legacy forwarders.
Fleak vs Cribl. Routing is solved. Meaning isn't.
Cribl moves telemetry well, and now sells a SIEM, a lake, and an AI gateway on top. Fleak turns every source into one schema, repairs it when vendors change formats, and runs on an open-source engine. Many teams run both.
- AI-generated OCSF mapping
- Self-healing on drift
- Open-source engine
- Works alongside Cribl
Choose Fleak when
- Your roadmap includes AI SOC agents that need clean, consistent data.
- You maintain dozens or hundreds of sources, and parsers break when vendors change formats.
- You want mappings to OCSF, UDM, or your own schema generated, reviewed, and repaired for you.
- You want an open-source execution engine and no AI in the data path.
- You want to keep your SIEM and your lake, not buy new ones from your pipeline vendor.
Choose Cribl when
- You need to deploy and manage agents across a very large endpoint fleet.
- Your main goal is moving and reducing telemetry, and your team is happy to write mappings by hand.
- You want one vendor for pipeline, search, lake, and SIEM.
- You need a FedRAMP-authorized SaaS today.
Fleak vs Cribl
at a glance.
| Capability | Fleak | Cribl |
|---|---|---|
| Core focus | Fleak Normalization and intent-based routing for security and AI data, with pipelines that repair themselves | Cribl Telemetry pipeline, plus search, a lake, a SIEM (Cribl Detect), and an AI gateway |
| Schema mapping | Fleak The Brain generates OCSF, UDM, ECS, ASIM, or custom mappings from samples, plus 211 community OCSF templates | Cribl Copilot Editor drafts pipelines and schema mappings to OCSF, ECS, UDM, and ASIM from plain language, for an engineer to approve |
| Schema drift | Fleak Detects drift and repairs the mapping, with your approval or automatically within guardrails | Cribl Cribl Insights alerts on volume drops and format changes. Fixes are made by your engineers |
| Execution engine | Fleak Zephflow, open source under Apache-2.0 | Cribl Proprietary |
| AI in the data path | Fleak None. AI writes configs in the control plane, and a deterministic engine runs them | Cribl Cribl Guard runs purpose-built AI models inside Workers to find sensitive data in flight |
| Collection | Fleak Universal receivers, managed API connectors, and an edge agent | Cribl Stream receivers and collectors, plus Cribl Edge agents managed at fleet scale |
| Routing and reduction | Fleak Intent-based routing to every destination, filtering, deduplication, sampling, and aggregation | Cribl Routes, multicast, filtering, sampling, aggregation, and logs to metrics |
| Storage and search | Fleak Writes to your own lake (Databricks, Snowflake, S3) and searches data in place | Cribl Cribl Lake and the Search lakehouse engine, plus federated search over external stores |
| SIEM | Fleak Sits in front of your SIEM, with in-stream Sigma detection for atomic tripwires | Cribl Cribl Detect, a full SIEM launched in September 2026 |
| Pricing | Fleak No per-connector or per-event fees | Cribl Credits per GB ingested (Stream from 0.26 credits/GB), free up to 1 TB/day |
| Deployment | Fleak Managed SaaS, your cloud, on-prem, or air-gapped | Cribl Cribl.Cloud, hybrid, or self-managed, plus a FedRAMP Moderate government cloud |
Where Cribl is strong.
Credit where it's due.
Cribl defined the observability pipeline category, and its strengths are real. If they're your whole requirement, Cribl is a sound choice.
Mature routing and reduction
Routes, multicast, sampling, aggregation, and replay are proven in large production deployments.
Breadth and ecosystem
Search, a lake, a SIEM, an AI gateway, a broad partner network, and public pricing with a free tier.
Where Fleak is different,
and why it matters for AI.
Cribl gets data to the right place. Fleak makes sure it means the same thing when it arrives, and keeps it that way when sources change.
Meaning, not just movement
The Brain generates the mapping from each source to OCSF or your schema, so normalization stops being a hand-written project.
Pipelines that repair themselves
When a vendor changes a format, Fleak detects the drift and repairs the mapping in minutes, instead of paging an engineer to do it.
An engine you can read
Zephflow, the execution layer, is open source under Apache-2.0. Inspect it, test it, and run it anywhere.
No AI in the data path
AI generates logic in the control plane. Production events run through a deterministic engine, with no model calls and no inference cost per event.
Your lake, your SIEM
Fleak writes to the SIEM and the lake you already run. It doesn't need you to land data in a lake or a SIEM of its own.
Built for AI consumers
OCSF-shaped data for AI SOC agents, an MCP server, and about 40% lower token cost in the Gruve benchmark.
Keep Cribl. Add the missing layer.
Cribl Stream to Kafka to Fleak is a pattern we recommend: Cribl handles logistics, Fleak handles meaning.
Adopt Fleak next to Cribl,
or instead of it.
01 / Start downstream
Point Cribl Stream at a Kafka topic and let Fleak normalize one high-pain source from there.
02 / Prove it on one source
Compare detections and parser upkeep on that source for two weeks, side by side.
03 / Expand by source
Move more sources through Fleak as their mappings are generated and approved.
04 / Decide on the edge
Keep Cribl for collection, or move collection to Fleak once the rest is running.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
Can Fleak run alongside Cribl?
Yes. The most common pattern is Cribl Stream to Kafka to Fleak. Cribl keeps collection and routing, and Fleak adds AI-generated normalization, self-healing on schema drift, and intent-based delivery downstream.
Doesn't Cribl Copilot already map data to OCSF?
Cribl's Copilot Editor drafts pipelines and schema mappings from plain language for an engineer to approve. Fleak generates mappings from samples, validates them against the schema, and keeps them repaired when sources drift, so the mapping isn't a one-time project.
How does pricing compare?
Cribl publishes per-GB credit pricing with a free tier up to 1 TB/day. Fleak doesn't charge per connector or per event. Book a call for a quote based on your sources and destinations.
Does Fleak replace Cribl Search or Cribl Lake?
Fleak writes to the lake you already use, such as Databricks, Snowflake, or S3, and searches data in place there. If you want your pipeline vendor's own lake, Cribl Lake does that. If you want data to stay in your own account, Fleak fits.
Is Fleak a SIEM like Cribl Detect?
No. Fleak sits in front of your SIEM and runs in-stream Sigma detection for atomic tripwires. Cribl Detect is a full SIEM. Fleak keeps whichever SIEM you choose fed with clean, normalized data.
Cribl details are based on cribl.io product, pricing, and announcement pages as of October 2026. Product names and trademarks belong to their owners.
Bring the source your pipeline can't normalize.
30-minute working session. We'll map it to OCSF live, downstream of the pipeline you already run.
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