# What is difference between Elastic Agent and Beat?

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/what-is-difference-between-elastic-agent-and-beat/340383>\
**Category:** Beats\
**Tags:** beats-module\
**Created:** [August 8, 2023, 2:00pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/what-is-difference-between-elastic-agent-and-beat/340383 "2023-08-08T14:00:20Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![musialny](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/musialny/32/124438_2.png) [@musialny](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/musialny)\
**Post date:** [August 8, 2023, 2:00pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/what-is-difference-between-elastic-agent-and-beat/340383/1 "2023-08-08T14:00:20Z")

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What is difference between Elastic Agent and Beat?

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**Author:** ![stephenb](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/stephenb/32/40856_2.png) [@stephenb](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/stephenb)\
**Post date:** [August 8, 2023, 2:49pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/what-is-difference-between-elastic-agent-and-beat/340383/2 "2023-08-08T14:49:00Z")

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Hi @musialny

Perhaps take a look at this...

> **[Beats and Elastic Agent capabilities | Fleet and Elastic Agent Guide \[8.9\] |...](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/fleet/current/beats-agent-comparison.html)**

Then come back with some specific questions

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**Author:** ![musialny](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/musialny/32/124438_2.png) [@musialny](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/musialny)\
**Post date:** [August 8, 2023, 3:24pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/what-is-difference-between-elastic-agent-and-beat/340383/3 "2023-08-08T15:24:04Z")

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I already saw this. I'm assuming that I should use agents when I need collect data from specific services and beats when I need collect one particular type of data (f.e. metrics and/or logs from whole VM)?

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**Author:** ![stephenb](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/stephenb/32/40856_2.png) [@stephenb](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/stephenb)\
**Post date:** [August 8, 2023, 3:28pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/what-is-difference-between-elastic-agent-and-beat/340383/4 "2023-08-08T15:28:51Z")

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> [@musialny](#):
>
> I already saw this. I'm assuming that I should use agents when I need collect data from specific services and beats when I need collect one particular type of data (f.e. metrics and/or logs from whole VM)?

Not really Agent is the evolution of Beats... In general they accomplish the same thing collect and ship telemetry.

You can run Elastic Agent to collect a single a metric or multiple integrations general logs, OOTB logs (apache nginx etc) metrics etc..etc..

There are some pros and cons of each... Agent if you are doing self managed can be a bit harder to setup but flexible, really path of the future

Beats probably quicker to setup up but some more decentralized and some of the new features like TSDB may not come to them.

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**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/a/1ac57faf039f6b580b3f104ef42a2a89e41014de.png) [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)\
**Post date:** [September 5, 2023, 5:29pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/what-is-difference-between-elastic-agent-and-beat/340383/5 "2023-09-05T17:29:18Z")

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