diff --git a/config/startup.options b/config/startup.options
index 3829fdb9b5..46bf10b32b 100644
--- a/config/startup.options
+++ b/config/startup.options
@@ -38,7 +38,7 @@ LS_GC_LOG_FILE=/var/log/logstash/gc.log
 LS_OPEN_FILES=16384
 
 # Nice level
-LS_NICE=19
+LS_NICE=0
 
 # Change these to have the init script named and described differently
 # This is useful when running multiple instances of Logstash on the same
diff --git a/docs/reference/performance-troubleshooting.md b/docs/reference/performance-troubleshooting.md
index 69cd49fddf..5ea8eff5e1 100644
--- a/docs/reference/performance-troubleshooting.md
+++ b/docs/reference/performance-troubleshooting.md
@@ -52,7 +52,13 @@ You may be tempted to jump ahead and change settings like `pipeline.workers` (`-
     * Set the minimum (Xms) and maximum (Xmx) heap allocation size to the same value to prevent the heap from resizing at runtime, which is a very costly process.
     * You can make more accurate measurements of the JVM heap by using either the `jmap` command line utility distributed with Java or by using VisualVM. For more info, see [Profiling the heap](/reference/tuning-logstash.md#profiling-the-heap).
 
-4. **Tune Logstash pipeline settings:**
+4. **Adjust process `nice` value to `0`:**
+
+    * Logstash historically defaulted to a `nice` value of `19` in order to not interfere with normal operation of services and applications it runs alongside. This causes Logstash to run at **the lowest priority** possible.
+    * For **RPM/DEB** installations, Logstash's systemd unit file is located at `/usr/lib/systemd/system/logstash.service`.
+    * For **Tarball** installations, Logstash instead uses `$LS_SETTINGS_DIR/config/startup.options` if it was installed with `bin/system-install`. Running directly from the directory (i.e. `./bin/logstash`) is unaffected.
+
+5. **Tune Logstash pipeline settings:**
 
     * Continue on to [Tuning and profiling logstash pipeline performance](/reference/tuning-logstash.md) to learn about tuning individual pipelines.
 
diff --git a/pkg/service_templates/systemd/lib/systemd/system/logstash.service b/pkg/service_templates/systemd/lib/systemd/system/logstash.service
index 68ff3c4e70..ed882ca3ad 100644
--- a/pkg/service_templates/systemd/lib/systemd/system/logstash.service
+++ b/pkg/service_templates/systemd/lib/systemd/system/logstash.service
@@ -13,7 +13,7 @@ EnvironmentFile=-/etc/sysconfig/logstash
 ExecStart=/usr/share/logstash/bin/logstash "--path.settings" "/etc/logstash"
 Restart=always
 WorkingDirectory=/
-Nice=19
+Nice=0
 LimitNOFILE=16384
 
 # When stopping, how long to wait before giving up and sending SIGKILL?
diff --git a/pkg/service_templates/sysv/etc/default/logstash b/pkg/service_templates/sysv/etc/default/logstash
index 325a8a1e59..1e72edbd7a 100644
--- a/pkg/service_templates/sysv/etc/default/logstash
+++ b/pkg/service_templates/sysv/etc/default/logstash
@@ -5,6 +5,6 @@ LS_USER="logstash"
 LS_GROUP="logstash"
 LS_GC_LOG_FILE="/var/log/logstash/gc.log"
 LS_OPEN_FILES="16384"
-LS_NICE="19"
+LS_NICE="0"
 SERVICE_NAME="logstash"
 SERVICE_DESCRIPTION="logstash"
diff --git a/pkg/service_templates/sysv/etc/init.d/logstash b/pkg/service_templates/sysv/etc/init.d/logstash
index 932ccab484..2627c5a701 100755
--- a/pkg/service_templates/sysv/etc/init.d/logstash
+++ b/pkg/service_templates/sysv/etc/init.d/logstash
@@ -26,7 +26,7 @@ user="logstash"
 group="logstash"
 chroot="/"
 chdir="/"
-nice="19"
+nice="0"
 limit_open_files="16384"