- New Relic alternatives side by side
- Ten New Relic alternatives worth a trial
- New Relic's free tier in plain numbers
- Features that matter in APM software
- How to run a fair monitoring trial
- Where monitoring trials go wrong
- Things to ask an APM sales team
- My plain advice on New Relic alternatives
- Frequently asked questions
New Relic alternatives are other application performance monitoring and observability tools that show how your apps, servers and websites behave. Open-source platforms suit teams that want control of their data, while enterprise APM suits large estates. Compare data volumes and user access first, because they shape how far a free tier goes.
New Relic watches your app's speed, errors and infrastructure in one place. It's popular, but plenty of teams look elsewhere for simpler setups, open-source options or tools that fit their stack better.
Here are ten New Relic alternatives in no particular order, sorted alphabetically, from open-source observability to enterprise monitoring. Each description comes from the vendor's own website, re-checked today. If your site's conversions matter as much as its uptime, my roundup of conversion tools for websites is a useful companion.
Work out what you need to see. Slow pages, failing API calls, server load and background jobs all need slightly different views.
Then estimate your data. Logs and traces grow quickly, and data volume is usually what decides which plan you end up on.
New Relic alternatives side by side
In the free plan column, Yes means the tool's own site describes a free version, free plan or open-source download, Trial only means a time-limited trial, and No means neither is stated. Free versions often come with limits, so check what's included before you rely on one.
| Tool | Type | Good for | Free plan |
|---|---|---|---|
| AppDynamics | Application performance monitoring | Large business-critical apps | Trial only |
| Atatus | APM and monitoring | Small engineering teams | Trial only |
| Better Stack | Observability and uptime | Logs plus status checks | Yes |
| Dynatrace | Observability platform | Automated root cause | Trial only |
| Kloudfuse | Observability platform | Self-hosted in your cloud | No |
| Last9 | Observability platform | High-cardinality metrics | No |
| Middleware | Full-stack observability | Unified dashboards | Yes |
| OpenObserve | Open-source observability | Low-storage logs and traces | Yes |
| Scout APM | Application monitoring | Web app performance | Trial only |
| Site24x7 | Monitoring platform | Websites and servers | Yes |
Ten New Relic alternatives worth a trial
AppDynamics
Best for: Large organisations that want APM tied to business transactions across complex apps.
Atatus
Best for: Small teams who want app, browser and server monitoring with a quick setup.
Better Stack
Best for: Teams who want uptime checks, incident alerts and logs in one place.
Dynatrace
Best for: Large estates that want automatic discovery and AI-assisted problem analysis.
Kloudfuse
Best for: Teams who want unified observability deployed inside their own cloud account.
Last9
Best for: Engineering teams who need to handle very large volumes of detailed metrics.
Middleware
Best for: Teams who want infrastructure, logs and APM in one unified view.
OpenObserve
Best for: Teams who want open-source logs, metrics and traces with efficient storage.
Scout APM
Best for: Developers of web apps who want clear performance traces without heavy setup.
Site24x7
Best for: Businesses who want website, server and app monitoring from one service.
New Relic's free tier in plain numbers
Before you compare, know what you're comparing against. New Relic's own plans page lists 100 GB of free data ingest per month and unlimited free basic users.
That's a generous starting point for a small app, so a switch only makes sense if another tool fits your stack better, keeps data where you want it, or suits how your team works. Compare like with like on data volume, not just headline features.
Features that matter in APM software
- Languages: agents for the languages and frameworks you use.
- Tracing: following one request across services.
- Logs: logs linked to traces and errors.
- Alerts: sensible defaults and on-call routing.
- OpenTelemetry: support for open standards, so you're not locked in.
How to run a fair monitoring trial
- Pick one service with real traffic.
- Install the new agent alongside the old one for a week.
- Compare what each tool shows for the same slow request.
- Test an alert end to end, including who gets woken up.
- Decide based on what helped you fix a real problem.
Where monitoring trials go wrong
- Testing on quiet services. Use real traffic.
- Ignoring data growth. Logs and traces add up fast.
- Skipping alert tests. Prove the alert reaches someone.
- Too many dashboards. Start with the key few.
If you also watch marketing numbers, my guide to how Google Analytics works for small sites covers the website side.
Things to ask an APM sales team
Monitoring vendors all promise full visibility. These questions help you see what you'll get for your own stack and data volumes.
- Which languages and frameworks have mature agents?
- How is data volume measured and limited?
- Do you accept OpenTelemetry data?
- How long is data kept by default?
- How do alerts reach our on-call person?
Ask them to show one slow request traced end to end in a trial account. That single demo tells you more than a feature grid.
Want AI doing the heavy lifting in your marketing?
I build the systems that handle the boring 80 percent, so you get your week back. Done properly, with the human kept in.
Do you make monitoring tools? Tool makers can ask to be considered for a featured place on this list.
My plain advice on New Relic alternatives
Use open standards where you can. If your apps send OpenTelemetry data, switching tools later is a configuration change rather than a rewrite.
And judge each tool on one real incident. The right choice is the one that got you from alert to fix fastest.
Frequently asked questions
What's a good open-source alternative to New Relic?
Several open-source observability tools handle logs, metrics and traces.
Does New Relic have a free tier?
Its plans page lists 100 GB of free data ingest per month and unlimited free basic users.
What's APM?
Application performance monitoring shows how fast your app responds and where it slows down.
What's distributed tracing?
It follows a single request as it travels through different services.
Do I need APM for a small website?
Not always. Uptime checks and error tracking may be enough.
Can I monitor servers and apps in one tool?
Many platforms cover both infrastructure and applications.
What's OpenTelemetry?
An open standard for collecting telemetry, so you can switch tools more easily.
How do I keep data volumes down?
Sample traces, drop noisy logs and set retention to what you need.
Can I self-host monitoring?
Yes. Some open-source tools are built for self-hosting.
How long should a trial last?
A week or two with real traffic is usually enough.
Will switching tools slow my app?
Agents add a little overhead. Test on one service first.
Who should own monitoring?
Ideally the team that builds the app, so they see the impact of changes.
Can one tool monitor websites and apps?
Many platforms cover uptime checks, browser performance and back-end monitoring together.
Do I need a separate uptime checker?
Some APM tools include uptime checks. If not, a simple uptime service fills the gap.
How do I stop alert fatigue?
Alert on symptoms users feel, such as errors and slow pages, rather than every server metric.
