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New Relic vs Datadog(2026)

New Relic is better for teams that need generous free tier (100gb/month). Datadog is the stronger choice if all-in-one observability. New Relic is freemium (from $0 (100GB free data/month)) and Datadog is paid (from $15/host/month).

Full feature breakdown, pricing details, and pros & cons below.

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New Relic logo

New Relic

freemium

New Relic is an observability platform offering APM, infrastructure monitoring, logs, and synthetic tests.

Starting at $0 (100GB free data/month)

Visit New Relic
Datadog logo

Datadog

paid

Datadog is an observability platform with infrastructure monitoring, APM, logs, and security.

Starting at $15/host/month

Visit Datadog

How Do New Relic and Datadog Compare on Features?

FeatureNew RelicDatadog
Pricing modelfreemiumpaid
Starting price$0 (100GB free data/month)$15/host/month
APM
Infrastructure monitoring
Log management
Distributed tracing
Browser monitoring
Synthetic monitoring
Security
Dashboards

New Relic Pros and Cons vs Datadog

N

New Relic

+Generous free tier (100GB/month)
+Full-stack observability
+Good query language (NRQL)
+Mobile monitoring
Can be overwhelming
Pricing based on data ingest (unpredictable)
UI complexity
D

Datadog

+All-in-one observability
+Excellent dashboards
+Deep integrations (700+)
+Enterprise-grade
Very expensive
Complex pricing
Overkill for small teams

Should You Use New Relic or Datadog?

Choose New Relic if…

  • Generous free tier (100GB/month)
  • Full-stack observability
  • Good query language (NRQL)

Choose Datadog if…

  • All-in-one observability
  • Excellent dashboards
  • Deep integrations (700+)

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