Overview
New Relic was founded in 2008, headquartered in San Francisco, USA. It is a pioneer in Application Performance Monitoring (APM). The New Relic One platform unifies APM, log management, cloud server monitoring, digital experience monitoring (DEM), and alerting, with 1,700+ quickstart integrations. NRQL (New Relic Query Language) enables SQL-like cross-data-source analysis. New Relic serves over 40,000 paid customers globally.
Key Strengths
- 1,700+ Quickstart Integrations: One of the richest integration libraries — from AWS Lambda to MySQL, Redis, and Kafka — all installable in minutes.
- NRQL Cross-Data Analysis: Unique SQL-like query language allows correlating APM traces, logs, infrastructure metrics, and browser data in a single query.
- Digital Experience Monitoring (DEM): Browser Session Replay and page load waterfall charts help pinpoint front-end performance bottlenecks.
- Generous Free Tier: 1 Full-Platform user, 100GB/month log ingest, and 8-day full data retention — ideal for indie developers and startups.
Product Ecosystem
APM
Application performance monitoring and distributed tracing to locate bottlenecks.
Log Management
Log collection, search, and correlation analysis.
Infrastructure Monitoring
Server and cloud resource metric monitoring.
Digital Experience Monitoring (DEM)
Browser session replay and page performance analysis.
NRQL
SQL-like query language for cross-data-source correlation.
Limitations
- Free Tier Constraints: Limited to 1 Full-Platform user; team collaboration requires paid plans. 100GB/month log volume may be insufficient for medium workloads.
- Complex Interface: 30+ modules with deep navigation; new users typically need 1-2 weeks to master NRQL and dashboard configuration.
- Cost at Scale: Per-GB pricing is mid-to-high in the industry. Large data volumes require careful budget planning.
Use Cases
- APM-First Development Teams (★★★★★): Deepest APM capabilities, ideal for teams focused on application performance.
- Data-Driven Ops Teams (★★★★): NRQL enables correlated cross-source analysis, great for SQL-savvy operations teams.
- Startups / Indie Developers (★★★★): Generous free tier for exploring full-stack observability on a budget.
- Large Enterprise Observability (★★★): Comprehensive enterprise features, but cost at scale needs evaluation.
Pricing
| Plan | Price | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Free | Free | 1 Full-Platform user, 100GB/month logs |
| Pro | From $0.55/GB/month | Unlimited users, advanced features, SLA |
Note: New Relic pricing varies by data volume and plan; see the New Relic official website.
FAQ
- What's the difference between free and paid New Relic? Free: 1 Full-Platform user, 100GB/month logs. Paid Pro starts at $0.55/GB/month (ingested data), with unlimited users, advanced features, and SLA; compare in cloud monitoring services comparison.
- NRQL vs PromQL? NRQL uses SQL-like syntax for cross-source correlation; PromQL is purpose-built for Prometheus time-series data. They serve different monitoring paradigms; see Prometheus alert rules design.
- Does New Relic have a Chinese UI? Currently New Relic One is English-only; no Chinese language pack is available; see the monitoring and alerting guide.