Today, having the right monitoring tool as part of your observability stack is a make-or-break matter. Most software companies employ cloud-native architecture, often involving multiple microservices. These intricate systems require application performance monitoring, network performance monitoring, and more to ensure reliability. Two leaders in this space include Datadog and New Relic. At HyperDX, we regularly compare ourselves to tools like these, so we’re offering a breakdown of how each monitoring solution fares.

Core Features

APM (Application Performance Monitoring)

What are Datadog’s APM features?

Datadog’s application performance monitoring capabilities include distributed tracing and customization as its flagship strengths. With its detailed end-to-end visibility, users can track how a specific API call is affecting performance, using latency metrics across services involved to identify which one is contributing the most delay.

One key feature for Datadog is its Service Level Objective (SLO) (opens in a new tab) tracking, where users set custom SLOs that are relevant to their business goals. For example, a team might set an SLO to ensure that 95% of transactions complete within 150ms. Datadog tracks these objectives in real time, helping ensure that performance aligns with their service-level agreements (SLAs).

What are New Relic’s APM features?

New Relic’s APM is designed for speed and simplicity, using auto-instrumentation to automatically detect and monitor application transactions. The benefit here is how quickly teams can get started. Within minutes, users can view real-time traces and error breakdowns without having to manually set anything up.

A benefit for many New Relic users is the New Relic One Platform, which can integrates application performance with other metrics into a single view. If performance issues are detected, users can access correlated data from logs, synthetic tests, and infrastructure without needing to switch between multiple tools. It is important to note that Datadog also offers unified metrics, but New Relic stands out for its minimal configurations.

How do Datadog and New Relic compare in terms of APM functionality?

Both Datadog and New Relic offer unified views of APM data, metrics, and logs. However, Datadog shines in environments where granular control is needed, offering features like SLO tracking and the ability to define custom metrics. On the other hand, New Relic is better suited for teams that prioritize quick visibility and ease of use, with automatic integration of APM data, logs, and infrastructure metrics for fast troubleshooting.

Log Management

How does log management work in Datadog?

Datadog offers manual log collection, where teams can define specific filters, parsing rules, and event types to track. In more complex environments where logs come from multiple containers and microservices, teams can specify which service to collect information from to avoid ingesting irrelevant data.

Additionally, Datadog integrates machine learning-based anomaly detection (opens in a new tab) into its log management ****system. If an API starts returning a higher-than-usual number of 500 status codes, Datadog’s machine learning algorithms can detect the spike and trigger an alert even before a manual threshold is set.

How does log management work in New Relic?

New Relic’s log management is built around simplicity and automation. Logs are collected by the same agent used for APM monitoring, which makes it especially useful when APM detects issues like increased error rates for a specific service. In such cases, New Relic automatically identifies the affected service and surfaces the logs directly correlated to the error codes.

New Relic also has its own query language (NRQL (opens in a new tab)) that allows users to perform custom searches with specific parameters, such as log severity and response times. These queries run in real time, making it possible for teams to detect issues as they occur.

Which tool offers better customization and integration for log management?

Datadog offers advanced customization with features like custom parsing rules and machine learning insights, giving teams greater control over their log management. In contrast, New Relic’s automatic log collection and NRQL (New Relic Query Language) provide a simpler, quicker solution for teams that don’t need as much flexibility.

Infrastructure Monitoring

How does Datadog handle infrastructure monitoring?

Datadog offers real-time infrastructure maps where users can track the health of cloud resources, containerized applications, and on-premise infrastructures in a single, unified view. Teams can zoom in on individual components, monitoring key metrics (such as CPU usage, memory, and network traffic) while also visualizing the interactions between distributed applications and their relevant services.

Companies like Spotify, which rely on a hybrid environment of cloud-based resources and on-prem servers, use Datadog to monitor millions of their active users. While this level of visibility is much needed for large environments, it does come with a steep cost with its per host pricing model which can become expensive and challenging to manage as infrastructure scales.

How does New Relic handle infrastructure monitoring?

New Relic’s infrastructure monitoring is designed primarily for cloud-native environments (not much support for on-premise), with a focus on services like AWS EC2 instances, Azure VMs, and Kubernetes clusters. Just like its APM and logs, it doesn’t require extensive configuration, making it ideal for teams that want to hit the ground running.

New Relic also provides host-level insights, allowing teams to monitor CPU and memory usage for each server in their cloud infrastructure. These details enable quick identification of under-utilized or overburdened resources, helping teams optimize their resource allocation.

What are the differences in infrastructure monitoring capabilities?

Datadog’s real-time interactive maps are effective for complex infrastructures that span both cloud-based and on-premise infrastructures (but comes with a steep cost). New Relic’s infra monitoring is designed for cloud-native and serverless architectures and is ideal for teams looking for quick, simple monitoring.

User Experience

Dashboards and Visualization

What features do Datadog’s dashboards offer?

Datadog’s dashboards are highly customizable, allowing users to create custom widgets and visualizations that highlight the most relevant data for their needs. This flexibility allows teams to build a single, unified dashboard that displays real-time metrics, APM traces, and log data from various services, offering a cross-layer view of their application. For quicker setup, Datadog also offers pre-built templates that can be an easy starting point for teams to further customize as needed.

For example, DevOps teams can design dashboards to simultaneously monitor AWS instances, Kubernetes clusters, and application performance. This makes it easier to pinpoint issues —whether they stem from cloud resources or application services—without having to switch between multiple tools.

What features do New Relic’s dashboards offer?

New Relic also simplifies dashboard creation with pre-built templates, offering users an immediate view to essential metrics like response time, error rates, and throughput across their application. These templates are designed to be a starting analysis, providing only a high level overview of system health.

For more in depth details, teams can use NRQL (New Relic Query Language) to write custom queries. With NRQL, users can dive deeper into microservice-level data or investigate specific user transactions, searching for factors like latency per endpoint, error breakdowns by user segment, or even tracking performance over time for specific regions. This makes NRQL an essential tool for investigating issues that go beyond the surface level.

Does Datadog or New Relic provide better options for dashboards and data visualization?

Both Datadog and New Relic offer pre-built dashboard templates for a quick, easy starting point. Datadog stands out for its ability to integrate various data sources (logs, traces, metrics) into their dashboards. New Relic, on the other hand, uses its dashboards to give a high level overview before requiring NRQL to dive deeper.

Ease of Use

How user-friendly is Datadog?

Datadog’s strengths lie in its ability to customize dashboards, set up complex monitors, and create detailed alerts across different services. However, its wide range of features can be overwhelming for new users, requiring time and effort to fully understand the platform and its monitoring capabilities.

Effective configuration is crucial in the beginning. Datadog isn’t the type of platform where users can rush through the setup process and strong foundational knowledge is essential for making the most of its advanced features.

How user-friendly is New Relic?

New Relic’s strengths lie in its simplicity and intuitive user interface. Once the agent is installed, New Relic automatically collects APM and infrastructure metrics, eliminating the need for manual configurations. The platform’s pre-built dashboards further enhance usability by providing immediate insights into key metrics, making monitoring accessible right away.

This level of intuitiveness makes New Relic particularly appealing to non-technical teams, such as operations or product-focused groups, who can begin monitoring without having expertise in these observability tools.

Which tool is easier for teams to adopt and use effectively?

Teams that are familiar with the intricacies of monitoring tools and want to fine-tune every aspect of the observability stack can benefit from Datadog’s wide range of features. New Relic, on the other hand, is best for teams that need quick insights and a simpler user experience.

Pricing

How is Datadog’s pricing structured?

Datadog’s pricing model is based on a per-host or per-container charge, with costs scaling based on metrics ingested, logs processed, and data stored. To summarize, Datadog’s pricing:

• Charges per host (Infrastructure monitoring, APM): $15-$34 per host per month for infrastructure, $31-$45 per host per month for APM
• Charges per GB of logs ingested and retained: $0.10 per GB for data ingested + $2.50 per million log events for 30d retention
• Additional fees for other advanced features such as machine learning anomaly detection and real-time data processing

How is New Relic’s pricing structured?

New Relic offers a free tier (opens in a new tab) that includes 100GB of data ingestion per month. After this, costs are based on data ingestion volume (measured in GB), user licenses, and product usage. To summarize, New Relic’s pricing:

• Charges per GB of data ingested: $0.35 per GB beyond the free 100GB monthly limit (applies to logs, metrics, and traces)
• Charges per user license: Pricing varies by user type, with core users starting at $49 per month and Full Platform users costing anywhere from $99-$549 per month depending on tier
• Additional fees for premium features such as longer data retention and advanced analytics

How do Datadog and New Relic compare in pricing?

In general, Datadog is likely to be more expensive for larger organizations with complex infrastructure, while New Relic offers a lower cost-entry point, but could get more expensive as data volumes grow or if numerous user licenses are required.

Customer Support and Service

What support options does Datadog offer?

Datadog provides dedicated support for higher-tier plans, offering assistance through a team of experts. For lower tiers, support is more limited, relying on documentation and community forums. Given the complexity of Datadog, especially when configuring advanced features, many teams may need the high-level support that comes with its Enterprise/Business plans.

What support options does New Relic provide?

Similar to Datadog, the level of support for New Relic is tiered based on the subscription plan with higher tiers receiving more personalized assistance. For lower tiers, New Relic offers multiple support channels, including email, chat, and a support portal. Because New Relic is known for its user friendliness, the documentation tends to be more straightforward and easier to navigate.

How do Datadog and New Relic differ in their customer support?

Both companies offer tiered support services, with more personalized assistance available at higher-cost plans. Due to its wide range of features and advanced customization options, Datadog often requires more hands-on support from experts to help teams navigate complex configurations. On the other hand, New Relic’s intuitive user interface makes self-service easier for most users. However, teams that need advanced monitoring or incident management can still benefit from the personalized support offered at higher tiers.

Final Verdict

Below is a quick reference table:

Feature	Datadog	New Relic
APM	Customizable, real-time, SLO tracking	Quick setup, auto-instrumentation
Log Management	Manual setup, machine learning insights	Integrated with APM, NRQL searches
Infrastructure Monitoring	Real-time maps, cloud & on-prem support	Cloud-native, easy setup
Dashboards & Visualization	Customizable, integrates multiple data sources	Pre-configured, NRQL for deeper insights
Ease of Use	Steep learning curve, high customization	Intuitive, no configurations needed
Pricing	Per-host/container, scales with data	Free tier (100GB), pay-per-use, licensing fees
Customer Support	Dedicated support at higher tiers, more complex documentation	Higher tier support, self-service friendly

Datadog’s key features—extensive customization and comprehensive monitoring capabilities—make it best for big, intricate architectures. In contrast, New Relic shines in fast deployment, ease of use, and simplicity.

If your team is smaller, primarily needs application performance monitoring, or wants to track user behavior with minimal configuration, New Relic is a great choice to get started quickly and without hassle. However, for teams managing large-scale services, Datadog’s advanced analytics and wide range of features may justify the additional effort and investment.

We offer a third solution to Datadog and New Relic: HyperDX. HyperDX provides a robust features that is competitive with Datadog and New Relic, but also scales significantly better on costs. Additionally, HyperDX has stronger support for OpenTelemetry and is also open-source—making it an ideal candidate for teams that prefer transparency and OSS. When making your final decision, consider how each platform aligns with your performance requirements, budget constraints, and the type of time monitoring you need across your systems.