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New Relic is one of the leading application performance monitoring (APM) platforms used by DevOps teams to monitor and optimize the performance of web and mobile applications. It provides detailed metrics on app performance, errors, slowdowns and outages in real-time.
However, New Relic has some limitations:
- It can be relatively expensive for smaller teams
- The default metrics and data provided may not always be enough
- Thresholds need significant tuning
- Modern architecture support can be lacking
So what are the top alternatives available? We compare both paid and free options as substitutes to New Relic‘s offering.
New Relic Alternatives – Growing Market Opportunity
The application performance monitoring and observability market is expanding rapidly as more mission critical business services move online.
ResearchAndMarkets.com predicts the global APM market size to grow from $7.8 billion in 2025 to $14.9 billion by 2027, for a healthy 16.2% CAGR. Driving this demand is the need for always-on digital experiences that perform reliably for customers.
Many organizations also aim to optimize costs by consolidating tooling. This leads them to APM platforms that provide a unified view into end user experience across web apps, mobile apps, microservices and APIs.
Global Application Performance Monitoring Market Size
| Year | Projected Market Size | Growth Rate |
|---|---|---|
| 2022 | $7.8 billion | – |
| 2027 | $14.9 billion | 16.2% CAGR |
Modern buyers want APM solutions that provide automation, faster troubleshooting and integration with existing DevOps toolchains. The top alternatives can cater to these needs.
Key Factors to Consider in a New Relic Alternative
Here are the main criteria to evaluate when choosing a substitute APM platform:
Features – At minimum, provides application metrics (response times, errors etc), service maps, alerting and transaction tracing. Other useful capabilities – user monitoring, custom data sources, environment metrics etc.
Integrations – Ability to connect with related tools including monitoring platforms, ITSMs like ServiceNow and notification channels like Slack.
Ease of use – Intuitive interfaces allowing all user types to leverage, not just experts. Easy configuration of monitoring and alerts enables quick time-to-value.
Infrastructure support – Agents and integrations available for all environments like containers, VMs, serverless etc on-premise and in the cloud.
Pricing – Needs vary based on scale and features required. But more affordable paid plans and free tiers cater to constrained needs.
Performance – Monitoring platform and agents introduce minimal overhead. Ingestion, analysis and alerting also works seamlessly.
We have assessed the top competitors below based on these criteria:
1. Datadog APM
Key Capabilities:
- Distributed tracing
- Database monitoring
- Pre-built dashboards
- Infrastructure correlation
Datadog APM allows for end-to-end tracing of requests down to code level to identify performance issues. Its flexible, affordable pricing scaled per host makes it accessible.
2. Dynatrace
Key Capabilities:
- Automated full stack observability
- Advanced transaction analytics
- Anomaly detection
- User experience scoring
Dynatrace offers an AI-driven approach and precision monitoring without manual configuration needing. Its Smartscape topology mapping simplifies visibility.
3. Cisco AppDynamics
Key Capabilities:
- Code level diagnostics
- Domain isolation views
- Dynamic baselining
- Customer journey map
Cisco AppDynamics is well ranked as an APM solution supporting advanced transaction profiling across complex, distributed applications.
Visit Cisco AppDynamics Website
4. Stackify Retrace
Key Capabilities:
- .NET, Java, Python, PHP etc
- Logging integration
- Deployment tracking
- Customizable dashboards
Stackify Retrace focuses specifically on profiling apps in production – troubleshooting issues and tracking deployments with depth code visibility.
Visit Stackify Retrace Website
5. Splunk On-Call
Key Capabilities:
- Native PagerDuty alternative
- Automates response playbooks
- Alert noise reduction
- Team communication
Splunk On-Call offers collaborative incident management workflows – great integrated option for Splunk powered environments.
6. Mattermost APM
Key Capabilities:
- Kubernetes application monitoring
- Microservices topology visualizer
- OpenTelemetry powered
- Integrated collaboration
Mattermost APM focuses on optimizing performance of cloud native, microservices-based applications – with built-in team chat for streamlined issue resolution.
7. Grafana Tempo
Key Capabilities:
- Distributed tracing datastore
- Latency analysis
- Service topology graphing
- Open source
Grafana Tempo allows assembling traces across systems for analysis. Integrates tightly with other Grafana tools for free, unified observability.
Evaluating Alternatives with Key Decision Criteria
Application Performance Monitoring Competitor Analysis
| Solution | Infrastructure Support | Advanced Analytics | Price Bands | Languages |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| New Relic | Servers, Containers | ML Baselines | $$$$ | Java, .NET, PHP etc |
| Datadog | Broad | Strong | $$-$$$$ | Python, .NET, Java etc |
| Dynatrace | Broad | Very Strong | $$$$ | Java, .NET etc |
| Cisco AppD | Broad | Strong | $$$ | Java, .NET etc |
| Splunk On-Call | Splunk-centric | Medium | $-$$ | N/A |
| Grafana Tempo | Kubernetes, cloud | Weak | Free | Any |
This analysis shows top paid tools like Datadog and Dynatrace match advanced capabilities while catering to diverse infrastructure. More lightweight tools like Splunk On-Call and Grafana offer affordability.
Based on your specific performance monitoring challenges, the above alternatives have potential to fulfill your needs – at the right budget levels.
The Future Lies in Automated Root Cause Identification
In my viewpoint, APM tooling must increasingly leverage machine learning and AI to live up to its promise. The most modern solutions are automating multiple aspects – environment discovery, baseline learning, anomaly detection and causation analysis.
Dynatrace is a prime example, with its Davis AI engine automatically pinpointing root causes without manual setup. This allows stretched engineering teams to stay productivity and proactively address application issues.
Business demand volatile digital services will keep growing. Our APM tools have to get smarter in lockstep to keep complexity shields. Automating observability is no longer a nice-to-have but tablestakes to deliver great customer and employee experiences transparently.