Our take
Pick Datadog if ops / app teams who will stay on Infrastructure Free (up to 5 hosts) while they open a first Trace Explorer list, then buy Infra Pro at $15 / host / month when they need longer retention — and APM at $36 / host / month standalone when they instrument traces. Pick New Relic if app teams who will stay on Free (100 GB ingest, 1 full platform user, unlimited basic users) while they open a first APM
Best for
Datadog Spans you search at a public $
New Relic Web transaction time you chart at $0
Free plan
Datadog No free plan
New Relic $0 · 100 GB data ingest / month. Unlimited basic users. One free full platform user. 500 synthetic checks. No credit card
Lowest paid
Datadog Infrastructure Pro $15
New Relic Standard $10
Next step up
Datadog APM (standalone) $36/mo yearly
New Relic Pro $349
Coding agent
Datadog
New Relic APM Summary
Runs where
Datadog Hosted
New Relic Hosted
Watch out
Datadog $15 is per host, not a seat
New Relic Free is 100 GB + 1 full user
Last checked
Datadog 2026-10-23 · datadoghq.com/pricing
New Relic 2026-10-23 · newrelic.com/pricing
ops / app teams who will stay on Infrastructure Free (up to 5 hosts) while they open a first Trace Explorer list, then buy Infra Pro at $15 / host / month when they need longer retention — and APM at $36 / host / month standalone when they instrument traces.
Read the Datadog pageapp teams who will stay on Free (100 GB ingest, 1 full platform user, unlimited basic users) while they open a first APM Summary, then buy Standard at $10 for the first full user and $99 / additional user (max 5) when they outgrow the 100 GB cap.
Read the New Relic page
