Datadog vs New Relic: per-host products or ingest-and-user pricing
Datadog and New Relic compared on coverage, OpenTelemetry, data regions, free tiers and how each bills, with when to choose which platform.
Choose Datadog if…
- You prefer paying per host and per product, and want to add products (RUM, replay, synthetics) only where needed
- You need UK, Australian or US-government data locations
- Many people need access but your host count is stable, since infrastructure and APM are not priced per user
Choose New Relic if…
- You want everything available under one data-ingest bill, with unlimited hosts and many capabilities included
- A free start matters: 100 GB a month of ingest, one full platform user and unlimited basic users
- Few people need full platform access, or the compute-based model without user fees fits better
| Product | APM | Distributed tracing | Metrics | Logs | Error tracking | Real user monitoring | Session replay | Infrastructure monitoring | Continuous profiling | Synthetic / uptime checks | OpenTelemetry | Runs as | Data regions | Free option | Pricing model | Compliance on vendor page |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DatadogDatadogsource · 8 Nov 2026 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Native OTLP ingest | SaaS | US, EU, UK, APACNine sites incl. EU1 (Germany), UK1, AP1 (Japan), AP2 (Australia) and two US government sites | Free tier | per host, per GB ingested, per event, per session, per test run | SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001, HIPAA, FedRAMP, PCI DSS |
| New RelicNew Relicsource · 8 Nov 2026 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Not stated | Yes | Native OTLP ingest | SaaS | US, EU, APACUS (default), EU and Japan data-centre regions | Free tier | per GB ingested, per user, usage credits | Not confirmed in sources checked |
yes · partial or add-on · no · – not stated in the sources we checked. Compliance lists only reports named on the vendor's own trust or security page; a blank does not mean the vendor lacks them. From each vendor's own documentation on the date shown; prices are not shown here, only how each product bills.
Datadog and New Relic both cover APM, infrastructure, logs, browser monitoring, session replay, error tracking and synthetics, and both accept OpenTelemetry natively. The real difference is the billing model, which decides how your cost grows.
Where they differ
| Datadog | New Relic | |
|---|---|---|
| How you pay | Separate products: per host (infrastructure, APM, profiler), per GB and per event for logs, per session for replay | Per GB ingested across telemetry plus per user type (basic, core, full platform), or a compute-based model (CCUs) with no user fees |
| Hosts | Billed per host | “Unlimited hosts at no additional cost” |
| Free way in | Infrastructure free tier, up to 5 hosts | Perpetual free tier: 100 GB/month, one full user |
| OpenTelemetry | Agent with embedded Collector, your own Collector, or agentless OTLP | Native OTLP endpoints in US and EU |
| Data regions | US, EU (Germany), UK, Japan, Australia, US government | US, EU, Japan |
How cost behaves
- Datadog. Cost tracks host count and the products you switch on, so a growing fleet raises it, while adding users does not.
- New Relic. Cost tracks data volume and the number of full platform users. Many hosts sending modest data with a small team of power users tends to suit it; a large team needing full access may not.
Model your own host count, data volume and number of users before deciding. List prices alone do not settle it.
Other platforms are compared in the observability capability matrix. If APM is your main need, see the best APM tools.
Vendor facts
Datadog
Full-stack SaaS observability: separately billed products for infrastructure, APM, logs, RUM, session replay, error tracking, synthetics and profiling.
- OpenTelemetry
- Native OTLP ingest: OTLP via the Datadog Agent (with embedded DDOT Collector), via your own OTel Collector, or direct agentless OTLP ingestion
- Runs as
- saas
- Free option
- Free tier: Free tier for infrastructure: up to 5 hosts with 1-day metric retention
- Bills
- per host, per GB ingested, per event, per session, per test run (Infrastructure, APM and profiler per host; logs per GB ingested plus per million indexed events; replay per 1,000 sessions; errors by volume)
- Compliance
- SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001, HIPAA, FedRAMP, PCI DSS
Verified 8 Nov 2026 · Datadog pricing, Datadog docs: OpenTelemetry, Datadog docs: sites, Datadog Trust Center, OpenTelemetry vendor registry (frozen list)
New Relic
Full-stack SaaS observability priced mainly on data ingest and user type, with APM, infrastructure, logs, browser and mobile monitoring, session replay, errors inbox and synthetics.
- OpenTelemetry
- Native OTLP ingest: Native OTLP endpoints in US and EU (otlp.nr-data.net, otlp.eu01.nr-data.net)
- Runs as
- saas
- Free option
- Free tier: Perpetual free tier with 100 GB/month data ingest, one full platform user, unlimited basic users
- Bills
- per GB ingested, per user, usage credits (Per GB ingested plus per user type; alternative compute-based model (CCUs) without user fees)
- Compliance
- Not confirmed in sources checked
Verified 8 Nov 2026 · New Relic pricing, New Relic docs: OTLP endpoint, New Relic docs: data centers, OpenTelemetry vendor registry (frozen list)
Sources
- Datadog pricing, checked 8 Nov 2026
- Datadog docs: OpenTelemetry, checked 8 Nov 2026
- Datadog docs: sites, checked 8 Nov 2026
- New Relic pricing, checked 8 Nov 2026
- New Relic docs: OTLP, checked 8 Nov 2026
- New Relic docs: data centers, checked 8 Nov 2026
Matrix rows carry their own source and verification date. This page is revisited when: either vendor changes billing dimensions (hosts, GB ingested, user types, compute units), free tier, OTLP support, regions or product scope