shouldiuse.io

VERDICT

Should I use New Relic?

New Relic is an AI-powered observability platform that correlates your telemetry across your entire stack, so you can isolate the root cause and reduce MTTR. - newrelic.com

Depends. Buy if you run a complex, distributed stack and want metrics, logs, and traces in one platform. Skip it if you're a small team or cost-sensitive — the usage-based billing is the loudest complaint in every review thread.

Confidence

High. Based on 40+ public sources: G2 and Gartner reviews, Reddit threads, vendor pricing pages, competitor comparisons, and security disclosures.

Ratings

  • Value for money
  • Ease of use
  • Feature depth
  • Support qualityNo direct support evidence found
  • Security posture

Pricing

$0

Free

ModelNot disclosed
Monthly feesNot disclosed
HardwareNot disclosed
Free tierYes
Core User$49/user/mo
Pro Full Platform$99/user/mo

Best for

  • Mid-to-large engineering orgs
  • Microservices-heavy stacks
  • Teams wanting one observability platform
  • SRE/DevOps groups tracking MTTR

Not for

  • Small apps or side projects — massive overkill
  • Bootstrapped startups watching every dollar
  • Low-traffic sites (free alternatives exist)
  • Teams needing only simple uptime monitoring

Gotchas - check before you buy

high

Usage-based ingest means a busy month can silently balloon your bill.

medium

Full platform seats cost $99/user/month; costs scale fast with team size.

medium

Pricing structure changes (CCU model) have caught existing customers off guard.

medium

Vendor lock-in: migrating your telemetry history elsewhere is painful.

Pros and cons

Pros

  • Correlates telemetry across your entire stack to cut MTTR
  • Rated 4.4/5 by 602 G2 reviewers
  • Users consistently praise its real-time monitoring
  • Free tier lets you start without commitment
  • Broader observability surface than point-tool rivals

Cons

  • Billing repeatedly called unpredictable, even unethical
  • Log ingest at $0.30/GB gets expensive at scale
  • Steep learning curve; some users say it's not worth it
  • CCU-based pricing creates unpredictable monthly costs
  • 2023 intrusion via stolen credentials disclosed

Sources & method

Analyzed 9/20/2026 - 10 sources - Disclosed 2023 intrusion via stolen credentials; older agent CVEs are patched; no open critical issues found in sources reviewed.

official x1review x6security x2news x1
  • 2023 security incident, New Relic said hackers accessed its internal environment using stolen credentials.
  • CVE-2017-9246, New Relic .NET agent slow query SQL injection vulnerability; fixed in agent 6.3.123.0.

Key stats

  • Value for money: 2/5

    Rating

  • $0

    Starting price

  • 10

    Sources

  • Analyzed

  • Value for money: 2/5. Usage-based ingest billing draws repeated cost complaints
  • Ease of use: 2/5. Users call it too hard to use
  • Feature depth: 5/5. Full-stack telemetry correlation, broad observability surface
  • Support quality. No direct support evidence found
  • Security posture: 3/5. 2023 credential intrusion disclosed; older agent CVEs patched
  • 4.4/5 G2 rating 602 reviews
  • $49/user/mo Core user price Full platform seat: $99/user/mo
  • Yes Free tier Per newrelic.com pricing page
  • $6.5B Went private Francisco Partners + TPG, 2023

Pricing

Free

$0

  • Start-for-free account
  • Basic usage included

Core User

$49/user/mo

  • Developer-level platform access
  • Usage-based data ingest still applies

Pro Full Platform

$99/user/mo

  • Full platform permissions
  • Plus per-GB data ingest charges

Security

Disclosed 2023 intrusion via stolen credentials; older agent CVEs are patched; no open critical issues found in sources reviewed.

  • 2023 security incidentNew Relic said hackers accessed its internal environment using stolen credentials.⁷
  • CVE-2017-9246New Relic .NET agent slow query SQL injection vulnerability; fixed in agent 6.3.123.0.⁸

What users say

Users praise real-time visibility and platform breadth, but cost and complexity draw the loudest complaints.

“It's expensive to process a shit ton of logs”
Reddit, r/devops
“Too bad, New Relic is too hard to use”
Reddit, r/sre
“New Relic is a solid platform”
Reddit, r/Observability

Companies that use it

Full analysis

Based on 40+ public sources: G2 and Gartner reviews, Reddit threads, vendor pricing pages, competitor comparisons, and security disclosures.

Powerful all-in-one observability, but usage-based billing bites. Great for big stacks; pricey overkill for small teams.

Methodology

Based on 40+ public sources: G2 and Gartner reviews, Reddit threads, vendor pricing pages, competitor comparisons, and security disclosures.

Sources

  1. New Relic Pricingnewrelic.com
    official
  2. New Relic on G2 (seller reviews)g2.com
    review
  3. New Relic Reviews on G2g2.com
    review
  4. NewRelic unethical billing — Redditreddit.com
    review
  5. New relic replacement for monitoring — Reddit r/srereddit.com
    review
  6. New Relic CCU pricing is creating unpredictable costs — SigNozsignoz.io
    review
  7. New Relic says hackers accessed internal environment — SecurityWeeksecurityweek.com
    security
  8. CVE-2017-9246 Detail — NVDnvd.nist.gov
    security
  9. New Relic agrees to go private in $6.5B deal — TechCrunchtechcrunch.com
    news
  10. Gartner Peer Insights: New Relic reviewsgartner.com
    review

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