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It's a split decision.
Choose Dynatrace if you want usage-priced observability across applications, infrastructure, security and user experience, and can plan around an annual platform commitment. Choose New Relic if a 100 GB monthly free tier, OpenTelemetry references and clear per-user plan prices better fit your evaluation or rollout. Neither homepage specifies API styles, SDKs, supported languages or self-hosting, so verify those requirements with the vendor before committing to an integration or deployment.
01Side by side
| Dynatrace | New Relic | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Usage-based; minimum annual platform commitment | Per-user plans plus ingest charges |
| Free tier | No free plan; 15-day free trial | 100 GB ingest monthly; one full-platform user |
| Integrations | Clouds and technologies; specifics not listed | OpenTelemetry, Kubernetes, clouds, LLMs, agents, microservices |
| Platforms | Web | Web |
| Scaling limits | Unlimited seats; usage beyond commitment billed monthly | Standard caps full-platform users at five; Pro is unlimited |
| Data retention | Traces: 10 days included; extendable to 10 years | Free plan: at least eight days |
| Support response | Response commitments not published | Standard: two business days; Pro: two hours for critical issues |
| Monitoring coverage | Applications, infrastructure, security, digital experience, logs | Applications, infrastructure, security, logs, digital experience, AI |
Dynatrace Choose Dynatrace if
- Choose Dynatrace if you need broad application, infrastructure and security observability.
- Choose Dynatrace if usage-based pricing suits your telemetry and workload.
- Choose Dynatrace if trace retention beyond 10 days matters.
New Relic Choose New Relic if
- Choose New Relic if you want to start with 100 GB monthly ingest free.
- Choose New Relic if your team relies on OpenTelemetry.
- Choose New Relic if per-user prices and support SLAs aid planning.
02Pricing at real usage
New Relic has a free plan with 100 GB of monthly ingest, one full-platform user, unlimited basic users, 500 synthetic checks and at least eight days of retention. Standard starts at $10 monthly for the first full-platform user, then $99 per additional user, capped at five; ingest beyond 100 GB costs $0.40/GB. Pro lists $349 per user monthly with an annual commitment or $418.80 month to month.
Dynatrace has no free plan, but offers a 15-day trial. Published monthly prices include $7 per host for Foundation & Discovery, $29 per host for Infrastructure Monitoring and $58 per 8 GiB host for Full-Stack Monitoring. Telemetry and other capabilities add usage charges. Dynatrace requires a minimum annual platform commitment; the amount is not published. Estimate costs from expected ingest, seats, hosts and retention.
03API, SDKs and integration
New Relic's homepage names OpenTelemetry, Kubernetes, cloud environments, LLMs, agents and microservices. That gives developers useful signals about the ecosystems it targets, but not a full integration specification. Dynatrace says it integrates with the clouds and technologies customers rely on; its homepage does not enumerate those integrations.
Neither homepage specifies API styles, SDK packages, supported programming languages, CLI commands or documentation coverage. Dynatrace promotes AI Observability, distributed tracing, application profiling and log analytics; New Relic highlights APM, in-place log queries, AI monitoring and automated remediation. Those feature descriptions do not establish the exact instrumentation path or API behavior. Before choosing, ask both vendors for the language-specific setup guides, API references, authentication details, rate limits and supported OpenTelemetry workflows that match your services. Verify how each handles custom instrumentation and exporting telemetry into other tools.
04Open source, self-hosting and lock-in
Neither vendor publishes an open-source licence or self-hosting option on its homepage. Treat both as vendor platforms unless sales or technical documentation confirms a deployment model that fits your requirements. New Relic's OpenTelemetry reference is a sign of support for an open instrumentation standard, but it does not establish that the platform itself is open source or that all data can be moved freely.
The vendors do not specify export formats, bulk export paths or migration tooling in their homepage descriptions. Before adopting either platform, ask how to export raw telemetry, dashboards, alert rules and service metadata, and whether export incurs charges or limits. Instrumentation standards can reduce dependence on proprietary agents, but dashboards, queries, retention policies and alert workflows may still need conversion when changing platforms.
Questions people ask
What are the key differences between New Relic and Dynatrace?
Dynatrace prices mainly by monitored usage and requires a minimum annual platform commitment. New Relic offers a 100 GB monthly free tier and lists per-user plans with ingest charges. New Relic names OpenTelemetry among its ecosystem references; Dynatrace describes broad observability across applications, infrastructure, security and digital experience.
Which is cheaper, Dynatrace or New Relic?
It depends on telemetry volume, hosts, retention and user count. New Relic starts with free monthly ingest, then charges for additional data and users. Dynatrace publishes per-host and usage-based rates but requires an annual platform commitment. Model your expected usage against both pricing structures before comparing totals.
What are the disadvantages of Dynatrace?
Dynatrace requires a minimum annual platform commitment, and its amount is not published. Its usage-based pricing can require estimates across hosts, telemetry, retention and features. The homepage also does not enumerate specific integrations or API, SDK and language details, so teams should confirm implementation requirements before committing.
Can you self-host Dynatrace or New Relic?
Neither vendor's homepage states a self-hosting option. Ask each vendor about deployment choices, data residency and which components run in your environment. Also confirm export formats and migration paths if you need to move telemetry, dashboards, alerts or metadata to another system later.