Apache SkyWalking vs New Relic
On the evidence we track, Apache SkyWalking leads this comparison with a composite score of 53/100. Scores are only directly comparable because these tools share a category; the full breakdown and every source is below.
Capabilities
Feature-by-feature on the axes that matter for apm tools. “-” means undocumented, not absent.
What each one is
The product in its own terms, so the numbers below have context.
Apache SkyWalking
LeaderAn open-source system for monitoring and analyzing distributed applications with comprehensive tracing, service topology visualization, and multi-signal observability for microservices and AI workloads.
New Relic
End-to-end application performance monitoring and full-stack observability platform with automatic instrumentation, distributed tracing, and intelligent recommendations.
Pricing
List pricing as published by each vendor, with the date we read it. Always verify at the source before you buy.
New Relic
From free tier with 100 GB/month. Metered data at $0.40/GB ingest. Core users $49/month, full platform users $349-$418.80/month.
- FreeFree
- Access to 50+ capabilities
- Automatic logs obfuscation
- No credit card required
- Standard$10 first full platform user, $99 per additional (max 5), $49/core user, $0.40/GB data beyond 100 GB
- Ticketed support
- 2 business days support response SLA
- SAML single sign-on
- Unlimited basic users
- Pro$349/user/year or $418.80/user/month, $49/core user, $0.40/GB data
- Unlimited full platform users
- 2-hour critical initial support response SLA
- Data Plus eligibility
- Extended data retention
- Advanced admin capabilities
- EnterpriseContact sales
- Everything in Pro
- FedRAMP Moderate and HIPAA eligibility
- Priority ticket routing
- 1-hour critical initial support response SLA
- 24/7 dedicated support
- +1 more
Platform & deployment
Where each product runs and how it can be hosted. A dash means undocumented, not unsupported.
Integrations
What each product connects to. Counts come from the vendor's own integration directory where one exists.
- Kubernetes
Apache SkyWalking
Leader- Apache APISIX
- Grafana
- OpenTelemetry Collector
- Amazon Bedrock
- OpenAI
- WeChat Mini Program
- Alipay Mini Program
- Kafka
- MySQL
- PostgreSQL
- Redis
- Envoy
- DeepSeek
- Claude Sonnet
- Zipkin
- OpenTelemetry
- Prometheus
- Zabbix
- Fluentd
- Flink
- Kong
- Apache RocketMQ
- Apache ActiveMQ
- Pulsar
- +8 more
New Relic
- AWS ECS
- Microsoft Azure
- Docker
Apache SkyWalking or New Relic: which one depends on you
A composite score cannot know your constraints. Describe them and both get re-weighted against what you actually need, with the evidence behind every position.
Free to run, no account needed to start. How the evaluation works
Comparison generated from independently-sourced facts. Every value links to its source and retrieval date. See the method.