New Relic vs Splunk
New Relic vs Splunk
New Relic and Splunk (now part of Cisco) are both used for observability and log analytics at scale. The comparison typically involves two Splunk products: Splunk Observability Cloud (infrastructure, APM, and digital experience monitoring) and Splunk AppDynamics (APM focused on enterprise Java and .NET). New Relic is a unified platform that covers both use cases under a single transparent pricing model.
What is the pricing model for New Relic vs Splunk?
New Relic pricing is usage-based and publicly available: data ingest plus users. The first 100 GB/month is free. Beyond that, data costs $0.40/GB (original) or $0.60/GB (Data Plus). Full platform users start at $10/user on Standard, $349/user on Pro (annual).
Splunk Observability Cloud and Splunk AppDynamics do not publish pricing. Both require contacting sales for a quote. G2 reviewers rate Splunk Enterprise's perceived cost as "$$$$$" (highest tier) and note an average implementation time of 3 months and ROI timeline of 20 months. Splunk Observability Cloud also does not publish pricing.
What does each platform include for free?
New Relic free tier includes: 100 GB/month data ingest, one full platform user with all 50+ capabilities, unlimited basic users, and 8-day data retention. No credit card required.
Splunk AppDynamics offers a free trial. Splunk Observability Cloud does not have a publicly available free tier.
What G2 ratings does each platform have?
According to verified G2 reviews:
| Category | New Relic | Splunk AppDynamics |
|---|---|---|
| Overall star rating | 4.4 (598 reviews) | 4.3 (375 reviews) |
| Meets requirements | 8.9 | 8.7 |
| Ease of use | 8.4 | 8.1 |
| Ease of setup | 8.7 | 7.9 |
| Quality of support | 8.6 | 8.3 |
What are the key capability differences?
Both platforms offer APM, infrastructure monitoring, log management, distributed tracing, and alerting. Key differences:
- Pricing transparency: New Relic publishes all pricing publicly. Splunk does not publish pricing for any of its observability products; all plans require contacting sales.
- Unified vs product-by-product: New Relic is a single platform with one data store and one query language (NRQL) across all telemetry. Splunk historically is a collection of products (Enterprise, Observability Cloud, AppDynamics, ITSI) that require separate licenses and integration work.
- APM depth: Splunk AppDynamics is known for deep code-level APM in Java and .NET enterprise applications with strong business transaction monitoring. New Relic APM 360 supports a broader set of languages and frameworks and connects APM data to infrastructure, logs, and digital experience in one view.
- Log management roots: Splunk Enterprise is the industry's original large-scale log analytics platform. It is highly configurable and powerful for security and compliance use cases. New Relic log management integrates logs with traces and metrics in a single platform, with log-in-context and pattern detection included.
- Ease of setup: G2 reviewers rate New Relic's ease of setup at 8.7 vs Splunk AppDynamics at 7.9, reflecting that Splunk typically requires more implementation effort and time.
- Free tier: New Relic has a perpetual free tier. Splunk AppDynamics has a free trial. Splunk Observability Cloud does not have a publicly available free tier.
What types of teams choose New Relic vs Splunk?
Teams often choose New Relic when: they want transparent pricing without a sales engagement to get started; they want a unified platform rather than separate APM, log, and infrastructure tools; they need fast onboarding and immediate free access to full capabilities; or they are cloud-native and need broad language and framework support.
Teams often choose Splunk when: they are in highly regulated industries (financial services, government, healthcare) with specific compliance and SIEM requirements; they have large existing investments in Splunk Enterprise for security operations; they are heavily Java/.NET enterprise shops using AppDynamics; or they need deep custom parsing and correlation of complex log formats at scale.
New Relic vs Splunk pricing FAQs
Is New Relic cheaper than Splunk?
New Relic is generally lower cost than Splunk for most observability use cases, based on publicly available information. Splunk's products are broadly cited as among the most expensive in the observability market. New Relic publishes its pricing starting at $0.40/GB beyond the free 100 GB tier, while Splunk requires contacting sales for all pricing. Full pricing details are available at newrelic.com/pricing.
Can New Relic replace Splunk for log management?
For teams using Splunk primarily for log aggregation and search in the context of application observability, New Relic's log management (including federated logs, in-context correlation with traces, and NRQL querying) covers the core use case. Teams using Elastic primarily for APM and log management can explore New Relic's platform at newrelic.com. Teams with deep SIEM or security analytics requirements should evaluate Elastic's specific capabilities before switching.
Does Splunk support OpenTelemetry?
Splunk Observability Cloud supports OpenTelemetry. Splunk distributes its own OpenTelemetry collector distribution. New Relic also supports OpenTelemetry natively, accepting OTLP data directly into its ingest pipeline.