OpenObserve vs New Relic
Escape the $419/month per-user tax. Open standards. Zero infrastructure complexity. See why teams are switching.
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Why teams switch from New Relic
The many reasons that teams are making the switch
No per-user pricing
New Relic charges up to $419/user/month. OpenObserve is ingest-based, this means $0 for your entire team.
SQL instead of NRQL
Stop learning proprietary languages like NRQL. OpenObserve uses standard SQL and PromQL.
No vendor lock-in
OTel-native from day one. No proprietary agents to install or rip out. Your data stays in open Apache Parquet format.
Self-host or cloud, your choice
Deploy a single binary or HA Kubernetes cluster in minutes. Never be forced into a SaaS-only model again.
Bring your own storage
Use S3, GCS, Azure Blob, or MinIO. You keep full data sovereignty; New Relic doesn't own your residency.
No agent overhead
Skip the CPU/memory overhead of proprietary APM agents. Use the lightweight OTel Collector for vendor-neutral observability.
Feature comparison
Modern, full-stack observability
| Feature | New Relic | OpenObserve | Reference Links |
|---|---|---|---|
| Logs | ✓ | ✓ | Real-time analytics without traditional indexing overhead |
| Metrics | ✓ | ✓ | Full Prometheus compatibility |
| Traces / APM | ✓ | ✓ | First-class OpenTelemetry support |
| Dashboards | ✓ | ✓ | Prebuilt Dashboards, UI Builder, Custom Mode |
| Alerts | ✓ | ✓ | SQL/ PromQL based alerting |
| Frontend Monitoring (RUM) | ✓ | ✓ | Learn more |
| Pipelines / Data transforms | ✓ | ✓ | Learn more |
| Query Language | NRQL- proprietary | SQL/PromQL | Used universally with no learning curve |
| Pricing model | Per user + per GB | Ingest-based only | Pricing |
| OpenTelemetry Native | Partial | ✓ Full | Learn more |
| Self-Hosted Option | ✗ | ✓ | Learn more |
| Monthly per-seat cost | Up to $419/user | $0 | Pricing |
| Bring Your Own Storage | ✗ | ✓ S3, GCS, Azure, MinIO | Learn more |
Migrating from New Relic
For organizations considering migration, a well-planned strategy is essential for success.
Point your collectors to OpenObserve
If you're already using the OpenTelemetry Collector, update the exporter endpoint to OpenObserve. Zero re-instrumentation required. Still on New Relic agents? Swap to the OTel Collector your application code stays untouched. Send telemetry to New Relic and OpenObserve simultaneously while you validate parity.
Recreate dashboards and translate alerts
Convert your NRQL queries to SQL using our migration guides. Rebuild critical dashboards in OpenObserve's modern UI. Our team can help accelerate the process for complex environments.
Complete cutover and optimize costs
Gradually shift production workloads from NewRelic to OpenObserve, starting with non-critical services. Monitor performance and address issues in real-time. Our team can help accelerate this process.
"OpenObserve has proven to be a reliable and cost-effective solution built to address real-world challenges."
Frequently Asked Questions
Common questions about switching from New Relic to OpenObserve
Most teams complete migration in days to a few weeks, not months. The timeline depends on your environment complexity and how many custom dashboards and alerts need to be recreated. Teams already on OpenTelemetry can often start receiving data in OpenObserve within hours.
Yes. OpenObserve provides first-class distributed tracing via OpenTelemetry, including service maps, span-level drill-down, latency percentiles, and error tracking. For the core APM use cases that cover 90%+ of teams' needs, OpenObserve is a full replacement. Some highly specialized New Relic features (e.g. browser agent proprietary extensions, Synthetics) may require additional tooling.
OpenObserve stands out from other New Relic alternatives by being fully open-source, vendor-neutral, and cost-predictable. You get logs, metrics, and traces in one platform, built on open standards (OpenTelemetry), without proprietary lock-in or surprise pricing.
Your historical data stays in New Relic as long as your account and retention period are active, it doesn’t move automatically. If you want that history in OpenObserve, you can export it from New Relic and re-ingest it; otherwise, you typically keep New Relic read-only during the transition.
Yes. OpenObserve is SOC 2 Type II certified and ISO 27001 compliant. We process over 2 PB of data daily across thousands of deployments, including Fortune 100 enterprises. Enterprise features include RBAC, SAML/OIDC SSO, sensitive data masking, audit logs, and dedicated support.
NRQL and SQL share many concepts - SELECT, WHERE, FACET maps to GROUP BY, SINCE/UNTIL map to time filters. Our migration guides cover the most common NRQL patterns and their SQL equivalents. For most standard dashboards and alerts, the conversion is straightforward. For complex NRQL functions, our team can help directly. You'll also gain the ability to run ad-hoc SQL queries that NRQL's grammar doesn't support.
Absolutely and it's one of the biggest differentiators versus New Relic, which is SaaS-only. OpenObserve's open-source edition (AGPL-3.0) runs on a single binary for small teams or a HA Kubernetes cluster via Helm for production workloads. Your data lives on your own object storage (S3, GCS, Azure Blob, or MinIO), giving you full sovereignty and compliance control.
Ready to See the Difference?
Get a personalized demo based on your current New Relic usage