# OpenObserve vs New Relic

> OpenObserve is the top New Relic alternative with unlimited users, no NRQL, 90% lower cost. Open source, OpenTelemetry-native, and self-hostable. Try free.

Source: https://openobserve.ai/newrelic-alternative/
Competitor: New Relic

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Escape the $419/month per-user tax. Open standards. Zero infrastructure complexity. See why teams are switching.

- **140x** Lower storage costs compared to Elasticsearch
- **18,000+** Github Stars
- **9,000+** Companies trust us
- **$0** Per-seat

Teams cut their New Relic bill 70%–90%. [See your ingest-based pricing →](/pricing/)

*Estimate based on typical OpenObserve customer savings versus per-user New Relic pricing.*

- [Request Demo](/demo/)
- [Start Free](https://cloud.openobserve.ai/web/login)

## 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.

## See how OpenObserve replaces New Relic

Get a personalized walkthrough and see how much you'd save moving off New Relic's per-user pricing.

- 30-minute personalized walkthrough
- No credit card required
- See your real migration path from New Relic

## Feature comparison

Modern, full-stack observability

| Feature | New Relic | OpenObserve | Reference Links |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Feature parity: logs, metrics, traces, dashboards, alerts, pipelines | ✓ | ✓ | [Logs](/docs/user-guide/data-exploration/logs/#overview), [Metrics](/docs/user-guide/data-exploration/metrics/), [Traces](/opentelemetry/), [Dashboards](/docs/user-guide/analytics/dashboards/dashboards-in-openobserve/), [Alerts](/docs/user-guide/analytics/alerts/), [Pipelines](/docs/user-guide/data-processing/pipelines/) |
| Frontend Monitoring (RUM) | ✓ | ✓ | [Learn more about Frontend Monitoring (RUM)](/frontend-monitoring/) |
| Query Language | NRQL- proprietary | SQL/PromQL | Used universally with no learning curve |
| Pricing model | Per user + per GB | Ingest-based only | [Pricing](/pricing/) |
| OpenTelemetry Native | Partial | ✓ Full | [Learn more about OpenTelemetry Native](/opentelemetry/) |
| Self-Hosted Option | ✗ | ✓ | [Learn more about Self-Hosted Option](/downloads/) |
| Monthly per-seat cost | Up to $419/user | $0 | [Pricing](/pricing/) |
| Bring Your Own Storage | ✗ | ✓ S3, GCS, Azure, MinIO | [Learn more about Bring Your Own Storage](/docs/administration/maintenance/storage-management/) |

## 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.
> - Wayne Creel, CTO of ONEngine

- [Talk to Our Migration Team](#demo-form)
- [Read Migration Stories](/customer-stories/)

## Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about switching from New Relic to OpenObserve

### How long does it take to migrate away from New Relic?

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.

### Does OpenObserve replace New Relic's APM and distributed tracing?

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.

### How is OpenObserve different from other New Relic alternatives?

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.

### What happens to our New Relic data history after we migrate?

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.

### Is OpenObserve enterprise-ready?

Yes. OpenObserve is SOC 2 Type II certified and ISO 27001 compliant. We serve thousands of deployments, including Fortune 100 enterprises; our largest single customer ingests more than 4 PB of data per day, with individual clusters sustaining over 1 PB/day. Enterprise features include RBAC, SAML/OIDC SSO, sensitive data masking, audit logs, and dedicated support.

### I use NRQL extensively. How hard is the query migration?

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.

### Can I self-host OpenObserve?

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

## OpenObserve: the open-source New Relic alternative

An open-source, OpenTelemetry-native unified observability platform with unlimited users: no per-seat tax. ONEngine cut costs 70%–90% after switching from New Relic. Also evaluating other tools? See how OpenObserve compares to [Datadog](/datadog-alternative/), [Dynatrace](/dynatrace-alternative/), [AppDynamics](/appdynamics-alternative/).

- $0 per-seat pricing, unlimited users
- OpenTelemetry-native: no proprietary agents
- Self-hosted or cloud: your choice