New Relic is a comprehensive Application Performance Monitoring (APM) platform with pre-built dashboards and AI-driven insights, while Elasticsearch is a powerful search and analytics engine requiring custom configuration. New Relic excels for full-stack observability; Elasticsearch is better for log and data search use cases.
New Relic vs Elasticsearch — Side-by-side comparison on A Versus B
SaaS-based observability platform with full-stack APM, infrastructure monitoring, and AI-powered insights.
Open-source distributed search and analytics engine for logs and data indexing
Primary Use Case. Setup Complexity. Monthly Pricing (Small Team). Data Retention (Default). AI/ML Insights. Learning Curve for IT Teams. Integration Breadth
Choose New Relic if you need fast time-to-value, pre-built dashboards, and AI-powered insights for application performance monitoring across distributed systems. Choose Elasticsearch if you need a cost-effective, customizable search and analytics engine with unlimited data retention and don't mind managing your own infrastructure and configuration.
New Relic: Limited trial only | Elasticsearch: N/A
New Relic: 25+ languages | Elasticsearch: N/A
New Relic: Native (servers, containers, Kubernetes) | Elasticsearch: N/A
New Relic: $1,200+ (Enterprise tier) | Elasticsearch: N/A
New Relic: 45-60 minutes | Elasticsearch: N/A
New Relic: Integrated with 100+ data sources | Elasticsearch: N/A
New Relic: Advanced profiling and error intelligence | Elasticsearch: N/A
New Relic: $0.30 per GB ingested | Elasticsearch: N/A
New Relic: 13 months | Elasticsearch: N/A
New Relic: 12+ regions | Elasticsearch: N/A
New Relic: Solid core capabilities | Elasticsearch: N/A
New Relic: More intuitive, faster onboarding | Elasticsearch: N/A
New Relic: Good with cloud-native focus | Elasticsearch: N/A
New Relic: 40+ including Java, Python, Node.js, Go, Ruby | Elasticsearch: 45+ via Logstash and Beats
New Relic: Yes (native) | Elasticsearch: N/A
New Relic: 15-30 minutes | Elasticsearch: 40-80 (self-hosted)
New Relic: Multi-tenant SaaS limit (typically 50-500TB per org) | Elasticsearch: Petabyte-scale (1000+ TB)
New Relic: 3 (NRQL - SQL-like, intuitive) | Elasticsearch: 7 (Lucene/DSL - steep learning curve)
New Relic: SaaS only (cloud-hosted) | Elasticsearch: Self-hosted, SaaS (Elastic Cloud), or Kubernetes
New Relic: 3-7 days | Elasticsearch: 30-90 days
New Relic: $3,000-5,000 | Elasticsearch: N/A
New Relic: 2-4 weeks | Elasticsearch: 6-12 weeks
New Relic: 700+ | Elasticsearch: ~300 integrations
New Relic: Method-level profiling | Elasticsearch: N/A
New Relic: Rule-based thresholds | Elasticsearch: N/A
New Relic: 35-45% reduction | Elasticsearch: N/A
Monthly Platform Cost (100GB/month ingestion)
New Relic: $3,000-$9,900 | Elasticsearch: N/A
New Relic: 10+ languages | Elasticsearch: N/A
Mean Time to Resolution (MTTR) Improvement
New Relic: 30-40% faster (manual investigation) | Elasticsearch: Depends on manual investigation
Setup Time for Multi-Service Environment
New Relic: 7-14 days (manual per service) | Elasticsearch: N/A
New Relic: 14 days unlimited | Elasticsearch: N/A
New Relic: Supported via agents, requires configuration | Elasticsearch: N/A
New Relic: 4.6 stars (1,800+ reviews) | Elasticsearch: N/A
New Relic: $500-$800 typical (based on ~1-2 GB/day ingestion) | Elasticsearch: N/A
New Relic: ~700 integrations (includes agents, APIs, partners) | Elasticsearch: N/A
New Relic: 900+ with automatic instrumentation | Elasticsearch: N/A
New Relic: 1-2 hours (wizard-based, automatic) | Elasticsearch: N/A
New Relic: Cloud-only SaaS (no self-hosted option) | Elasticsearch: N/A
New Relic: 24/7 with 1-4 hour response SLA depending on tier | Elasticsearch: N/A
New Relic: 30 days (logs), 365 days (metrics) | Elasticsearch: N/A
New Relic: Full team access included; per-user pricing optional | Elasticsearch: N/A
New Relic: 52 minutes | Elasticsearch: N/A
New Relic: 600+ integrations | Elasticsearch: 2000+
New Relic: Advanced ML-based detection | Elasticsearch: N/A
New Relic: 16,000+ customers | Elasticsearch: N/A
New Relic: 600 calls/minute | Elasticsearch: N/A
New Relic: Transaction tracing, error stack traces | Elasticsearch: N/A
New Relic: Native (full instrumentation out-of-box) | Elasticsearch: N/A
New Relic: 4.6 stars (2,400+ reviews) | Elasticsearch: N/A
New Relic: 100 GB ingestion/month | Elasticsearch: N/A
New Relic: $99/month | Elasticsearch: N/A
New Relic: 8 seconds | Elasticsearch: N/A
New Relic: 1 day | Elasticsearch: 30+ days (self-hosted)
New Relic: 3-4 days | Elasticsearch: N/A
New Relic: 20+ languages | Elasticsearch: Unlimited (via client libraries)
New Relic: Advanced cluster intelligence with pod diagnostics | Elasticsearch: N/A
New Relic: 13 days (metrics) / 8 days (events) | Elasticsearch: Unlimited (configurable)
New Relic: 8+ languages | Elasticsearch: N/A
New Relic: Manual configuration required | Elasticsearch: N/A
New Relic: 3-5 days | Elasticsearch: N/A
New Relic: Available with premium add-on | Elasticsearch: N/A
Average Customer Satisfaction (G2 Rating)
New Relic: 4.3/5.0 (2,100+ reviews) | Elasticsearch: N/A
New Relic: 600+ | Elasticsearch: 1000+ plugins/integrations
New Relic: Enterprise-grade | Elasticsearch: N/A
New Relic: 75% noise reduction | Elasticsearch: N/A
New Relic: $599-$999 | Elasticsearch: $0 (self-hosted) / $884 (cloud)
New Relic: 8 days | Elasticsearch: Unlimited (user-configured)
New Relic: 4-8 hours for basic APM | Elasticsearch: 40-80 hours for production cluster
New Relic: Built-in with Proactive Detection | Elasticsearch: Requires ML plugins or third-party tools
New Relic: NRQL (natural language-like, easier to learn) | Elasticsearch: Query DSL (complex, steep learning curve)
New Relic: $99 (Standard tier minimum) | Elasticsearch: N/A
New Relic: 600+ integrations | Elasticsearch: N/A
New Relic: 10+ (auto-instrumented) | Elasticsearch: N/A
New Relic: Pre-built templates with limited custom visualization options | Elasticsearch: N/A
New Relic: 1 option (SaaS cloud-only) | Elasticsearch: N/A
New Relic: Advanced ML-powered anomaly detection and root cause analysis | Elasticsearch: N/A
New Relic: ~5k stars | Elasticsearch: N/A
New Relic: N/A | Elasticsearch: $0 (self-hosted)
New Relic: N/A | Elasticsearch: $0 (unlimited after infrastructure cost)
New Relic: N/A | Elasticsearch: 50-200ms
New Relic: N/A | Elasticsearch: 0 (requires custom hardening)
New Relic: N/A | Elasticsearch: 3 (anomaly detection, forecasting, outlier detection)
New Relic: N/A | Elasticsearch: Unlimited (enterprise only)
New Relic: N/A | Elasticsearch: 12-48 (community forums)
New Relic: N/A | Elasticsearch: 100-500ms
New Relic: N/A | Elasticsearch: 1,000+ (tested to 10,000 with advanced tuning)
New Relic: N/A | Elasticsearch: Native (analyzers, relevance tuning, fuzzy matching)
New Relic: N/A | Elasticsearch: 1-3 days (schemaless indexing)
New Relic: N/A | Elasticsearch: SQL via plugin (Elastic SQL), primary is Query DSL
New Relic: N/A | Elasticsearch: 32-64GB for equivalent throughput
New Relic: N/A | Elasticsearch: $0-$10,000 (self-hosted) or $20,000-$60,000 (managed)
New Relic: N/A | Elasticsearch: 45-120 (manual investigation required)
New Relic: N/A | Elasticsearch: 1000+ via community/Beats
New Relic: N/A | Elasticsearch: Unlimited (storage-dependent)
New Relic: N/A | Elasticsearch: 500,000+ EPS per cluster
New Relic: N/A | Elasticsearch: 3-6 months
New Relic: N/A | Elasticsearch: Complex Query DSL requiring technical expertise
New Relic: N/A | Elasticsearch: 68,000+ stars
New Relic: N/A | Elasticsearch: 5-10 minutes
New Relic: N/A | Elasticsearch: 65 docs/sec per thread
New Relic: N/A | Elasticsearch: $5,000-$50,000
New Relic: N/A | Elasticsearch: Via aggregations (requires custom queries)
New Relic: N/A | Elasticsearch: 14-28 days
Monthly Cost (100GB index, 1M queries/month)
New Relic: N/A | Elasticsearch: $200-500 self-hosted
New Relic: N/A | Elasticsearch: Petabyte-scale (unlimited)
New Relic: N/A | Elasticsearch: Requires DevOps expertise
New Relic: N/A | Elasticsearch: 100-300ms
New Relic: N/A | Elasticsearch: 9/10 (plugins, analyzers, scripting)
New Relic: N/A | Elasticsearch: Community-based or 4+ hours (enterprise)
New Relic: N/A | Elasticsearch: 14-28 days (self-hosted)
New Relic: N/A | Elasticsearch: $3,000-$8,000
New Relic: N/A | Elasticsearch: $0.02-$0.05
New Relic: N/A | Elasticsearch: 1.0-2.0 FTE
New Relic: N/A | Elasticsearch: Advanced EQL with full customization
New Relic: N/A | Elasticsearch: 8/10 (requires DevOps expertise)
New Relic: N/A | Elasticsearch: 120-240 minutes
New Relic: N/A | Elasticsearch: 50-200 ms
New Relic: N/A | Elasticsearch: 1+ Billion (across clusters)
New Relic: N/A | Elasticsearch: 40+ aggregation types
New Relic: N/A | Elasticsearch: Manual configuration required
New Relic: N/A | Elasticsearch: ~60,000 stars
New Relic: N/A | Elasticsearch: $50,000-150,000
New Relic: N/A | Elasticsearch: 14-30 days
New Relic: N/A | Elasticsearch: 30-40 (via Beats)
New Relic: N/A | Elasticsearch: $0 (open-source) or $12,000
New Relic: N/A | Elasticsearch: Requires third-party integrations
New Relic: N/A | Elasticsearch: Full Elasticsearch Query DSL and custom scripts
New Relic: N/A | Elasticsearch: 1M+ active developers
New Relic: N/A | Elasticsearch: 80-200 hours (extensive)
Total Cost of Ownership (3-year, 500GB/month ingestion)
New Relic: N/A | Elasticsearch: $120,000 (self-hosted licensing + 2 FTEs infrastructure)
New Relic: N/A | Elasticsearch: Logs, metrics (via plugins), custom JSON data
New Relic: N/A | Elasticsearch: 100-2000ms (depends on tuning)
Required Infrastructure Team Size (100 users)
New Relic: N/A | Elasticsearch: 2-3 (cluster management + optimization)
New Relic: N/A | Elasticsearch: 180,000+ (open-source)
New Relic: N/A | Elasticsearch: Unlimited (petabyte-scale)
New Relic: N/A | Elasticsearch: 60-120 minutes
New Relic: N/A | Elasticsearch: 30+ languages
New Relic: N/A | Elasticsearch: Requires configuration/plugin
New Relic: N/A | Elasticsearch: 500,000+ companies worldwide
Typical Query Latency (1B rows, GROUP BY)
New Relic: N/A | Elasticsearch: 500-2000ms
New Relic: N/A | Elasticsearch: Native, highly optimized (primary feature)
New Relic: N/A | Elasticsearch: Via Beats and Logstash (indirect)
New Relic: N/A | Elasticsearch: Low-Medium (simpler operations)
New Relic: N/A | Elasticsearch: 5+ PB (operational limit)
New Relic: N/A | Elasticsearch: SQL plugin available (limited JOIN support)
New Relic: N/A | Elasticsearch: $180,000-$240,000
New Relic: N/A | Elasticsearch: 2-4 full-time engineers
New Relic: N/A | Elasticsearch: Lucene, KQL, SQL, JavaScript
New Relic: N/A | Elasticsearch: $0.50-$1.50
New Relic: N/A | Elasticsearch: Varies by deployment (self-hosted: customer responsibility)
New Relic: N/A | Elasticsearch: Yes (SSPL/Elastic License)
How to choose between New Relic and Elasticsearch
New Relic vs Elasticsearch — Structured Comparison Data
Machine-readable comparison dataset for New Relic vs Elasticsearch. Contains 191 attribute comparisons, 5 FAQ pairs.
New Relic vs Elasticsearch — Attribute Category Vocabulary
Taxonomy of attribute categories used to classify comparison data for New Relic vs Elasticsearch.
Can I use Elasticsearch for application performance monitoring like New Relic?
Elasticsearch alone cannot provide APM features. You would need to deploy Elastic APM Server alongside it, which adds complexity and requires additional configuration. New Relic includes APM natively. For pure log analysis and search, Elasticsearch excels; for full-stack observability, New Relic is purpose-built.
Is Elasticsearch truly free compared to New Relic?
Elasticsearch is open-source and free, but self-hosting requires infrastructure costs (servers, storage, bandwidth) and significant DevOps labor—often totaling $5,000-$15,000/month for enterprise deployments. Elastic Cloud (managed service) starts at $10,600/year. New Relic is SaaS with transparent per-gigabyte pricing. For very small use cases, Elasticsearch self-hosted is cheapest; at scale, costs converge.
How long does data stay available in each platform?
New Relic retains data for 8 days on the Standard plan; longer retention requires paid add-ons (30/90 days). Elasticsearch lets you set unlimited retention based on your storage budget. If long-term historical analysis is critical, Elasticsearch offers more flexibility.
Which is better for log aggregation and analysis?
Elasticsearch is purpose-built for log search and analysis with superior full-text search capabilities and filtering. New Relic handles logs but as part of a broader observability platform. For log-only use cases, Elasticsearch is more powerful; for integrated logs + metrics + traces, New Relic is simpler.
Can I migrate from New Relic to Elasticsearch?
Migration is possible but complex. New Relic's data model and Query Language (NRQL) differ significantly from Elasticsearch's Query DSL. You would lose pre-built dashboards and APM features, and custom queries require rewriting. Plan 4-12 weeks for a large-scale migration and extensive testing.
How to Choose Between New Relic and Elasticsearch
Primary Use Case: New Relic has Full-stack APM, monitoring, and observability, while Elasticsearch has Search, log analysis, and data indexing.
Setup Complexity: New Relic has Low - pre-built integrations and dashboards, while Elasticsearch has High - requires custom configuration and expertise.
Monthly Pricing (Small Team): New Relic has $599-$999/month, while Elasticsearch has $0 (open-source) or $10,600+/year (cloud).
Data Retention (Default): New Relic has 8 days standard, 90 days with extended plan, while Elasticsearch has Unlimited (user-defined retention).
AI/ML Insights: New Relic has Built-in anomaly detection and root cause analysis, while Elasticsearch has Requires separate ML plugins and custom configuration.
Learning Curve for IT Teams: New Relic has 2-4 weeks for basic proficiency, while Elasticsearch has 4-12 weeks for production-grade deployment.
Integration Breadth: New Relic has 500+ pre-built integrations, while Elasticsearch has 200+ integrations, more via community plugins.