Is New Relic or Rootly better?

Neither clearly leads. New Relic starts at Free and Rootly at $20/user-month, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.

Which is cheaper, New Relic or Rootly?

New Relic has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at Free for New Relic and $20/user-month for Rootly.

Does New Relic or Rootly run on more platforms?

New Relic runs on Web, Api, Mobile. Rootly runs on Web, Mobile, Slack, Microsoft Teams.

Can I use New Relic for free?

Yes. New Relic has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Rootly starts at $20/user-month.

What is New Relic best used for?

New Relic is most often used for application monitoring, infrastructure monitoring, error tracking, performance optimization. Of those, application monitoring and infrastructure monitoring are not what Rootly is typically brought in for.

What can New Relic do that Rootly cannot?

New Relic covers APM, Infrastructure Monitoring, Log Management, Browser Monitoring. Rootly covers AI SRE automation, Alert routing, On-call management, Incident response.

Logging · head to head

New Relic vs Rootly

New Relic

Logging

Observability made simple

From: Free
Rated: -

Full review Website

Rootly

Logging

AI-native incident management with automation, on-call, and root cause analysis

From: $20/user-month
Rated: -

Full review Website

The short version

Only New Relic has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
Each has a real cost: New Relic data ingest costs can be high for large-scale deployments with high logging volume, making budgeting difficult; Rootly pricing higher than some competitors for basic features
They diverge on capability: New Relic covers APM, Rootly covers AI SRE automation.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which New Relic and Rootly actually diverge.

Attributes where New Relic and Rootly differ
Attribute	New Relic	Rootly
Starting price	Free	$20/user-month
Pricing model	Unknown	subscription
Free tier	Yes	No
Platforms	Web, Api, Mobile	Web, Mobile, Slack, Microsoft Teams
Founded	2008	2020

Identical on both: user rating (Not yet rated), category (Logging).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in New Relic

APM
Infrastructure Monitoring
Log Management
Browser Monitoring
Synthetic Monitoring
Mobile Monitoring
Kubernetes Monitoring
AI Ops

Only in Rootly

AI SRE automation
Alert routing
On-call management
Incident response
Call routing
AI meeting bot
Status pages

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

New Relic

Application monitoringnot Rootly
Infrastructure monitoringnot Rootly
Error trackingnot Rootly
Performance optimizationnot Rootly

Rootly

Automate on-call and incident response workflowsnot New Relic
Run root cause analysis with AI assistancenot New Relic
Track and improve Mean Time to Mitigation (MTTR)not New Relic
Coordinate response across distributed teamsnot New Relic
Learn from post-incident retrospectivesnot New Relic

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

New Relic

Data ingest costs can be high for large-scale deployments with high logging volume, making budgeting difficult
Core user licensing model adds complexity to pricing with distinction between full platform users and basic users
Default logs obfuscation may miss some sensitive patterns requiring custom configuration
Retention limits even on paid tiers require additional storage for long-term compliance requirements

Rootly

Pricing higher than some competitors for basic features
AI SRE features require separate contact-sales engagement
Learning curve for advanced automation features
Per-user pricing increases costs as team grows

Pricing, plan by plan

New Relic

Free

No published plan breakdown. See the New Relic review.

Rootly

$20/user-month

Incident Response Essentials$20/user-month
- Response with Slack integration
- @Rootly AI Chat
- AI Similar Incidents detection
Incident Response Enterprise$undefined/custom
- All Essentials features
- Custom forms and incident types
- Private incidents
On-Call Essentials$20/user-month
- Alert grouping and routing
- Live call routing (1 phone number)
- Schedules and escalation policies
On-Call Enterprise$undefined/custom
- All Essentials features
- 5 phone numbers for call routing
- Unlimited schedules

Which should you pick?

Choose New Relic if

You need apm.
You want to start without paying.
You work on Web, Api, Mobile.
You also want infrastructure monitoring.

New Relic review

Choose Rootly if

You need ai sre automation.
You work on Web, Mobile, Slack, Microsoft Teams.
You also want alert routing.

Rootly review

Questions people ask

Is New Relic or Rootly better?: Neither clearly leads. New Relic starts at Free and Rootly at $20/user-month, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, New Relic or Rootly?: New Relic has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at Free for New Relic and $20/user-month for Rootly.
Does New Relic or Rootly run on more platforms?: New Relic runs on Web, Api, Mobile. Rootly runs on Web, Mobile, Slack, Microsoft Teams.
Can I use New Relic for free?: Yes. New Relic has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Rootly starts at $20/user-month.
What is New Relic best used for?: New Relic is most often used for application monitoring, infrastructure monitoring, error tracking, performance optimization. Of those, application monitoring and infrastructure monitoring are not what Rootly is typically brought in for.
What can New Relic do that Rootly cannot?: New Relic covers APM, Infrastructure Monitoring, Log Management, Browser Monitoring. Rootly covers AI SRE automation, Alert routing, On-call management, Incident response.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

New Relic: Does New Relic offer a free tier?

Yes, New Relic's free tier is perpetual with no credit card required. It includes 100 GB of free data ingest monthly, one Full Platform User with access to all 50+ capabilities, and unlimited Basic Users for querying and dashboard creation.

Source

Rootly: How much does Rootly cost?

Rootly charges $20/user/month for both Incident Response and On-Call Essentials plans. Enterprise plans require contacting sales. Startups under 100 employees with less than $50M raised get up to 50% discount.

Source

New Relic: How much does New Relic cost for paid plans?

Paid plans start at $49 per month per core user. New Relic uses consumption-based pricing where you pay only for what you use. Annual commitment options are available with volume discounts for larger teams.

Source

Rootly: What is Rootly AI SRE?

AI SRE is an advanced feature that provides automated root cause analysis, alert correlation with system changes, impact analysis, and remediation suggestions. Pricing requires contact with sales.

Source

New Relic: What data retention is included in New Relic's free tier?

The free tier includes a minimum of 8 days data retention for troubleshooting. Paid plans offer extended retention periods and customizable data retention policies.

Source

Rootly: Does Rootly integrate with Slack?

Yes, Rootly natively integrates with Slack for incident response workflows, allowing teams to manage incidents directly in Slack.

Source

New Relic: How many integrations does New Relic support?

New Relic provides access to 780+ integrations and unlimited hosts at no additional cost. These include monitoring integrations for various cloud services, databases, and applications.

Source

Rootly: Are there discounts for small companies?

Yes, startups under 100 employees or less than 25 employees can get special pricing up to 50% discount. Contact Rootly sales for details.

Source

New Relic: Can I use New Relic to monitor multiple cloud providers?

Yes, New Relic is cloud-agnostic and supports monitoring across AWS, Google Cloud, Azure, and on-premises infrastructure in a single platform.

Source

New Relic: What is New Relic's ownership structure today?

New Relic was acquired by TPG and Francisco Partners on July 31, 2023, for $6.5 billion and transitioned from a publicly traded company to a private company in November 2023.

Source

New Relic vs Rootly

New Relic

Rootly

The short version

Where they differ

What each one covers

Only in New Relic

Only in Rootly

What people use each for

New Relic

Rootly

Where each one falls short

New Relic

Rootly

Pricing, plan by plan

New Relic

Rootly

Which should you pick?

Choose New Relic if

Choose Rootly if

Questions people ask

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Related pages

More on New Relic

More on Rootly

Keep looking

Other head to heads