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Head-to-head · Application Performance Monitoring

New Relic APM vs Apache SkyWalking

  • Updated Oct 2026
  • Both researched from official sources
  • 6 checks side by side
Higher score New Relic APM #7 in Application Performance Monitoring 8.8/10 Free plan Free plan✓ 5 of 5 features Visit New Relic
Apache SkyWalking #8 in Application Performance Monitoring 8.7/10 Free plan Free plan✓ 5 of 5 features Visit SkyWalking

New Relic APM leads on 0 checks, Apache SkyWalking on 0, and 6 are even. Who comes out ahead on the 6 yes/no, price and count checks where we have data for both products. The editor score weighs everything else too.

Our verdict

  • Highest scoreNew Relic APM · 8.8/10
  • Free planboth

New Relic APM scores higher on our rubric for application performance monitoring: 8.8 against 8.7 out of 10; our editors rank them #7 and #8.

On deployment model, Apache SkyWalking gives you Self_hosted where New Relic APM offers Cloud.

New Relic APM is the better fit for teams wanting a mature cloud platform. Apache SkyWalking is the better fit for self-hosted teams needing deep observability.

  • New Relic APM fits best

    Teams wanting a mature cloud platform

  • Apache SkyWalking fits best

    Self-hosted teams needing deep observability

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Side by side

Feature New Relic APM 8.8/10 Visit ↗ Apache SkyWalking 8.7/10 Visit ↗
At a glance
Editor score 8.8 8.7
Ranking #7 in Application Performance Monitoring #8 in Application Performance Monitoring
Best for Teams wanting a mature cloud platform Self-hosted teams needing deep observability
Pricing model Free plan + paid Free
Starting price $10/user/mo Free plan
Free plan ✓ ✓
Free trial — —
Deployment Cloud Self-hosted
Platforms Web Web, Windows, Linux
Support Tickets, Docs, Community Community, Docs
Integrations 780+ integrations 7 integrations
Built for Small business, Mid-market, Enterprise Small business, Mid-market, Enterprise
Features New Relic APM 5/5 · Apache SkyWalking 5/5
Distributed tracing ✓ ✓
Transaction tracing ✓ ✓
Dependency mapping ✓ ✓
Real user monitoring ✓ ✓
Log correlation ✓ ✓
Specs
Deployment model Cloud Self_hosted
Our review
Pros
  • Distributed traces, transaction traces, and database query analysis
  • Service maps, error tracking, alerts, and logs in trace context
  • Free plan includes 100 GB monthly data ingest and 50+ capabilities
  • Combines tracing, topology maps, metrics, logs, profiling, and alerts
  • Supports Kubernetes, service meshes, browser monitoring, and eBPF profiling
  • Ingests telemetry through OpenTelemetry, Prometheus, Zipkin, and more
Cons
  • Free plan includes just one full platform user
  • Standard is limited to five full platform users
  • Pricing also depends on data ingest or compute usage
  • Self-hosting requires teams to manage deployment and operations
  • Its wide feature set may exceed the needs of smaller applications
  • It is not presented as a conventional hosted SaaS product
Our verdict

New Relic APM helps engineering teams monitor application and service performance, investigate slowdowns, and trace failures across distributed systems. It suits teams that want APM alongside broader observability capabilities, from small…

Read the review →

Apache SkyWalking is an open-source application performance monitoring and observability platform for distributed, microservices, cloud-native, and container-based applications. It is designed for teams that want to run observability…

Read the review →
  1. New Relic APMApplication Performance Monitoring 8.8Free plan
  2. Apache SkyWalkingApplication Performance Monitoring 8.7Free plan

Strengths and trade-offs

  • New Relic APM — where it wins

    • Distributed traces, transaction traces, and database query analysis
    • Service maps, error tracking, alerts, and logs in trace context
    • Free plan includes 100 GB monthly data ingest and 50+ capabilities

    Where it doesn't

    • Free plan includes just one full platform user
    • Standard is limited to five full platform users
    • Pricing also depends on data ingest or compute usage

  • Apache SkyWalking — where it wins

    • Combines tracing, topology maps, metrics, logs, profiling, and alerts
    • Supports Kubernetes, service meshes, browser monitoring, and eBPF profiling
    • Ingests telemetry through OpenTelemetry, Prometheus, Zipkin, and more

    Where it doesn't

    • Self-hosting requires teams to manage deployment and operations
    • Its wide feature set may exceed the needs of smaller applications
    • It is not presented as a conventional hosted SaaS product

More comparisons

All application performance monitoring comparisons → · Full ranking →

Reviewed by iTechGuides Editors · Editorial team · Updated Oct 2026

Last updated · How we research and update