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Most buyers should pick New Relic.
Choose Splunk if security operations, federated machine-data search, or flexible deployment matter most—and you can get a usage-based quote before committing. Choose New Relic for a more focused observability platform with published user pricing, a 100 GB free-plan ingest allowance, and stated support response times. New Relic is easier to price from the public page, but additional users and ingest can raise the bill. Splunk lists some entry prices, though its core platform costs are not published.
01Side by side
| Splunk | New Relic | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | $6/vCPU/month for AppDynamics Infrastructure Edition | $10/month for Standard's first full-platform user |
| Free plan | Free Observability Cloud and Agent Observability editions | Free plan: 100 GB ingest/month; one full-platform user |
| Best for | Security teams and machine-data platform needs | Teams monitoring applications and software systems |
| Core strength | Security, federated search, and full-stack observability | Application, infrastructure, log, and user monitoring |
| Learning curve | Review ease score: 5 | Review ease score: 7 |
| Integrations/data | Federated search analyzes telemetry where it lives | Search logs and query them in place |
| Team/seat costs | Unlimited users; core platform pricing is usage-based | Standard: $99 per additional full-platform user |
| Support | Support response terms not published on the vendor's site | Standard: 2-business-day; Pro: 2-hour critical response |
Splunk Choose Splunk if
- Choose Splunk if security operations are central.
- Choose Splunk if you need federated machine-data search.
- Choose Splunk if you need on-prem, private-cloud, or air-gapped deployment.
New Relic Choose New Relic if
- Choose New Relic if you want published per-user pricing.
- Choose New Relic if 100 GB of free monthly ingest helps.
- Choose New Relic if stated support response times matter.
02Pricing compared
New Relic is easier to price from its public page, but user and data charges can add up. Free includes 100 GB of ingest per month, one full-platform user, unlimited basic users, and at least eight days of retention. Standard is $10 per month for the first full-platform user and $99 per month for each additional one, up to five; ingest beyond 100 GB costs $0.40/GB. Pro is $349 per user/month with an annual commitment or $418.80 month to month.
Splunk’s core Cloud Platform and Enterprise plans use activity-based, ingest, or workload pricing, but the page does not publish prices. It lists observability plans at $15, $60, and $75 per host/month, billed annually, and Agent Observability at $100 per 1.2 million spans/month. Don’t compare Splunk’s $6 entry price with New Relic’s $10: Splunk’s $6 is AppDynamics Infrastructure Edition, priced per vCPU/month.
03Features and depth
Splunk’s center of gravity is machine-data search and security operations, alongside observability. Its platform supports federated search across tiered data and security work spanning threat detection, investigation, and response. The listed security products include Essentials, with SIEM and threat intelligence, and Premier, which adds SOAR, UEBA, and Automated Threat Analysis. Splunk also covers application, infrastructure, service, and user-experience monitoring, plus AI agent observability and LLM token visibility and attribution.
New Relic is more specifically framed as an observability platform: application, infrastructure, logs, security, and digital experience sit together. Its listed capabilities include in-place log querying, vulnerability prioritization by production impact, and monitoring AI model and agent behavior and costs. Both products address AI monitoring and broad system visibility, but the emphasis differs: Splunk’s published material gives security operations and federated machine-data search prominent roles; New Relic’s centers on finding and resolving software-system issues. The feature list alone does not establish which platform will fit a particular stack.
04Ease of use and learning curve
Our review scores rate New Relic higher for ease of use: 7 versus Splunk’s 5. That is a useful signal, not a guarantee about onboarding or day-to-day work; the published material does not describe either product’s learning curve in detail.
New Relic offers a free tier with defined ingest and user limits, plus published paid-user prices and support response SLAs. That makes initial evaluation and cost estimation more concrete, though ingest and extra users can raise the bill. Splunk has free observability editions, but core platform pricing is usage-based and unpublished, so teams may need a quote to estimate costs. Deployment choices also differ: Splunk Enterprise supports on-prem, private-cloud, and air-gapped setups, while Splunk Cloud is managed.
Questions people ask
Is Sentinel better than Splunk?
The published sources don’t include Microsoft Sentinel’s features, pricing, or limits, so we can’t make a grounded winner call. Splunk’s listed strengths include threat detection, investigation, response, and federated machine-data search. Compare those requirements with Sentinel’s current documentation and a quote before choosing.
Who are New Relic competitors?
This comparison covers Splunk as one alternative to New Relic; the published material does not provide a complete competitor list. New Relic’s listed scope includes application, infrastructure, log, security, and user-experience monitoring. Splunk overlaps in observability and adds a strong focus on security operations and federated machine-data search.
Does New Relic do security monitoring?
Yes. New Relic lists security monitoring that prioritizes vulnerabilities by production impact and guides remediation. Splunk’s security material describes threat detection, investigation, and response, with SIEM and threat intelligence in Enterprise Security Essentials. The sources don’t establish which product offers better outcomes for a specific security team.
What are the key differences between New Relic and Prometheus?
The published sources describe New Relic but contain no Prometheus product, feature, or pricing details, so a direct comparison would be guesswork. New Relic lists application, infrastructure, log, security, and user-experience monitoring, with published plans and ingest limits. Check Prometheus’s own documentation for a like-for-like comparison.