New Relic is an APM-first platform with consumption pricing. Splunk is a log-and-SIEM-first platform. Both offer the other category, but each has a clear center of gravity. Here's how to choose.
New Relic APM has 15+ language agents, distributed tracing, service maps, and a strong developer experience.
Splunk APM uses NoSample tracing — 100% of transactions ingested — which is a differentiator for debugging rare tail latencies.
For most teams, New Relic APM feels more polished day-to-day. For high-volume systems where sampling bias matters, Splunk APM has an edge.
Splunk's Search Processing Language (SPL) is the industry gold standard for log analytics; Splunk Enterprise Security (ES) is the leader in SIEM.
New Relic Logs is competent — tied into the APM telemetry graph — but not a Splunk ES replacement.
If your SOC runs on Splunk, you cannot replace it with New Relic without a significant capability drop.
New Relic: $0.30/GB ingested, 100 GB free, $49–$549/full-user/month. Predictable per-GB; unpredictable when telemetry volume spikes.
Splunk: Workload pricing (compute-based) replaces traditional per-GB-ingested-per-day. Still enterprise-tier.
For low-volume workloads, New Relic is dramatically cheaper. At enterprise log scale, Splunk has specialized architecture that justifies its price.
Atatus provides APM + logs + infra + RUM + SIEM-light at flat per-host pricing — no per-GB meter.
For most mid-market and startup teams, Atatus covers both the 'why slow?' and 'what happened?' use cases at a fraction of the combined cost.
On-prem option and OTel-native ingest match or exceed either platform's flexibility.
Pros
Cons
Pricing: $0.30/GB + per-user
Best for: APM-first teams, variable volume
Pros
Cons
Pricing: Workload / per-GB ingest
Best for: SOC + compliance + logs scale
Pros
Cons
Pricing: Flat per-host, all signals included
Best for: Mid-market needing both APM and logs
New Relic is the pick if APM depth and generous onboarding matter more than log analytics. Splunk is the pick if your team lives in SPL and runs a SOC. Atatus is the pick if you want both — minus the enterprise price tag.
Unified APM, logs, RUM, infrastructure monitoring, and SIEM in one AI observability platform. Flat pricing, zero bill shock.