Quick answer
New Relic - New Relic's free tier holds far more data: 100 GB of ingest a month, kept for at least 8 days. Better Stack's free plan holds a few GB for 3 days, but it includes 10 uptime monitors and heartbeats, a status page and 5,000 session replays.
How the free tiers compare
Better Stack's free plan covers 10 monitors and heartbeats, one status page, 100,000 exceptions a month, 5,000 session replays, 30 GB of metrics, and 3 GB each of logs and traces kept for 3 days. New Relic's free tier covers 100 GB of data ingest a month, one full platform user with all 50+ capabilities, unlimited basic users, at least 8 days of retention, unlimited ping monitors and 500 synthetic checks. New Relic needs no credit card to sign up.
Better Stack vs New Relic free tier, side by side
| Better StackFTV 49 | New RelicFTV 67 | |
|---|---|---|
| Free data volume | 3 GB logs, 3 GB traces, 30 GB metrics | 100 GB of data ingest/month |
| Data retention | 3 days for logs and traces | At least 8 days |
| Uptime and synthetic checks | 10 monitors and heartbeats, 1 status page | Unlimited ping monitors, 500 synthetic checks |
| First paid plan price | Nano telemetry bundle - from $25/mo billed yearly, $30/mo monthly | Standard - $10 for the first full platform user, $0.40/GB above 100 GB |
After you outgrow the free tier
Better Stack's telemetry bundles start with Nano at $25 a month billed yearly, with 40 GB each of logs, traces and metrics. New Relic's Standard edition charges $10 a month for the first full platform user and $99 for each extra full platform user, up to 5. Core users cost $49 each and basic users are free. Ingest above the free 100 GB costs $0.40 a GB.
Cost at real usage
| Usage | Better Stack | New Relic |
|---|---|---|
| One engineer who needs 40 GB of logs a month | From $25/mo for Nano | $0 on the free tier, which takes 100 GB |
| One engineer who sends 200 GB of logs a month | $210/mo for the Mega bundle billed yearly, with 340 GB of logs | $10 for the user plus $40 for the 100 GB above the free allowance |
Estimates, not quotes. Usage-based rates change - verify with the vendor's pricing page before committing.
When to pick each one
Pick Better Stack when…
- You want uptime monitors, heartbeats and a status page next to your telemetry.
- You want 5,000 session replays a month on the free plan.
- Your app sends only a few GB of logs and traces a month.
Pick New Relic when…
- You send more than a few GB of telemetry a month. New Relic's free tier takes 100 GB.
- You want to sign up without a credit card.
- You want other people to see dashboards and alerts. Basic users are free and unlimited.
- You want APM, infrastructure and browser monitoring in one free account.
Bottom line
Pick New Relic if you need to store a lot of telemetry for free and want a no-card signup. Pick Better Stack if you want uptime checks, a status page and session replay in the same free account.
Read the full listings: Better Stack and New Relic. Scores use the FTV methodology at /ftv. Browse more head-to-heads on /compare, or see the top-ranked free tiers on /top.