Quick answer
New Relic - New Relic wins for most builders because its free tier is broader and clearer for real evaluation, with one full platform user, 100 GB ingest, unlimited basic users, and no credit card required.
How the free tiers compare
These are both observability platforms, but their free tiers are shaped very differently. Datadog’s free offering is narrow and quota-specific: 5 hosts, 1-day metric retention, and a limited slice of cost visibility, with a small free allowance for feature flag requests. That makes it useful if you already know you want Datadog and only need a tiny production footprint or a narrow proof of concept. New Relic’s free tier is closer to a usable evaluation environment: one full platform user, unlimited basic users, 100 GB of ingest, 8+ days of retention, APM, logs, dashboards, alerts, synthetics, and no credit card required. If you want to try an observability stack end to end before paying, New Relic is the easier starting point. Datadog becomes more interesting once you are specifically validating its infrastructure or feature-flag products.
Datadog vs New Relic free tier, side by side
| DatadogFTV 48 | New RelicFTV 63 | |
|---|---|---|
| Full platform usersNew Relic includes one full platform user with all 50+ platform capabilities. | Not stated in the provided free tier items | 1 |
| Basic usersNew Relic includes unlimited basic users. | Not stated in the provided free tier items | Unlimited |
| Data ingestNew Relic’s ingest cap is explicit; Datadog’s provided free-tier items do not list an ingest quota. | Not stated in the provided free tier items | 100 GB/month |
| Infrastructure hostsDatadog’s Infrastructure Free tier is capped at 5 monitored hosts. | Up to 5 hosts | Not stated in the provided free tier items |
| Metric retentionNew Relic’s retention is longer in the provided free tier details. | 1 day | At least 8 days |
| Synthetic monitoringThis is part of New Relic’s free tier. | Not stated in the provided free tier items | Unlimited ping monitors, including 500 synthetic monitoring checks |
| Credit card required for free tierBased on the ftv_no_cc_required field. | Required | Not required |
| Feature flags monthly requestsDatadog’s free tier includes this allowance. | Below 1,000,000 included at no cost | Not stated in the provided free tier items |
After you outgrow the free tier
Both products move beyond free with usage-based pricing, but the pricing details provided here are incomplete. Datadog’s first paid options are presented as usage-based or contact-sales for Infrastructure Monitoring, Feature Flags, and Cloud Cost Management. New Relic’s Standard plan is pay as you go, with an annual pool-of-funds option for larger commitments. Because neither input includes concrete unit rates, exact monthly dollar comparisons are not available. In practice, Datadog tends to diverge when you add more hosts, longer retention, or broader cost visibility; New Relic diverges when you exceed 100 GB ingest or need more than the free user capacity.
Cost at real usage
| Usage | Datadog | New Relic |
|---|---|---|
| Small eval with free-tier limitsBoth can be used without immediate payment, but New Relic’s free tier is broader. | Free (up to 5 hosts and 1-day retention) | Free (1 full platform user, 100 GB ingest, unlimited basic users) |
| 6 monitored hostsDatadog’s Infrastructure Monitoring starts charging beyond 5 hosts. | Paid usage-based pricing, exact cost not provided | Free if ingest and user limits remain within tier |
| 101 GB ingest/monthNew Relic’s free tier includes 100 GB/month. | Not enough pricing data provided | Paid usage-based pricing, exact cost not provided |
| 1.2M feature flag config requests/monthDatadog’s free feature-flag allowance is below 1 million monthly requests. | Paid usage-based pricing, exact cost not provided | Not enough pricing data provided |
Estimates, not quotes. Usage-based rates change - verify with the vendor's pricing page before committing.
When to pick each one
Pick Datadog when…
- You only need to monitor a very small infrastructure footprint, up to 5 hosts.
- You want to test Datadog specifically for infrastructure metrics with 1-day retention.
- You are evaluating Datadog Feature Flags and your monthly configuration requests stay under 1 million.
- You only need Datadog Cost Visibility for Datadog spend, not broader cloud cost reporting.
Pick New Relic when…
- You want one account that lets you try APM, logs, infrastructure, synthetics, and dashboards together.
- You need a free tier with one full platform user plus unlimited basic users.
- You want 100 GB of ingest per month before you pay anything.
- You prefer a free tier with no credit card required.
- You want at least 8 days of retained data to investigate issues without immediately upgrading.
Bottom line
For the most common builder use case, New Relic is the better free tier because it is easier to use as a real evaluation environment. You get a full platform user, unlimited basic users, meaningful ingest, and enough retention to investigate issues without immediately paying. Datadog’s free tier is narrower and better suited to small infrastructure tests or specific Datadog features, especially if you already know you want that ecosystem. If you are choosing purely on what lets you do more before upgrade pressure hits, New Relic is the winner.
Read the full listings: Datadog 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.