New Relic vs Checkly

A side-by-side comparison of features, pricing, and use cases to help you choose the right tool.

New Relic and Checkly are often evaluated together by teams building out their reliability stack. New Relic (observability platform for every engineer, founded 2008) is typically a fit for Developers, DevOps Teams, and SREs, while Checkly (api and e2e monitoring for developer teams, founded 2018) leans toward Backend Developers, DevOps Teams, and QA Engineers. Both cover 12 of the same core capabilities, so the decision usually comes down to where they diverge.

New Relic

Observability platform for every engineer

Pricing: Usage-based limits: Free (500 checks/mo), Standard (10k checks), Pro (1M checks)

Founded: 2008

Best for: Developers, DevOps Teams, SREs

Visit New Relic →

Checkly

API and E2E monitoring for developer teams

Pricing: Hobby (Free), Starter $24/mo, Team $64/mo (100k API, 12k Browser runs)

Founded: 2018

Best for: Backend Developers, DevOps Teams, QA Engineers

Visit Checkly →

Feature Comparison

FeatureNew RelicCheckly
Synthetic Monitoring
Real User Monitoring
API & Browser Testing
Self-Healing Tests
AI-Powered
Uptime Monitoring
Alerting
Slack Integration
CI/CD Integration
Multi-Location Checks
SSL Monitoring
Status Page
Open Source
On-Premise / Self-Host
Free Tier
API Access
Dashboards
Incident Management

Only in New Relic

  • Real User Monitoring
  • Incident Management

Only in Checkly

  • Status Page

New Relic

Pros

  • + Generous free tier (100GB/month)
  • + Unified full-stack observability
  • + Strong synthetic monitoring capabilities
  • + Usage-based pricing is more predictable

Cons

  • − UI can feel complex and overwhelming
  • − No self-healing test automation
  • − Costs spike with high data volume
  • − Alert fatigue issues reported by users

Checkly

Pros

  • + Playwright-native monitoring with JS scripts
  • + Strong multi-region coverage
  • + Monitoring as code (Terraform, Pulumi, TypeScript SDK)
  • + AI-assisted authoring and root-cause analysis

Cons

  • − No self-healing test automation (AI assists authoring and root-cause only)
  • − Pricing grows quickly with check frequency
  • − Less focus on traditional QA/test automation
  • − Complex for non-developers to use

New Relic vs Checkly: Our Verdict

On capability breadth, New Relic pulls ahead here: it uniquely offers Real User Monitoring and Incident Management. Choose New Relic if those matter to your workflow; Checkly (Hobby (Free), Starter $24/mo, Team $64/mo (100k API, 12k Browser runs)) remains a solid option if Status Page is what you need.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the main difference between New Relic and Checkly?

New Relic is observability platform for every engineer, while Checkly is api and e2e monitoring for developer teams. New Relic adds Real User Monitoring and Incident Management on top of the shared feature set. Checkly brings Status Page that New Relic does not.

How do New Relic and Checkly compare on pricing?

New Relic pricing: Usage-based limits: Free (500 checks/mo), Standard (10k checks), Pro (1M checks). Checkly pricing: Hobby (Free), Starter $24/mo, Team $64/mo (100k API, 12k Browser runs). Evaluate against your check volume and team size; entry pricing rarely reflects total cost at scale.

Which is better for Developers?

New Relic is designed with Developers, DevOps Teams, and SREs in mind, whereas Checkly targets Backend Developers, DevOps Teams, and QA Engineers. If your team matches the former profile, New Relic is usually the closer fit.

Is there an AI-powered alternative to New Relic and Checkly?

ObserveOne combines synthetic monitoring with AI browser checks that adapt as your UI changes. It offers a free tier, so you can benchmark it against New Relic and Checkly directly.

Looking for an AI-powered alternative?

ObserveOne combines AI browser checks with uptime, API, and SSL monitoring on per-run pricing. The free tier is enough to benchmark it against New Relic and Checkly directly.

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Alternatives to each tool

Each tool has its own alternatives page too, not just this matchup.

New Relic alternatives

What people move to when they leave New Relic.

Checkly alternatives

What people move to when they leave Checkly.

Features Both Tools Share

Synthetic MonitoringAPI & Browser TestingAI-PoweredUptime MonitoringAlertingSlack IntegrationCI/CD IntegrationMulti-Location ChecksSSL MonitoringFree TierAPI AccessDashboards

How we compare

  • Feature flags and pricing come from each vendor's public docs and pricing pages, last reviewed June 2026. Spot an error? Tell us and we'll fix the data.
  • ObserveOne is our product. The data is collected the same way for every tool; the recommendations are ours.