New Relic alternatives: 4 free & open-source picks
Compare recorded free and open-source options, their capabilities and operating requirements. Source dates are shown below; licenses, hosted limits and project activity can change.
A single-binary observability stack that remembers storage is not free.
licenseAGPL-3.0
runsyour machine or their cloud
installHosted signup, or a single binary/Docker container; Helm plus external services for HA
dataTelemetry is stored as Apache Parquet on local disk or object storage; single-node metadata defaults to SQLite, while HA uses PostgreSQL and NATS.
the catch vs New RelicIt handles the core signals, but it lacks New Relic's mature application agents, browser and mobile telemetry, entity inventory, and managed-scale experience.
setupThe easy single-node path still needs collectors and persistent storage; production HA adds Kubernetes, object storage, PostgreSQL, and NATS.
facts verified 2026-08-14
Logs, traces, metrics, errors and replay in one ClickHouse-backed stack.
eBPF observability with opinions; best when your apps live in containers.
licenseApache-2.0
runsyour server
installDocker Compose for one host, or the Kubernetes Operator/Helm for a cluster
enginesCore observability is non-AI; optional root-cause investigations connect to Coroot Cloud or configured Anthropic, OpenAI, Azure OpenAI, Groq, Mistral, Ollama, or OpenAI-compatible endpoints.
dataMetrics use Prometheus-compatible storage or ClickHouse, while logs, traces, and profiles use ClickHouse; configuration uses SQLite by default or PostgreSQL.
the catch vs New RelicIts automatic eBPF view is compelling for containers, but it lacks New Relic's broad language agents, browser and mobile monitoring, entity model, and managed integrations.
setupThe eBPF node agent needs a supported Linux kernel and privileged host access on every node, and the product is most natural for containers and Kubernetes.
facts verified 2026-08-14
Monitoring, incidents and status pages in one stack; simplicity did not survive.
licenseApache-2.0
runsyour machine or their cloud
installHosted signup, or the release-branch Docker Compose stack; Helm is the production path
enginesIts AI features can connect to OpenAI, Azure OpenAI, Anthropic, Groq, Mistral, Ollama, and OpenAI-compatible servers such as vLLM, LocalAI, or LM Studio.
dataSelf-hosted telemetry is stored in ClickHouse, application state and configuration in PostgreSQL, and cache, queues, and sessions in Redis.
the catch vs New RelicIt offers a broad suite, but operating the stack is substantial work and its APM agents, entity correlations, and ecosystem are less mature than New Relic's.
setupThe recommended self-hosted footprint is large and production requires secrets, TLS, backups, database care, and frequent upgrades rather than a single lightweight monitor.
facts verified 2026-08-14
latest recorded source check 2026-08-14 · check current terms at the source
Uptime KumaA good uptime dashboard, not a local telemetry, APM and log platform.
| tool | license | running it | platforms | stars | active |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| OpenObserve | AGPL-3.0 | docker to self-host | web, self-hosted | 20,578 | 2026-08 |
| HyperDX | open source | docker to self-host | web, self-hosted | 9,798 | 2026-08 |
| Coroot | Apache-2.0 | self-host, real ops | web, self-hosted | 7,900 | 2026-08 |
| OneUptime | Apache-2.0 | self-host, real ops | web, self-hosted | 7,400 | 2026-08 |
People still pay for New Relic because monitoring must continue working during the exact outage it reports, which makes independent infrastructure and alert delivery the real product. The recurring cost buys probe geography, clocks, retries, deduplication, sampling, storage, paging, notification delivery, on-call rules, and its own uptime, not just the visible interface.
Questions about these alternatives
Is there a free alternative to New Relic?
Yes: OpenObserve, HyperDX, Coroot and 1 more. These are recorded free or open-source options. Compare their feature limits, licenses, hosting costs and current availability before choosing.
Should I just build my own New Relic?
Our verdict is NOT REALLY. A consolation build is possible, but the paid product's decisive value sits outside a solo rebuild. For New Relic, collect a small transparent telemetry stream and run a few dashboards locally. The hard boundary is large telemetry platform, agents, query engine, correlation, global ingestion, and support, plus independent infrastructure and reliable alerting. Review the scope, implementation prompt and trade-offs in the New Relic build guide.
