New Relic vs Solarwinds? Which one is better?
In today’s digital landscape, observability and infrastructure monitoring are no longer optional—they’re essential.
As systems grow increasingly complex with microservices, hybrid cloud environments, and real-time application demands, DevOps teams and IT administrators must rely on robust platforms that provide deep visibility and fast incident response.
Two of the most recognized names in this space are New Relic and SolarWinds.
Both offer powerful monitoring capabilities, but they differ significantly in approach, architecture, and target users.
Whether you’re focused on full-stack observability or traditional network and server monitoring, this comparison will help you make an informed decision.
In this post, we’ll break down the features, pricing, integrations, and use cases for each tool to determine which solution best fits your organization’s needs—whether you’re a DevOps engineer, SRE, or IT admin.
If you’re exploring other monitoring options, you might also want to check out our comparisons:
Let’s dive in and see how New Relic vs SolarWinds stack up.
Overview: New Relic
New Relic was founded in 2008 and quickly emerged as a leader in Application Performance Monitoring (APM).
Over the years, it has evolved into a comprehensive observability platform, offering full-stack visibility into applications, infrastructure, and end-user experiences.
Today, New Relic provides an all-in-one solution that includes:
APM for deep application insights
Infrastructure monitoring for servers, containers, and cloud services
Log management, eliminating the need for a separate logging provider
Browser and mobile monitoring for frontend performance
Synthetic monitoring for testing and uptime checks
With native support for OpenTelemetry, New Relic is built for modern cloud-native environments.
It enables teams to collect, analyze, and act on telemetry data across distributed systems, all within a unified interface.
New Relic is particularly popular among:
DevOps engineers seeking unified observability
SREs managing system reliability at scale
Teams operating in Kubernetes or multi-cloud environments
If you’re also exploring similar all-in-one observability platforms, see our comparison of Datadog vs Grafana and New Relic vs Rollbar.
Overview: SolarWinds
SolarWinds, founded in 1999, has long been recognized as a go-to platform for IT operations management, particularly in traditional and hybrid infrastructure environments.
Unlike newer observability platforms born in the cloud era, SolarWinds has deep roots in network and system monitoring, making it a trusted solution for enterprises managing complex on-premise ecosystems.
Its core product suite includes:
Network Performance Monitor (NPM) – for monitoring and troubleshooting network availability and performance
Server & Application Monitor (SAM) – providing visibility into server health and application performance
Database Performance Analyzer (DPA) – for optimizing SQL, Oracle, and other database environments
Virtualization Manager – helping teams oversee virtual machines and hosts
SolarWinds is particularly strong in environments where legacy systems, Windows servers, and hybrid cloud/on-prem setups are common.
It integrates well with:
Physical network devices
Virtualized infrastructure
Windows-based application stacks
While not built cloud-native like New Relic, SolarWinds offers robust tools for IT admins, system engineers, and operations teams who prioritize network visibility and infrastructure-centric monitoring.
If you’re comparing traditional vs modern monitoring tools, you might also like our post on Kibana vs Grafana or New Relic vs Datadog.
Key Feature Comparison
When evaluating New Relic vs SolarWinds, it’s important to examine how each platform delivers value across the observability and infrastructure monitoring stack.
Here’s a breakdown of their key features side by side:
| Feature | New Relic | SolarWinds |
|---|---|---|
| APM (Application Performance Monitoring) | Full-stack APM with distributed tracing, real user monitoring, and custom instrumentation | APM via SAM module; suitable for .NET, Java, and SQL-heavy environments |
| Infrastructure Monitoring | Cloud-native infra monitoring with Kubernetes, AWS, Azure, GCP integrations | Strong server and network device monitoring (especially Windows & on-prem) |
| Logs | Ingests logs across sources with correlation to traces and metrics | Log Analyzer (add-on); better for syslog and Windows Event Logs |
| Dashboards & Visualizations | Highly customizable dashboards with real-time data streaming | Prebuilt dashboards, less flexible, but good for standard network/sys admin views |
| Alerting & Anomaly Detection | AI-powered alerts, anomaly detection, and integrations with Slack, PagerDuty, etc. | Threshold-based alerts; suitable for static infrastructure conditions |
| OpenTelemetry Support | Fully compatible and encourages OTEL-native instrumentation | Limited support; focused more on proprietary integrations |
| Cloud vs On-Prem | SaaS-first, built for dynamic cloud-native environments | Best for on-premise or hybrid systems; agent-based monitoring |
Want to dig deeper into observability strategies? Check out our comparisons on Datadog vs Grafana and New Relic vs Rollbar for additional context.
New Relic vs Solarwinds: User Interface & Usability
The user experience can dramatically impact how quickly teams gain value from an observability tool.
Let’s compare the interface and usability of New Relic and SolarWinds.
New Relic: Developer-Centric & Modern
New Relic offers a modern, intuitive UI designed with developers and DevOps teams in mind.
Key highlights include:
Customizable dashboards with drag-and-drop widgets
Clean data visualizations for traces, logs, metrics, and APM
Easy-to-navigate entity explorer and service maps
Quick-start templates for faster onboarding
The experience feels fast and fluid, ideal for teams working across cloud-native and microservice environments.
SolarWinds: Feature-Rich but Traditional
SolarWinds provides a more traditional interface tailored to system admins and IT operations:
Dashboard modules are dense with information, especially around network topology, device status, and application health
Navigation can feel overwhelming at first due to the volume of available options and settings
A learning curve exists, especially for new users without prior SolarWinds experience
Powerful if you’re monitoring on-prem systems, switches, and legacy servers
If your team values a streamlined and modern UI for day-to-day use, New Relic has the edge.
For in-depth, infrastructure-heavy environments, SolarWinds’ interface offers deeper control—though with more complexity.
✅ Also check out New Relic vs Datadog for another UI/UX comparison.
New Relic vs Solarwinds: Pricing Comparison
Choosing the right observability platform often comes down to more than just features—pricing structure and scalability matter just as much, especially for growing teams or hybrid environments.
New Relic: Ingest-Based and Transparent
New Relic uses an ingestion-based pricing model, meaning you pay based on how much telemetry data (logs, traces, metrics) you send.
Free tier includes 100 GB/month of data ingest, one full platform user, and unlimited basic users
Transparent pricing tiers on a per-user and per-GB basis
Ideal for cloud-native teams looking to centralize observability
Great for startups and mid-sized teams getting started with full-stack monitoring without a high upfront investment.
SolarWinds: Modular and Feature-Based
SolarWinds follows a more traditional pricing approach, where you license each product module individually:
Tools like Network Performance Monitor (NPM) and Server & Application Monitor (SAM) are sold separately
Cost can scale significantly based on feature needs, endpoints, and device count
Typically requires upfront annual contracts
This makes SolarWinds better suited for large enterprises or traditional IT departments that need deep, targeted infrastructure monitoring.
Cost-Effectiveness by Environment
| Company Type | Best Fit |
|---|---|
| Cloud-native startup | New Relic (free tier or standard) |
| Hybrid or legacy-heavy org | SolarWinds (modular features) |
| DevOps-heavy workflow | New Relic |
| Network-first IT team | SolarWinds |
If you’re monitoring a modern cloud infrastructure, New Relic offers more predictable and flexible costs.
For IT teams with on-prem or hybrid setups, SolarWinds provides deep specialization at a modular price.
✅ Want to compare similar models? Check out New Relic vs Grafana or New Relic vs Kibana.
New Relic vs Solarwinds: Performance and Scalability
When monitoring enterprise-scale environments, performance overhead and scalability become make-or-break factors.
Let’s look at how New Relic and SolarWinds compare under the hood.
New Relic: Built for Cloud-Native Scale
New Relic is designed to scale effortlessly in cloud-native and distributed systems.
With support for OpenTelemetry and agent-based instrumentation, it can monitor services across cloud environments, containers, and serverless architectures.
Agent-based approach (e.g., APM, infrastructure agents)
Optimized for high-ingest telemetry pipelines
Minimal performance overhead when configured properly
Excellent elasticity for autoscaling environments like Kubernetes
It’s particularly strong in modern stacks where observability needs to scale with ephemeral workloads.
️ SolarWinds: Strong for Traditional Environments
SolarWinds is well-established in large, on-premises or hybrid infrastructures.
It typically uses agentless monitoring (via SNMP, WMI, etc.) but also offers agent-based options depending on the tool.
Agentless or agent-based, depending on module (e.g., NPM is agentless)
Can monitor thousands of devices and nodes
May require more configuration and tuning for scale
Heavier on system resources in certain setups, especially with legacy protocols
SolarWinds shines in static, high-density IT environments but may need more work to scale in dynamic or containerized settings.
⚖️ Summary
| Criteria | New Relic | SolarWinds |
|---|---|---|
| Scale in cloud-native | ✅ Excellent | ❌ Limited |
| Legacy system monitoring | ⚠️ Moderate | ✅ Strong |
| Resource usage | ⚠️ Light-to-moderate | ⚠️ Moderate-to-heavy |
| Elastic workload handling | ✅ Yes (Kubernetes, serverless) | ❌ Limited |
Both tools are performant in their own domains—New Relic excels in cloud-native scale, while SolarWinds handles complex traditional infrastructure exceptionally well.
New Relic vs Solarwinds: Integrations & Ecosystem
A strong integration ecosystem is critical for extending observability into your broader toolchain—whether that’s CI/CD pipelines, collaboration tools, or ticketing systems.
New Relic: Dev-Friendly and API-Rich
New Relic shines when it comes to developer-first integrations.
It offers native support for modern DevOps workflows, including real-time collaboration, alerting, and automation tools.
Seamless integrations with Slack, PagerDuty, Opsgenie, GitHub, and Jira
REST APIs and NerdGraph (GraphQL) for custom workflows and dashboards
Supports OpenTelemetry and Terraform, ideal for Infrastructure as Code setups
Direct plugins and exporters for AWS, Azure, GCP, Kubernetes, and more
With a strong focus on cloud-native observability, New Relic’s ecosystem is highly extensible for agile teams.
Related reading: Terraform Kubernetes Deployment
SolarWinds: Tailored for IT Operations and Enterprise Integration
SolarWinds has a mature plugin ecosystem centered on IT operations and enterprise infrastructure.
It’s deeply integrated with:
SNMP, WMI, and NetFlow for traditional networking
ITSM platforms like ServiceNow and BMC Remedy
Active Directory, Exchange, and other Microsoft services
Custom polling and scripting support for niche systems
SolarWinds is especially powerful in environments where network topology, device uptime, and on-prem systems are the focus.
Plugin Ecosystems
| Tool | Plugin Marketplace | Third-Party Extensibility | Focus Area |
|---|---|---|---|
| New Relic | Yes (Terraform, integrations hub) | ✅ Strong with APIs & SDKs | Cloud-native, DevOps |
| SolarWinds | Yes (THWACK Community) | ✅ Robust for IT modules | Enterprise IT, network infra |
Summary
Use New Relic if you’re operating in a cloud-first stack and want modern integrations across your DevOps lifecycle.
Use SolarWinds if you’re managing enterprise networks, legacy infrastructure, or need deep hooks into ITSM and network tooling.
New Relic vs Solarwinds: Use Case Scenarios
Choosing the right observability platform often comes down to your team’s architecture, infrastructure, and primary monitoring goals.
Below are clear use cases that illustrate when New Relic or SolarWinds might be the better fit.
✅ Choose New Relic if:
You run cloud-native, containerized, or microservice-based applications
New Relic’s modern observability stack is designed to monitor services spread across Kubernetes, ECS, serverless, and dynamic cloud environments.You need end-to-end observability (APM + logs + infra + tracing)
Its unified telemetry model lets you correlate application performance, infrastructure health, log anomalies, and distributed traces—all in one place.You’re focused on DevOps and developer experience
With robust APIs, OpenTelemetry support, and integrations with tools like GitHub and Slack, New Relic fits naturally into CI/CD pipelines and modern engineering workflows.
Helpful read: Data Pipelines with Apache Airflow
✅ Choose SolarWinds if:
You manage a traditional IT network with routers, switches, and Windows servers
SolarWinds excels in legacy environments where SNMP, WMI, and agentless monitoring are key.You need strong SNMP support and network diagnostics
Tools like Network Performance Monitor (NPM) offer powerful network mapping, traffic flow insights, and real-time device health tracking.You prioritize network monitoring over application-level tracing
SolarWinds is tailored for infrastructure-focused teams where uptime, bandwidth, and hardware status take precedence.
Related read: Kubernetes Ingress vs LoadBalancer
These use cases should help clarify which tool aligns best with your current stack and monitoring strategy.
New Relic vs Solarwinds: Pros and Cons Summary
To help you decide at a glance, here’s a quick breakdown of the strengths and limitations of each platform:
New Relic Pros:
✅ Full-stack observability
Combines APM, infrastructure, logs, traces, browser monitoring, and more—all in a single platform.
✅ Cloud-native and OpenTelemetry support
Ideal for teams using Kubernetes, serverless functions, or OpenTelemetry pipelines.
❌ Tracing and logs can get expensive at scale
Ingest-based pricing can become costly for high-traffic apps or verbose logs if not properly tuned.
SolarWinds Pros:
✅ Best-in-class for network and on-prem IT monitoring
Highly detailed insights for SNMP devices, switches, routers, and Windows servers.
✅ Strong legacy infrastructure support
A mature solution for traditional IT setups, hybrid environments, and enterprises with data centers.
❌ Limited distributed tracing and cloud-native tooling
Less suited for modern microservice architectures or environments heavily reliant on containers and serverless.
This side-by-side snapshot can guide you depending on your infrastructure type, team focus, and observability needs.
New Relic vs Solarwinds: Final Thoughts
Choosing between New Relic and SolarWinds comes down to your infrastructure, team goals, and observability priorities.
If you’re running a cloud-native stack, building with containers, microservices, or serverless, and need deep application-level insights, New Relic is likely the better fit.
Its all-in-one observability, OpenTelemetry support, and developer-friendly UX make it ideal for DevOps and SRE teams.
On the other hand, if you’re managing a traditional IT environment, with on-premise infrastructure, network hardware, or Windows servers, SolarWinds provides robust tools tailored for that domain.
It excels in SNMP monitoring, network diagnostics, and hybrid IT operations.
For hybrid teams or organizations in transition, consider trialing both platforms.
Evaluate each based on your current use cases and future scalability—both platforms offer free tiers or demos that let you explore features before committing.
Ultimately, the best observability stack is the one that fits your workflow, infrastructure, and team mindset.
Conclusion
In today’s evolving landscape of cloud, hybrid, and legacy systems, choosing the right observability tool isn’t just about features—it’s about alignment with your infrastructure, architecture, and team expertise.
New Relic shines in modern, cloud-native environments where full-stack visibility and developer-centric tooling are essential.
SolarWinds, meanwhile, remains a stronghold for organizations managing traditional IT operations, complex networks, and on-premise servers.
No matter where you fall on that spectrum, hands-on testing is key.
Looking for more observability comparisons? Check out our guides on Lightstep vs New Relic or New Relic vs Datadog.
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