Honeycomb vs New Relic — Pricing, Plans, and Verified Costs (2026)
Honeycomb starts at $150/mo. New Relic starts at $99/mo. New Relic is $51/mo cheaper on the entry tier than Honeycomb.
How pricing works
These two tools don't price the same way, so the headline numbers below aren't directly comparable until you plug in your own volume.
- Honeycomb (Per Usage) — Honeycomb bills on usage — $150/mo Pro base (50M events + 250M metrics data points, scales to 750M/3.75B) on top of a paid plan starting at $150/mo. The plan includes an allowance; anything beyond it is metered.
- New Relic (Per Usage) — New Relic bills on usage — Free 100GB/mo + 1 user; then $0.30-$0.55/GB + $99-$549 per full user/mo on top of a paid plan starting at $99/mo. The plan includes an allowance; anything beyond it is metered.
Per-minute, per-credit and per-token rates exclude any downstream model, speech or telephony costs unless the vendor states otherwise.
Honeycomb is developer-first observability built for high-cardinality queries and distributed tracing. Free forever (20M events/mo + 100M metrics data points, 2 triggers); Pro from $150/mo (up to 750M events + 3.75B metrics data points + SSO + 2 SLOs); Enterprise custom (10B+ events/year base). Includes BubbleUp, Canvas AI Copilot, Honeycomb MCP, agent timeline, and OpenTelemetry-native support.
New Relic is a full-stack observability platform with 50+ capabilities (APM, infrastructure, logs, RUM, browser, mobile). Best-in-class free tier: 100GB/mo ingest + 1 full-platform user + unlimited basic users. Paid tiers layer per-user fees (Standard ~$99/user/mo, Pro up to $549/user/mo) plus per-GB ingest above 100GB. Enterprise custom.
All plans compared
| Tier role | Plan | Honeycomb monthly | Honeycomb annual | New Relic monthly | New Relic annual |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free / starter | Free | Free | Free | Free | Free |
| Entry paid | Pro / Standard | $150 | $150 | $99 | $99 |
| Pro / power | — / Pro | — | — | $349 | $349 |
| Enterprise | Enterprise | Custom | Custom | Custom | Custom |
Tier names differ across vendors. Rows are aligned by tier role, not name. Full tier structures on each tool's page.
What each is best for
Honeycomb is worth it if… Honeycomb is ideal for engineering teams doing distributed-systems debugging at scale who value high-cardinality queries and event-first thinking. Best if predictable event-based pricing beats per-host or per-GB for your workload.
New Relic is worth it if… New Relic is ideal for teams starting observability who want a generous free tier (100GB) to test-drive before committing. Best if you can plan around hybrid per-user + per-GB pricing that scales with team size and data volume.
Bottom line: Similar positioning, closer to a preference call than a strategic one.
Choose Honeycomb over New Relic if…
Choose Honeycomb if…
- You want to pay only for actual usage (per usage, from $150/mo).
- You match the profile Honeycomb is built for: ideal for engineering teams doing distributed-systems debugging at scale who value high-cardinality queries and event-first thinking.
- You need a general-purpose developer & infrastructure option rather than a vertical-specific one.
Choose New Relic if…
- You want to pay only for actual usage (per usage, from $99/mo).
- You match the profile New Relic is built for: ideal for teams starting observability who want a generous free tier (100GB) to test-drive before committing.
- You need a general-purpose developer & infrastructure option rather than a vertical-specific one.
At a glance
| Honeycomb | New Relic | |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Entry price | $150/mo | $99/mo |
| Enterprise available | Yes | Yes |
| Pricing model | Per Usage | Per Usage |
| Verification | Pricing under review | Pricing under review |
| Full pricing | View full pricing | View full pricing |
Pricing last verified September 27, 2026. Tracked daily.
Frequently asked questions
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Common questions about Honeycomb and New Relic
- How much does Honeycomb cost in 2026?
- Does Honeycomb have a free plan?
- How often does Honeycomb change prices?
- What are the best Honeycomb alternatives in 2026?
- How much does New Relic cost in 2026?
- Does New Relic have a free plan?
- How often does New Relic change prices?
- What are the best New Relic alternatives in 2026?