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Upstat vs New Relic

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Executive Snapshot

New Relic is observability. Upstat is incident operations.

New Relic excels at application performance monitoring, distributed tracing, and deep observability. However, its incident management capabilities are basic (alert correlation), and pricing ($49-99/user + $0.30/GB data) is expensive for incident response alone. Upstat provides complete incident operations—monitoring, workflows, runbooks, status pages—for $29–$49 per user without data fees.

Complementary or replacement

Many teams keep New Relic for APM and logs while using Upstat for incident coordination. Others replace New Relic entirely when deep observability is not required.

Capability comparison

Platform Focus

Upstat

Incident operations platform combining monitoring, response workflows, runbooks, and status communication.

New Relic

Observability platform focused on APM, distributed tracing, logs, and infrastructure monitoring.

Monitoring

Upstat

Built-in uptime, API, and heartbeat monitoring designed for incident detection and response.

New Relic

Comprehensive APM, infrastructure monitoring, logs, RUM, and synthetic monitoring for deep observability.

Incident Management

Upstat

Full incident workspace with Kanban views, timelines, participants, runbooks, and workflow automations.

New Relic

Basic incident intelligence with alert correlation and grouping; lacks dedicated incident workflows and coordination tools.

Service Catalog

Upstat

Entity-based operational dashboards showing ownership, dependencies, and real-time health status.

New Relic

Service maps visualize distributed traces and dependencies; not designed for operational context during incidents.

Runbooks

Upstat

Interactive runbooks with decision trees guide responders through procedures during incidents.

New Relic

No native runbook capabilities; teams store procedures in external documentation.

Status Pages

Upstat

Customer-facing status pages automatically update from incidents and monitor health.

New Relic

No native status page functionality; requires external tools for customer communication.

Target Use Case

Upstat

Incident detection, response, and resolution for DevOps teams focused on operational reliability.

New Relic

Application performance analysis, troubleshooting, and deep observability for engineering teams optimizing code and infrastructure.

Pricing

Upstat

$29 / $49 per user with full incident operations platform.

New Relic

$49-99/user/month + $0.30/GB data ingest; expensive for incident management alone without full observability needs.

Why teams evaluate New Relic alternatives for incident management

Expensive for incident management alone

New Relic charges $49-99/user/month plus $0.30/GB data ingest. Teams needing incident coordination without full observability capabilities pay for APM, distributed tracing, and log analysis they do not use—making TCO prohibitive for incident response.

Basic incident management features

New Relic provides incident intelligence (alert correlation and grouping) but lacks dedicated incident workflows, Kanban boards, role assignments, interactive runbooks, and status page automation. Teams manage incidents in external tools, losing operational context.

No runbooks or status pages

New Relic focuses on observability, not operational procedures. Teams store runbooks in Confluence or Google Docs and manage status communication through separate tools, fragmenting the incident response workflow.

Overkill for operational reliability

Most DevOps teams need incident detection and response, not application performance optimization. New Relic is built for engineering teams troubleshooting code and infrastructure, not SRE teams coordinating incident response.

Learn more about Why teams evaluate New Relic alternatives for incident management

Complement or replace based on your needs

Teams typically evaluate whether they need deep observability (APM, traces, logs) or focused incident operations (detection, response, communication).

  • 1
    Identify which New Relic capabilities you need (APM/logs vs incident management).
  • 2
    Configure Upstat for incident workflows, on-call schedules, and status pages.
  • 3
    Set up native Upstat monitors or keep New Relic alerts feeding into Upstat.
  • 4
    Test incident workflows and ensure alert routing delivers to the right teams.
  • 5
    Run both systems in parallel until confident, then optimize based on actual needs.

Migration checklist

Assess observability requirements, configure incident workflows, set up monitors, and test alerting to ensure smooth transition.

Learn more about Complement or replace based on your needs

Build the executive business case

A 25-person team using New Relic for observability and incident management typically spends $30k–$60k annually ($49-99/user + data ingest). Teams not requiring deep APM and distributed tracing can replace New Relic with Upstat's Business plan at $14.7k annually, eliminating $15k-45k in unnecessary observability costs.

Combine this cost comparison with the downtime impact scenario below to demonstrate to finance and procurement the value of right-sizing your observability and incident management stack.

Cost of downtime scenario

Downtime gets expensive fast—Upstat helps teams respond faster.

Incident response costs extend beyond subscription fees. Every minute a critical service is down impacts revenue, customer trust, and team morale. The scenario below models a conservative mid-market SaaS company with a 25-person on-call rotation.

Baseline: 3 customer-facing incidents per quarter (12 annually), averaging 40 minutes of impact. We use $10,000 per hour as a mid-market revenue-at-risk benchmark.

New Relic stack: Observability via New Relic, basic incident intelligence, manual coordination via Slack/email. Typical annual cost: ~$45k in New Relic subscriptions and data, plus ~$80k in lost revenue from eight hours of downtime.

Upstat outcome: Dedicated incident workflows, automations, and runbooks reduce resolution time by 40%—a conservative take on the 50%+ MTTR improvements we target with unified workflows. Downtime drops to 4.8 hours, protecting ~$32k in revenue while eliminating unnecessary observability overhead.

Tool costs

$45,000 → $14,000

New Relic observability vs. Upstat focused incident operations.

Tool savings: $31,000/year

Downtime impact

$80,000 → $48,000

40% faster MTTR from dedicated incident workflows and runbooks.

Revenue protected: $32,000/year

Total annual savings

$63,000

Tool optimization ($31,000) + faster incident resolution ($32,000).

* Estimates based on a 25-seat incident rotation, $10k/hour revenue at risk, and a 40% MTTR improvement aligned with internal performance benchmarks. Adjust the numbers to match your business before sharing with finance.

Frequently asked questions

Teams using New Relic for observability ask whether Upstat complements or replaces their setup, and how incident management pricing compares.

Can we keep New Relic for observability and use Upstat for incidents?

Yes. Many teams keep New Relic for deep APM, distributed tracing, and log analysis while using Upstat for incident coordination, on-call management, runbooks, and status communication. Upstat provides operational incident response capabilities that New Relic lacks, without requiring you to abandon your observability investment.

How does Upstat pricing compare to New Relic for incident management?

New Relic charges $49-99/user/month plus $0.30/GB data ingest, which becomes expensive for incident management alone. Upstat offers $29 (Teams) or $49 (Business) per user with complete incident operations—monitoring, response workflows, runbooks, and status pages—included at predictable pricing without data usage fees.

What incident management features does Upstat have that New Relic lacks?

Upstat provides dedicated incident workflows with Kanban views, role assignments, interactive runbooks with decision trees, customer-facing status pages, and workflow automations. New Relic offers basic incident intelligence (alert correlation) but lacks purpose-built incident coordination tools, runbooks, and status communication.

Do we need New Relic level observability for incident management?

Most teams need incident detection and response, not deep APM and distributed tracing. Upstat provides sufficient monitoring (uptime, API, heartbeat checks) for incident detection without the complexity and cost of full observability platforms. Teams choose New Relic when optimizing application performance, not just managing incidents.

Ready to optimize your incident operations stack?

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