New Relic vs PagerDuty: Which Monitoring Tool is Right for You?

Compare New Relic and PagerDuty for application monitoring and incident management. New Relic focuses on observability and performance monitoring, while PagerDuty specializes in incident response and on-call management.

Updated 2026-09 · 2026

New Relic

Full-stack observability platform for monitoring applications and infrastructure

Free tier available, paid plans from $99/monthper user/month

Strengths

+Comprehensive APM with distributed tracing and real-time monitoring
+Deep code-level diagnostics and performance insights
+Extensive integrations with 500+ technologies

Weaknesses

-Steep learning curve for advanced features
-Can become expensive at scale with data retention
-Alert configuration can be complex for beginners

Best for

Development teams needing deep application performance insights and full-stack observability across complex microservices architectures

PagerDuty

Incident management and on-call scheduling platform

Free tier available, paid plans from $21/monthper user/month

Strengths

+Industry-leading incident response and on-call management
+Smart alert grouping and noise reduction
+Robust escalation policies and scheduling

Weaknesses

-Limited monitoring capabilities without third-party tools
-Free tier restricted to 5 users
-Advanced features require expensive plans

Best for

Operations teams managing on-call rotations and incident response workflows who need reliable alerting and escalation

Feature Comparison

Feature	New Relic	PagerDuty
Application Performance Monitoring	Full APM with transaction tracing, error tracking, and code-level insights	No native APM - relies on integrations with monitoring tools
Infrastructure Monitoring	Built-in infrastructure monitoring for servers, containers, and cloud services	No infrastructure monitoring - focuses on incident management
Incident Management	Basic alerting and incident workflows, not the primary focus	Core feature with advanced incident response, war rooms, and postmortems
On-Call Scheduling	Limited on-call capabilities through third-party integrations	Sophisticated on-call scheduling with rotations, overrides, and escalations
Alert Routing	Rule-based alerting with notification channels	Intelligent routing with event orchestration and noise reduction
Mobile App	Mobile app for viewing dashboards and metrics on the go	Robust mobile app designed for incident response and acknowledgment
Custom Dashboards	Powerful dashboard builder with NRQL queries and visualizations	Basic dashboards focused on incident metrics and team performance
Log Management	Built-in log aggregation and analysis with correlation to APM data	No log management - integrates with external log tools
Distributed Tracing	Native distributed tracing across microservices	No tracing capabilities
Free Tier	100GB data ingest/month, 1 full user, basic features	Up to 5 users, unlimited incidents, basic on-call scheduling
Integrations	500+ integrations focused on data collection and monitoring	700+ integrations focused on alerting and incident workflows
Pricing Model	Based on data ingestion and user seats, can scale quickly	Per-user pricing with tiered feature access

The Verdict

New Relic and PagerDuty serve different purposes and are often used together. Choose New Relic if you need deep application monitoring, performance insights, and observability across your stack. Choose PagerDuty if your primary need is managing incidents, on-call schedules, and alert routing. Many teams use both: New Relic for monitoring and PagerDuty for incident response.

How to switch from New Relic to PagerDuty

Full New Relic export guide →

1Export what you need from New Relic first: use Dashboards > Export for JSON copies of your dashboards, the NerdGraph API or Terraform provider to pull alert policies and conditions, and NRQL queries exported to CSV for any historical metrics you want to keep before changing your data retention or downgrading your account.
2Create your PagerDuty account and set up services that mirror your current New Relic alert policies - one PagerDuty service per application or team, with escalation policies matching who currently gets paged in New Relic.
3Reconnect your monitoring tools directly to PagerDuty using its native integrations (New Relic, Datadog, CloudWatch, Prometheus, etc.) so alerts flow into PagerDuty's incident workflow instead of New Relic's built-in notifications.
4Recreate your alerting logic as PagerDuty event orchestration rules, mapping New Relic's alert severities and conditions to PagerDuty's urgency levels and grouping/noise-reduction settings.
5Run a test incident or game day using the new PagerDuty escalation policies and on-call schedules to confirm the right people get paged before relying on it in production.
6Cut the team over: update runbooks and Slack/Teams channels to reference PagerDuty, migrate on-call rotations off New Relic, install the PagerDuty mobile app for everyone on-call, and decommission New Relic's alerting workflow (keeping the monitoring/APM side only if you still need it).

New Relic vs PagerDuty: common questions

How do I export my data from New Relic before switching?+

Dashboards can be exported as JSON through the New Relic UI (Dashboards > Export) or pulled in bulk with the NR1 CLI. Alert policies, conditions, and NRQL queries are best exported via the NerdGraph API or the New Relic Terraform provider, since there's no single one-click export for alerting config. Historical metrics and logs should be queried and exported to CSV before you downgrade or cancel, since data becomes inaccessible once your retention window passes.

What features do I lose moving from New Relic to PagerDuty?+

You lose APM, distributed tracing, infrastructure monitoring, and log aggregation entirely - PagerDuty doesn't collect telemetry, it only manages incidents and on-call routing. If you still need application performance visibility, you'll have to keep New Relic (or switch to another APM tool like Datadog or Grafana) and feed its alerts into PagerDuty.

Is PagerDuty's free tier enough for a small team?+

The free plan supports up to 5 users with unlimited incidents and basic on-call scheduling, which works for a very small team handling one or two services. Once you need more users, multiple escalation policies, or event orchestration for noise reduction, you'll need the Professional plan starting at $21/user/month.

Does PagerDuty integrate with the monitoring tools I already use?+

Yes, PagerDuty has a native integration with New Relic and over 700 other tools including Datadog, CloudWatch, Prometheus, and Grafana. You configure these as event sources that route alerts into PagerDuty's incident workflow, so you can keep your existing monitoring stack and only replace the incident response layer.

How does the cost compare over time between New Relic and PagerDuty?+

New Relic's cost grows with both data ingestion volume and full-platform user seats, so it can climb quickly as you add services or increase retention. PagerDuty's pricing is flat per-user (from $21/month on Professional), so costs scale predictably with headcount rather than data volume - but remember you're paying for both if you keep New Relic for monitoring and add PagerDuty for incidents.