IBM Application Performance Management vs New Relic comparison

IBM and New Relic are both solutions in the Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability category. IBM is ranked #54, while New Relic is ranked #4 with an average rating of 8.0. IBM holds a 0.6% mindshare in APM, compared to New Relic’s 4.1% mindshare. Additionally, 62% of IBM users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 94% of New Relic users who would recommend it.

IBM Application Performance...

Read 7 IBM Application Performance Management reviews

1,064 Views
1,043 Comparison Views

62% willing to recommend

New Relic

Read 168 New Relic reviews

12,960 Views
9,850 Comparison Views

94% willing to recommend

IBM Application Performance...

New Relic

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jul 24, 2024

New Relic and IBM Application Performance Management offer robust solutions for application performance monitoring. User reviews show New Relic is favored for its features and ease of deployment, but IBM stands out for its advanced capabilities, making it a valuable investment despite potentially higher costs.

Features: New Relic: Comprehensive monitoring, real-time analytics, AI-driven insights. IBM: Advanced diagnostic tools, integration capabilities, predictive analytics.

Room for Improvement: New Relic: Alerting features, reduced pricing, interface intuitiveness. IBM: Intuitive interface, better third-party integration, interface intuitiveness.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: New Relic: Straightforward deployment, responsive support. IBM: Complex deployment, appreciated support quality.

Pricing and ROI: New Relic: Reasonable pricing, strong ROI, flexible cost structure. IBM: Higher pricing, significant value, good ROI.

To learn more, read our detailed IBM Application Performance Management vs. New Relic Report (Updated: December 2025).

Buyer's Guide

IBM Application Performance Management vs. New Relic

December 2025

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Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

IBM Application Performance...

Ranking in Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability

54th

Average Rating

6.4

Reviews Sentiment

5.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

New Relic

Ranking in Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability

4th

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

168

Ranking in other categories

Network Monitoring Software (8th), IT Infrastructure Monitoring (8th), IT Operations Analytics (3rd), Mobile APM (3rd), Cloud Monitoring Software (5th), AIOps (4th)

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability category, the mindshare of IBM Application Performance Management is 0.6%, up from 0.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of New Relic is 4.1%, down from 7.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
New Relic	4.1%
IBM Application Performance Management	0.6%
Other	95.3%

Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability

Featured Reviews

Daniel Tamiru

Manager, Database & System Administration at Awash International Bank

A multi-functional solution but has poor stability and performance-related issues

We are using version 4 of IBM Application Performance Management, and it is deployed on-premises. We use it for internet banking and mainly for application performance on-site. For example, if we face performance-related issues in one of our software or managed services, we use this solution to…

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BasilJiji

System Engineer at a retailer with 10,001+ employees

Real-time alerts have reduced server outage impact and support fast incident response

In the dashboard, if they could show a little more metrics regarding the application and related things, that would be how New Relic could be improved. Currently, there are things showing from the server level and application level, but it can be improved. That is what I felt. Regarding user interface, I do not feel much concern, but for some kind of issues when we are trying to get support from the New Relic team, their SLA seems to be long. They are taking seven to ten working days for resolving some kind of scenario or issue. That is a bit difficult for us. If they could improve the customer support by reducing their SLA within three to five days, if they could remediate everything, that will be so much helpful. When it comes to the customer support part, I felt they need to be a little more improved on that part. The support overall is good, but they can improve. That is the reason I have given it eight out of ten.

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Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"The initial setup was straightforward and took minimal effort."

"I would rate the scalability an eight out of ten."

"The transaction tracking feature from IBM is the most important feature for us. It is something that provides a terrific value for us and our clients. It has a lot of data sources and agents that are collectors. It is also stable."

"IBM Application Performance Management helped us increased our response time by 80% and cost 60% less."

"It's easy to use."

"The most valuable feature is the breakdown that it provides, such as a description of the fields for a particular transaction."

"Because we have partnerships with other partners, I can share a bit about what I've noticed with IBM APM compared to other vendor solutions. Specifically, with IBM, the visibility into detailed process information is more tangible. On the OS level, APM displays all processes (or the top 10 processes) that are consuming CPU or resident memory. This is the most important thing that is not always available with other vendors."

"The most valuable feature is the ability to receive in-depth information about applications. It can detect a lot of important information."

"It has the ability to monitor random URLs not tied to the one pinger per application (though it costs extra)."

"As New Relic is already integrated with Drupal, we can get our projects done with best practice and with the best value that we believe in."

"The synthetics, alerts, and native inbuilt capabilities for monitoring the cloud with the New Relic agents have been helpful."

"Monitoring is a crucial thing for every work, and New Relic is doing a very good job in this part."

"New Relic has positively impacted our organization by reducing errors, improving performance, and saving time."

"We detect issues using dashboards that we built on New Relic."

"To me, the most valuable feature of New Relic APM is the traceability, mainly based on the time travel method, so you get the overall response time, which is pretty helpful for developers and ADR techs looking into issues on a deeper level. New Relic APM is a very good, tailor-made solution."

More New Relic pros

Cons

"With APM, we noticed that the agent can cause a lot of issues for the application, making the agent very unreliable. Many issues are happening, and we've had to discuss it with support to try and get a fix. It affects application availability, and sometimes actions fail because of the agent, degrading the performance of the application."

"The stability is not great and should be better."

"They should focus on potentially enhancing the dashboard to make it more contemporary and adding some customization options. Furthermore, there might be room for improvement in the pricing policy."

"The demo that was provided to us is not working very well. At times, there are errors."

"It's still missing some platforms. For example, if you look to applications itself, it is missing the interface."

"Technical support can be slow and needs improvement."

"Its web user interface is a little bit old in comparison to other solutions, such as New Relic, and it should be improved. Its scalability and technical support should also be improved. Currently, it is scalable, but only in a vertical way. They provide good technical support, but the initial steps for a new case can be improved to fasten the resolution process."

"New Relic can get pricey for larger organizations."

"The monitoring is only as good as the alerts that it produces. By having it set up fine grain alerting, it is a bit of a pain."

"For some kind of issues when we are trying to get support from the New Relic team, their SLA seems to be long."

"While the New Relic dashboards and UI are customizable, they can sometimes lead to a clumsy behavior."

"I would like to see the company implement the AI auto-baseline feature which Dynatrace has."

"The solution needs to have staging."

"It would help customers if there were an on-premises version available."

"In the next release, I'd like to see a better pricing structure."

More New Relic cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"As I previously indicated, I initiated the IBM and uncovered all its elements. Consequently, I'm not inclined towards a licensing approach."

"The licensing fees can be paid every six months or on a yearly basis."

"IBM APM is one of the cheaper products on the market, while everything necessary to get started is included in the license."

"We deploy everything on AWS. Purchasing the product on AWS Marketplace made it easier for us."

"We feel it's a little bit pricey."

"The pricing and licensing are too high."

"I recommend using the free version of New Relic. If you like the free version and understand its importance for your company, you can move to the trial. Then, you can migrate to the paid version."

"This is an expensive product."

"The solution is quite expensive. It costs around $5,000 a month. There aren't any additional costs above that."

"The monthly cost os $1000 per server per month, but it could be even more. We pay about $250 for the server, and then New Relic wants over $1000 to give us statistics on those servers."

"The new licensing model is great, as we pay for what we use (in computational units). However, the pricing is expensive compared to other tools."

More New Relic pricing and cost advice

See which vendors are best for you

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

21%

Retailer

14%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Healthcare Company

Financial Services Firm

14%

Computer Software Company

10%

Manufacturing Company

Retailer

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	6
Midsize Enterprise	1
Large Enterprise	2

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	65
Midsize Enterprise	50
Large Enterprise	71

Questions from the Community

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Any advice about APM solutions?

There are many factors and we know little about your requirements (size of org, technology stack, management systems, the scope of implementation). Our goal was to consolidate APM and infra monitor...

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What do you like most about New Relic Insights?

The product's initial setup phase was very easy.

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What needs improvement with New Relic Insights?

For our end-to-end use case, New Relic is completely satisfactory, and we extensively rely on its features for our day-to-day life. I would like to have more AI and ML-based suggestions and algorit...

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Compared 10% of the time

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Compared 8% of the time

Splunk AppDynamics vs New Relic

Compared 6% of the time

Elastic Observability vs New Relic

Compared 4% of the time

Azure Monitor vs New Relic

Compared 3% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability

January 2026

IBM Application Performance Management report

Download IBM Application Performance Management product report

Buyer's Guide

New Relic

January 2026

Download New Relic product report

Also Known As

IBM APM

New Relic Browser, New Relic Applied Intelligence, New Relic Insights, New Relic Synthetics, New Relic Servers, New Relic APM

Overview

The IBM Application Performance Management portfolio provides visibility, control and automation of your mission-critical applications. It helps pinpoint the root cause of application's issue more quickly and resolve the problem. The integrated capabilities cover the five key areas: discovery, end-use experience, transaction tracking, enterprise diagnostics and analytics. It also easily monitors applications to ensure optimal performance to extend your hybrid management environment capabilities, to measure the customer experience from multiple locations and to further eliminate blind spots in your application environment.

IBM

New Relic offers real-time application monitoring and insight into performance bottlenecks. Its customizable dashboards and APM integration provide efficient operational support, while server performance alerts ensure quick issue detection.

New Relic provides comprehensive monitoring of application performance, tracking bottlenecks across databases and front-end components. Users employ it for server and infrastructure monitoring, as well as analyzing key metrics such as CPU and memory usage. The solution's ability to integrate with tools like PagerDuty enhances incident management capabilities. However, users have expressed a need for improvements in query language simplicity, more detailed historical insights, and better mobile app monitoring support.

What are New Relic's most important features?

Real-Time Monitoring: Provides instant visibility into application performance.
Detailed Transaction Tracing: Identifies specific transaction issues quickly.
Error Rate Tracking: Monitors and reports on error occurrences efficiently.
Customizable Dashboards: Tailors dashboard views for specific needs.
APM Integration: Seamlessly integrates with application performance management tools.

What benefits and ROI should be considered?

Operational Efficiency: Quick issue detection reduces downtime.
Improved Debugging: Enhanced error analysis supports rapid problem resolution.
Comprehensive Monitoring: Offers a holistic view of application performance and user behavior.
Incident Management: Integration with incident tools helps streamline responses.
Efficient Alerts: Rapid alert systems ensure timely notifications of issues.

In industries like e-commerce and financial services, New Relic supports application performance monitoring to enhance user experience and system reliability. Organizations leverage its insights for optimizing performance, particularly in server operations and infrastructure management. Its ability to monitor API failures through synthetic monitoring is crucial for maintaining high service levels.

New Relic

Sample Customers

Mibtree, EatDrinkDeals.com, IT Performance Advisor

World Fuel Services, Verizon, FootLocker, McDonald's, Trainline, Mondia Media, Confused, Costa Coffee, Ryanair, Marks & Spencer, William Hill, Delivery Hero, Skyscanner, BASF, DAZN, Veygo, Virtuo, movingimage, talabat, Australia Post, Tokopedia, Seven Network, Virgin Australia, Zomato, BigBasket, Mercado Libre, Lending Club

Buyer's Guide

IBM Application Performance Management vs. New Relic

December 2025

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