New Relic vs PagerDuty: Error Tracking Compared

Introduction

Selecting the right error tracking solution requires understanding how different tools approach the same problem. New Relic and PagerDuty are both popular choices, but they serve different needs and audiences.

New Relic is a comprehensive full-stack observability platform offering APM, infrastructure monitoring, and error tracking in one solution. PagerDuty is the industry-leading incident management platform for on-call scheduling, alerting, and incident response.

Feature Comparison

New Relic Overview

New Relic stands out for full-stack observability, NRQL query language, broad integrations, generous free tier. It is primarily a full-stack observability solution that works well for teams who need these capabilities. Pricing: Free tier (100GB/mo), Standard at $0.30/GB ingested, Pro at $0.50/GB.

The main limitations include: can get expensive at scale, complex pricing model, occasional data lag.

PagerDuty Overview

PagerDuty focuses on best-in-class incident response, on-call management, escalation policies, 700+ integrations. As a incident management platform, it appeals to teams looking for these specific features. Pricing: Free tier (up to 5 users), Professional at $21/user/mo, Business at $41/user/mo.

Trade-offs to consider: not an error tracker itself, requires integration with monitoring tools, per-user pricing adds up.

Pricing Comparison

New Relic and PagerDuty: using them together

The New Relic vs PagerDuty question often ends with using both. New Relic detects problems: it collects errors, APM traces and infrastructure metrics, then raises alerts. PagerDuty is not an error tracker; it receives alerts from monitoring tools and handles on-call schedules, escalation policies and incident response across 700+ integrations.

So the common New Relic PagerDuty setup is New Relic for detection and PagerDuty for routing the alert to whoever is on call. Choose New Relic alone if your team watches dashboards and Slack. Add PagerDuty when you need formal on-call rotations. Note the pricing models differ: New Relic charges per GB ingested above the free tier, PagerDuty per user.

Recommendation

Choose New Relic if your primary need is full-stack observability and full-stack observability. Choose PagerDuty if you value best-in-class incident response and need a strong incident management platform.

For teams that need both error tracking and broader observability, consider whether a dedicated error tracker or a full-platform solution better fits your architecture. Both New Relic and PagerDuty are battle-tested in production environments.