Back
New Relic vs Axiom
Trust Score comparison · March 2026
Signal Comparison
500k / wknpm downloads60k / wk
200 commitsCommits (90d)80 commits
800 ★GitHub stars800 ★
12k q'sStack Overflow50 q's
HighCommunityMedium
New RelicAxiom
Key Differences
| Factor | New Relic | Axiom |
|---|---|---|
| License | Proprietary | Proprietary |
| Language | TypeScript / Python | TypeScript |
| Hosted | Self-hosted | Self-hosted |
| Free tier | — | — |
| Open Source | — | — |
| TypeScript | ✓ | ✓ |
Pick New Relic if…
- Full APM with transaction traces, error tracking, and DB query analysis in one tool
- Large applications needing infrastructure + application observability together
- Teams that want a free tier with 100GB/mo ingest — more generous than Datadog
Pick Axiom if…
- Next.js apps on Vercel needing log analytics beyond the platform's built-in logs
- High-volume structured event logging with a pay-per-query model
- Teams wanting Splunk-style query power without Splunk's complexity
Side-by-side Quick Start
New Relic
// newrelic.js (require FIRST before all other requires)
require('newrelic');
// newrelic.js config file
exports.config = {
app_name: ['My App'],
license_key: process.env.NEW_RELIC_LICENSE_KEY,
logging: { level: 'info' },
};
// Package: npm install newrelicAxiom
import { Axiom } from '@axiomhq/js';
const axiom = new Axiom({ token: process.env.AXIOM_TOKEN });
await axiom.ingest('my-dataset', [
{ level: 'info', message: 'User signed up', userId: '123' },
]);
await axiom.flush();Community Verdict
Based on upvoted notes🏆
New Relic wins this comparison
Trust Score 80 vs 76 · 4-point difference
New Relic leads on Trust Score with stronger signal data across downloads and community health. That said, the other tool is worth considering if your use case matches its specific strengths above.