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OpenTelemetry vs New Relic
Trust Score comparison · March 2026
VS
Trust Score Δ
6
🏆 OpenTelemetry wins
Signal Comparison
4M / wknpm downloads500k / wk
600 commitsCommits (90d)200 commits
6k ★GitHub stars800 ★
2k q'sStack Overflow12k q's
HighCommunityHigh
OpenTelemetryNew Relic
Key Differences
| Factor | OpenTelemetry | New Relic |
|---|---|---|
| License | Apache 2.0 | Proprietary |
| Language | TypeScript / Python | TypeScript / Python |
| Hosted | Self-hosted | Self-hosted |
| Free tier | — | — |
| Open Source | ✓ Yes | — |
| TypeScript | ✓ | ✓ |
Pick OpenTelemetry if…
- You want observability data that isn't locked to a single vendor
- Instrumenting microservices with distributed traces across multiple languages
- Feeding telemetry into Datadog, Jaeger, Grafana, or any OTel-compatible backend
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
Side-by-side Quick Start
OpenTelemetry
import { NodeSDK } from '@opentelemetry/sdk-node';
import { getNodeAutoInstrumentations } from '@opentelemetry/auto-instrumentations-node';
const sdk = new NodeSDK({
traceExporter: new OTLPTraceExporter({ url: 'http://localhost:4318/v1/traces' }),
instrumentations: [getNodeAutoInstrumentations()],
});
sdk.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 newrelicCommunity Verdict
Based on upvoted notes🏆
OpenTelemetry wins this comparison
Trust Score 86 vs 80 · 6-point difference
OpenTelemetry 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.