New Relic's "free" tier caps at 100GB/mo of data ingestion, then charges $0.30/GB. Beszel is open source with no data limits - self-host it on InstaPods for $3/mo.
| Feature | New Relic | Beszel |
|---|---|---|
| Starting Price | Free (100GB/mo), then $0.30/GB | $3/mo total (self-hosted on InstaPods) |
| Data Ingestion Limits | 100GB free, then $0.30/GB | No limits - stored on your server |
| Infrastructure Monitoring | Included | CPU, memory, disk, network, temperature |
| Docker Monitoring | Included | Built-in container stats |
| APM / Tracing | Full APM suite | Not included (infrastructure only) |
| Log Management | $0.30/GB ingested | Not included (use separate tool) |
| User Seats | 1 full user free, then $49/user | Unlimited - no per-user fees |
| Data Retention | 8 days (free), 30+ days (paid) | Unlimited - your storage, your rules |
| Agent Resource Usage | ~200-400MB RAM | ~15MB RAM |
| Source Code | Closed source | Open source (MIT license) |
Limitations that push you toward self-hosting.
New Relic charges $0.30/GB after 100GB. A busy infrastructure can easily ingest 500GB/mo in metrics and logs, creating $120+/mo bills that weren't in the budget.
Only 1 full-platform user is free. Additional users cost $49/user/mo (Standard) to $99/user/mo (Pro). Team monitoring gets expensive fast.
Free accounts retain data for just 8 days. Want to compare this month to last month? That requires a paid plan with longer retention.
The New Relic infrastructure agent uses 200-400MB of RAM. On small servers, that's a significant portion of your available resources.
What you get when you own your infrastructure.
Beszel stores metrics locally on your pod. No per-GB charges, no ingestion metering, no surprise bills at month-end.
Share your Beszel dashboard with your entire team. No per-user licensing or seat limits.
Beszel's agent barely touches system resources. Monitor small VPS instances without the monitoring tool eating your RAM.
Historical data stays on your server as long as you want it. Compare performance across months or years with no retention limits.
Monitoring 5 servers with 3 team members needing dashboard access.
For core infrastructure metrics (CPU, memory, disk, network, Docker), Beszel covers everything most teams need. New Relic offers much more - APM, distributed tracing, log management, synthetics - but at a significant cost. If you primarily need server monitoring, Beszel gives you that at 1/40th the price.
No. Beszel focuses on infrastructure monitoring - server resources and Docker containers. If you need request tracing, error tracking, or code-level performance data, you'd need a separate APM tool.
Absolutely. Some teams use Beszel for infrastructure monitoring (saving on New Relic's per-host fees) and keep New Relic only for APM on their most critical applications. This hybrid approach can cut New Relic costs by 50%+.
Yes. Beszel provides real-time metrics, historical charts, and alerting via email, webhook, and Telegram. It's used in production by teams monitoring everything from a single server to 50+ host clusters.
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