Databricks
New Relic
| Feature | Databricks | New Relic |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free / from $0.07/mo | Free / from $0.3/mo |
| Free Plan | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes |
| Rating | 4.5 / 5 | 4.3 / 5 |
| Best For | data-engineering-teams, ml-teams, enterprises, large-scale-analytics | development-teams, sre-teams, startups, devops-engineers |
| Founded | 2013 | 2008 |
| Data Lakehouse | ✓ | ✗ |
| Sql Analytics | ✓ | ✗ |
| Machine Learning | ✓ | ✗ |
| Real Time Streaming | ✓ | ✗ |
| Data Governance | ✓ | ✗ |
| Notebooks | ✓ | ✗ |
| Delta Lake | ✓ | ✗ |
| Apm | ✗ | ✓ |
| Infrastructure Monitoring | ✗ | ✓ |
| Log Management | ✗ | ✓ |
| Browser Monitoring | ✗ | ✓ |
| Synthetics | ✗ | ✓ |
| Ai Assistant | ✗ | ✓ |
| Distributed Tracing | ✗ | ✓ |
| Error Tracking | ✗ | ✓ |
✓ Databricks Pros
- Unified platform for data engineering, science, and analytics
- Delta Lake provides ACID transactions on data lakes
- Excellent ML/AI capabilities with MLflow integration
- Community Edition is free for learning
✗ Databricks Cons
- Complex pricing with DBU credits
- Requires data engineering expertise to configure
- Vendor lock-in once deeply integrated
✓ New Relic Pros
- Generous free tier with 100GB/month data ingest
- Full-stack observability in one platform
- Usage-based pricing is cost-effective for many teams
- Strong AI assistant (New Relic AI) for troubleshooting
✗ New Relic Cons
- Per-user pricing for full platform access
- Data retention limits on free tier
- Can be complex to set up comprehensively
The Verdict
Databricks is built for data engineering teams and ml teams, with a focus on data-lakehouse and sql-analytics. New Relic targets development teams and sre teams and leads with apm and infrastructure-monitoring.
Both tools come in at similar price points ($0.07/mo for Databricks, $0.3/mo for New Relic), so pricing won't make the decision for you.
Both offer free plans, so you can test each with your real workflow before committing to a subscription.
Feature-wise, New Relic offers broader built-in capabilities (8 features vs 7), while Databricks takes a more focused approach — which can mean a simpler, faster onboarding experience.
This is a genuinely close comparison. If you can, sign up for both free trials (where available) and run a one-week test with your actual team tasks before deciding.