New Relic
Semaphore
| Feature | New Relic | Semaphore |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free / from $0.3/mo | Free / from $10/mo |
| Free Plan | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes |
| Rating | 4.3 / 5 | 4.3 / 5 |
| Best For | development-teams, sre-teams, startups, devops-engineers | development-teams, open-source-projects, startups, monorepo-users |
| Founded | 2008 | 2012 |
| Apm | ✓ | ✗ |
| Infrastructure Monitoring | ✓ | ✗ |
| Log Management | ✓ | ✗ |
| Browser Monitoring | ✓ | ✗ |
| Synthetics | ✓ | ✗ |
| Ai Assistant | ✓ | ✗ |
| Distributed Tracing | ✓ | ✗ |
| Error Tracking | ✓ | ✗ |
| Parallel Pipelines | ✗ | ✓ |
| Test Reports | ✗ | ✓ |
| Secrets Management | ✗ | ✓ |
| Docker Support | ✗ | ✓ |
| Caching | ✗ | ✓ |
| Notifications | ✗ | ✓ |
✓ 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
✓ Semaphore Pros
- Extremely fast build times
- Generous free tier for open source
- Easy YAML-based configuration
- Built-in secrets management
✗ Semaphore Cons
- Smaller community than GitHub Actions
- Limited marketplace for pre-built steps
- Debugging failed builds can be tricky
The Verdict
New Relic is built for development teams and sre teams, with a focus on apm and infrastructure-monitoring. Semaphore targets development teams and open source projects and leads with parallel-pipelines and test-reports.
On pricing, New Relic is the clear winner for budget-conscious users — starting at $0.3/mo compared to $10/mo for Semaphore. That $9.7/mo difference adds up quickly for growing teams.
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 6), while Semaphore takes a more focused approach — which can mean a simpler, faster onboarding experience.
Both tools are a solid fit for development teams, startups — in those cases, the decision often comes down to workflow style and how your team prefers to organize work.
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.