# New Relic vs Datadog APM: which do AI models recommend for APM, October 2026

IT AI Recommendation Index, October 2026 Edition, Application performance monitoring. Seven of fourteen models named New Relic first on the direct prompt; five named Datadog APM. Page: https://it-ai-index.com/operations/application-performance-monitoring/new-relic-vs-datadog-apm/

| | First-choice share | Rank | Negative rate | Labels | Models naming it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| New Relic | 46% | #1 of 12 | 12% | 65 | 14 of 14 |
| Datadog APM | 20% | #2 of 12 | 29% | 68 | 14 of 14 |

## The direct prompt, model by model

- Muse Glimmer 30B: both first (first choices: Datadog APM, IBM Instana, New Relic) (alternatives: AppDynamics, Site24x7)
- GPT-5.4 mini: new relic first (first choices: New Relic) (alternatives: Datadog APM)
- Gemini 3.5 Flash: new relic first (first choices: New Relic) (alternatives: Grafana Cloud, Sentry)
- DeepSeek V4 Flash: new relic first (first choices: New Relic) (alternatives: Datadog APM, IBM Instana, Site24x7)
- Qwen 3.7 Flash: new relic first (first choices: New Relic) (alternatives: SolarWinds Observability)
- Kimi K2: new relic first (first choices: New Relic) (alternatives: Datadog APM, IBM Instana, Site24x7)
- MiniMax M2.5: new relic first (first choices: New Relic) (alternatives: Datadog APM)
- Claude Haiku 4.5: datadog apm first (first choices: Datadog APM) (alternatives: New Relic, Site24x7, SolarWinds Observability)
- Perplexity Sonar: datadog apm first (first choices: Datadog APM) (alternatives: AppDynamics, Dynatrace, ManageEngine Applications Manager)
- Grok 4.1 Fast: datadog apm first (first choices: Datadog APM) (alternatives: IBM Instana, New Relic)
- GPT-6 Luna: datadog apm first (first choices: Datadog APM) (alternatives: New Relic)
- GLM 4.7 FlashX: neither first, one named (first choices: Site24x7) (alternatives: Datadog APM, IBM Instana)
- Mistral Small: neither named (first choices: IBM Instana) (alternatives: AppDynamics, Site24x7, Stackify Retrace)
- Llama 4 Maverick: neither named (alternatives: OpManager Nexus, Stackify Retrace)

## What the models said about New Relic

- "New Relic if your team lacks a dedicated observability engineer." (DeepSeek V4 Flash, negative prompt, hard negative)
- "New Relic (Often considered the most generous) ... It offers the highest data allowance among major enterprise vendors." (Qwen 3.7 Flash, budget prompt, first choice)

## What the models said about Datadog APM

- "tools and vendors you should be cautious about or potentially avoid... 1. Datadog - Most Common Complaint ... Unpredictable pricing" (Kimi K2, negative prompt, hard negative)
- "Avoid on a limited budget unless you need the premium features: Datadog, since it's typically the easiest to overspend on" (GPT-5.4 mini, budget prompt, hard negative)
- "Avoid: - Datadog if you have budget sensitivity or Kubernetes at scale." (DeepSeek V4 Flash, negative prompt, hard negative)
- "I'd recommend Datadog APM if you want the strongest overall balance of observability, integrations, and scalability" (Perplexity Sonar, paraphrase prompt, first choice)
- "Datadog is widely regarded as the industry standard for modern, cloud-native microservices environments." (Gemini 3.5 Flash, comparative prompt, first choice)
- "Datadog or New Relic - they scale well, have strong support, and are popular in the mid-market" (MiniMax M2.5, scale prompt, first choice)

Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts over all fourteen models, for a mid-market B2B company; rank is within the category. Comparisons are drawn for the top eight products in each category. Published under CC BY 4.0; the output is the models' output, and nothing here is a recommendation by the index.