Application performance monitoring · October 2026 Edition
New Relic vs IBM Instana
Seven of fourteen models named New Relic first on the direct prompt; two named IBM Instana. New Relic was named by fourteen of the fourteen models and IBM Instana by twelve and New Relic carries 65 labels and IBM Instana 18, so the shares are not directly comparable.
Named in eight categories this edition.
Named in four categories this edition.
First-choice share46%4%Of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, 0 to 100.
Negative rate12%17%Negative labels as a share of the product's labels, 0 to 100.
Rank in category#1#6A position in a field of 12; printed, not drawn.
Labels6518A count; the two differ.
The two percentage rows are drawn on one 0 to 100 track, New Relic reading right to left. Rank and label count are printed, not drawn.Datadog APM was named alongside these two in ten of the fourteen direct answers. New Relic vs Datadog APM · New Relic vs SigNoz · New Relic vs Site24x7
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; every quote names the model and the prompt it came from. Both figures come from the application performance monitoring page.
By framing
How many of the fourteen models made each the first choice, per way of asking, and how many argued against it.
New RelicFirst choices, of fourteen modelsIBM Instana
Direct72
Paraphrase801 against New Relic
Comparative00
Budget-constrained80
Scale-constrained20
Negative007 against New Relic · 3 against IBM Instana
Bars are first choices, 0 to 14 each sideModels that argued againstA model can name both, so the two sides of a row do not sum to fourteen.
Every model, every framing
The eighty-four answers behind the chart above, one cell each: where New Relic and IBM Instana stood in it.
| Model | Direct | Paraphrase | Comparative | Budget-constrained | Scale-constrained | Negative |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Claude Haiku 4.5 | | | | | | |
| GPT-5.4 mini | | | | | ||
| Gemini 3.5 Flash | | | | | | |
| Perplexity Sonar | | |||||
| Grok 4.1 Fast | | | | | | |
| Mistral Small | | | | |||
| DeepSeek V4 Flash | | | | | ||
| Llama 4 Maverick | | |||||
| Qwen 3.7 Flash | | | | |||
| Kimi K2 | | | | | ||
| GLM 4.7 FlashX | | | | |||
| MiniMax M2.5 | | | | | | |
| GPT-6 Luna | | | ||||
| Muse Glimmer 30B | | | | | |
New Relic IBM Instana first choice named as an alternative argued againstblank: not namedEach cell is one answer, New Relic on the left and IBM Instana on the right.The direct prompt
The plain question, one answer per model, grouped by where New Relic and IBM Instana stood in it.
Both were the first choice
1 of 14 modelsThe answer named them together, and the judge labeled each a first choice.Muse Glimmer 30BDatadog APM, IBM Instana, New Relic alternatives: AppDynamics, Site24x7
New Relic first, IBM Instana an alternative
6 of 14 modelsIBM Instana was named in the answer but not as the choice, or not at all.GPT-5.4 miniNew Relic alternatives: Datadog APM
Gemini 3.5 FlashNew Relic alternatives: Grafana Cloud, Sentry
DeepSeek V4 FlashNew Relic alternatives: Datadog APM, IBM Instana, Site24x7
Qwen 3.7 FlashNew Relic alternatives: SolarWinds Observability
Kimi K2New Relic alternatives: Datadog APM, IBM Instana, Site24x7
MiniMax M2.5New Relic alternatives: Datadog APM
IBM Instana first, New Relic not the choice
1 of 14 modelsNew Relic was named in the answer but not as the choice, or not at all.Mistral SmallIBM Instana alternatives: AppDynamics, Site24x7, Stackify Retrace
Neither was the first choice, one was named
4 of 14 modelsThe answer put something else first and named one of the two as an alternative.Claude Haiku 4.5Datadog APM alternatives: New Relic, Site24x7, SolarWinds Observability
Grok 4.1 FastDatadog APM alternatives: IBM Instana, New Relic
GLM 4.7 FlashXSite24x7 alternatives: Datadog APM, IBM Instana
GPT-6 LunaDatadog APM alternatives: New Relic
Neither was named
2 of 14 modelsThe answer made no first choice from these two in this category.Perplexity SonarDatadog APM alternatives: AppDynamics, Dynatrace, ManageEngine Applications Manager
Llama 4 Maverickno first choice alternatives: OpManager Nexus, Stackify Retrace
Bold names in an answer are the products the judge labeled a first choice; a model naming several gives each of them that label. The full answer text for every row is in the record.
By buyer segment
The same question asked on behalf of a different buyer. Each standing is computed within its segment and they are never added together. The figures above are the mid-market standing, which is the one the category orders by.
Small business
New Relic leads by fifty-three points.
New Relic53%#1 of 10IBM Instana0%#– of 10Mid-marketThe figures above
New Relic leads by forty-three points.
New Relic46%#1 of 12IBM Instana4%#6 of 12Enterprise
New Relic leads by eleven points.
New Relic11%#3 of 9IBM Instana0%#5 of 9What the models said about New Relic
Every negative label with a quote, up to three, then the highest-weighted positives, up to three. Two of two in this category shown.
“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 IBM Instana
Every negative label with a quote, up to three, then the highest-weighted positives, up to three. Six of six in this category shown.
“IBM Instana if you need fast onboarding.” DeepSeek V4 Flash · negative prompt · hard negative
“Many users find it prohibitively expensive, with pricing designed for large enterprises. Not suitable for small teams or startups.” MiniMax M2.5 · negative prompt · soft negative
“some users find it less flexible or more complex to configure for non-Kubernetes environments” Mistral Small · negative prompt · soft negative
“An automated APM solution that provides continuous discovery and monitoring of distributed applications with minimal configuration overhead, making it ideal for mid-market companies” Mistral Small · direct prompt · first choice
“Datadog, New Relic, and IBM Instana are the most effective for mid-market organizations.” Muse Glimmer 30B · direct prompt · first choice
“celebrated for its automated approach to APM, frequently ranking at the top of peer review grids for usability” Gemini 3.5 Flash · comparative prompt · alternative
Also compared
New Relic vs Datadog APMNew Relic vs SigNozNew Relic vs Site24x7New Relic vs Elastic APMNew Relic vs Grafana CloudNew Relic vs HoneycombDatadog APM vs IBM InstanaSigNoz vs IBM InstanaSite24x7 vs IBM InstanaElastic APM vs IBM InstanaIBM Instana vs Grafana CloudIBM Instana vs HoneycombAll twenty-eight head-to-head pages and the full APM standing
Comparisons are drawn for the top eight products in each category, each against each. The output is the models' output; nothing here is a recommendation by the index.