# New Relic vs IBM Instana: 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; two named IBM Instana. Page: https://it-ai-index.com/operations/application-performance-monitoring/new-relic-vs-ibm-instana/

| | First-choice share | Rank | Negative rate | Labels | Models naming it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| New Relic | 46% | #1 of 12 | 12% | 65 | 14 of 14 |
| IBM Instana | 4% | #6 of 12 | 17% | 18 | 12 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)
- Mistral Small: ibm instana first (first choices: IBM Instana) (alternatives: AppDynamics, Site24x7, Stackify Retrace)
- Claude Haiku 4.5: neither first, one named (first choices: Datadog APM) (alternatives: New Relic, Site24x7, SolarWinds Observability)
- Grok 4.1 Fast: neither first, one named (first choices: Datadog APM) (alternatives: IBM Instana, New Relic)
- GLM 4.7 FlashX: neither first, one named (first choices: Site24x7) (alternatives: Datadog APM, IBM Instana)
- GPT-6 Luna: neither first, one named (first choices: Datadog APM) (alternatives: New Relic)
- Perplexity Sonar: neither named (first choices: Datadog APM) (alternatives: AppDynamics, Dynatrace, ManageEngine Applications Manager)
- 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 IBM Instana

- "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)

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.