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

IT AI Recommendation Index, October 2026 Edition, Observability platforms. Nine of fourteen models named New Relic first on the direct prompt; four named Datadog. Page: https://it-ai-index.com/operations/observability-platforms/new-relic-vs-datadog/

| | First-choice share | Rank | Negative rate | Labels | Models naming it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| New Relic | 27% | #2 of 12 | 14% | 63 | 14 of 14 |
| Datadog | 18% | #3 of 12 | 40% | 68 | 14 of 14 |

## The direct prompt, model by model

- Claude Haiku 4.5: new relic first (first choices: New Relic) (alternatives: Atatus, Datadog, Elastic Observability, Grafana, Grafana Labs' LGTM+ stack, Motadata ObserveOps)
- GPT-5.4 mini: new relic first (first choices: New Relic) (alternatives: Dynatrace, Grafana)
- Grok 4.20: new relic first (first choices: New Relic) (alternatives: Datadog, Dynatrace, Grafana Labs)
- Mistral Small: new relic first (first choices: Grafana, New Relic) (alternatives: Middleware.io, OpenObserve)
- DeepSeek V4 Flash: new relic first (first choices: New Relic) (alternatives: Elastic Observability, Grafana)
- Llama 4 Maverick: new relic first (first choices: New Relic) (alternatives: Datadog, Motadata ObserveOps)
- Qwen 3.7 Flash: new relic first (first choices: Grafana, New Relic)
- Kimi K2: new relic first (first choices: New Relic) (alternatives: Grafana, SigNoz)
- GLM 4.7 FlashX: new relic first (first choices: New Relic) (alternatives: Datadog, Grafana + Prometheus, Splunk Observability Cloud)
- Perplexity Sonar: datadog first (first choices: Datadog) (alternatives: Coralogix, Middleware.io, Motadata ObserveOps, OpenObserve)
- MiniMax M2.5: datadog first (first choices: Datadog, Grafana Labs) (alternatives: Dynatrace)
- GPT-6 Luna: datadog first (first choices: Datadog) (alternatives: Grafana, Honeycomb, New Relic)
- Muse Glimmer 30B: datadog first (first choices: Datadog) (alternatives: Atatus, Middleware.io, New Relic, OpenObserve, Sematext)
- Gemini 3.5 Flash: neither first, one named (first choices: Honeycomb) (alternatives: Grafana, New Relic)

## What the models said about New Relic

- "| New Relic/Datadog | SaaS | Limited free | High ($0.35/GB + users) | Avoid for tight budgets |" (Grok 4.20, budget prompt, hard negative)
- "New Relic Why be cautious: - Complex pricing model" (Kimi K2, negative prompt, hard negative)
- "New Relic is recommended for teams wanting all telemetry types on a single ingest meter with a genuinely useful free tier" (Claude Haiku 4.5, direct prompt, first choice)

## What the models said about Datadog

- "By far the most frequently cited platform for cost-related concerns... Unpredictable and complex billing — This is the #1 complaint by a wide margin" (DeepSeek V4 Flash, negative prompt, hard negative)
- "~$2,300+ (very expensive) ... you won't face the "sticker shock" that comes with platforms like Datadog" (Kimi K2, budget prompt, hard negative)
- "Datadog - The Market Leader ... Choose Datadog if you want the most comprehensive, easy-to-use platform with the broadest integrations" (Kimi K2, comparative prompt, first choice)
- "Datadog offers a unified full-stack monitoring platform that collects and correlates data from over 1,000 vendor-backed technologies." (Llama 4 Maverick, paraphrase prompt, first choice)
- "Datadog continues to be a leader providing a unified platform... Datadog = broadest SaaS ecosystem with fast setup but SKU-heavy cost" (Muse Glimmer 30B, comparative 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.