Sentry vs. New Relic: Which Monitoring Tool is Right for You?

Sentry vs. New Relic: Which Monitoring Tool is Right for You?
Do not index
Do not index
In software development, bugs, errors, and glitches are (unfortunately) inevitable.
For that reason, the importance of error monitoring tools such as Bugpilot cannot be overstated. These tools help you identify critical issues that impact your application's performance and resolve issues promptly, ensuring that your application runs smoothly and your users have a seamless experience.
Given the wide range of tools available, choosing the right tool can be overwhelming. In this article, we’ll dive deeper into three of the best error-monitoring tools out there—Sentry, New Relic, and Bugpilot.
Let’s check them out!

Sentry vs. New Relic vs. Bugpilot: Key Differences

Features

Sentry focuses on providing deep insights into your application's performance. It offers code-level diagnostics, allowing you to pinpoint and resolve issues at the programming language level. This tool tracks error trends, analyzes root causes, and optimizes your code and infrastructure.
On the other hand, New Relic goes beyond error tracking and offers a versatile monitoring solution.  It not only monitors application performance but also provides infrastructure monitoring, database monitoring, and network monitoring.
notion image
In contrast, Bugpilot presents a user-friendly interface that simplifies user issue tracking and resolution. This particular tool emphasizes delivering a centralized platform dedicated to bug tracking. This means you can efficiently create lists, manage problems, and keep track of issue-related activities in one place.

Use Cases

Check out this table that showcases the key differences between the three popular tools in terms of use cases:
Use Case
Sentry
New Relic
Bugpilot
Application Error Monitoring
🟡
Application Performance Monitoring
Infrastructure Monitoring
End-User Experience Monitoring
Bug Tracking and Issue Management
Project Management
Collaboration and Communication
Debugging and Diagnostics
🟡
Workflow Automation
Alerting and Notifications
Performance Optimization
🟡
Business Impact Analysis

Pricing

Sentry, New Relic, and Bugpilot offer different options and use different pricing methods.
Sentry's pricing is complex—features, user seats, number of errors, and performance monitoring units all impact the cost. New Relic pricing depends on the level of features required, the number of monitored hosts or applications, and the data retention period.
BugPilot follows a more straightforward approach to pricing. There are three plans—all with access to Bugpilot’s core features. The free plan supports one user, the Pay As You Grow plan costs $10/user/mo and supports automated bug detection, and the Business plan offers saving for larger teams.

What is Sentry?

Sentry is a monitoring and error-tracking platform designed to help software developers identify, diagnose, and resolve application issues. It provides real-time monitoring, allowing you to trace issues and track critical events as they happen. Sentry empowers you to diagnose and fix bugs by delivering comprehensive performance metrics.
notion image
Sentry's ability to provide custom dashboards and constant monitoring ensures that you stay on top of any issues, increasing your application's reliability. Additionally, Sentry seamlessly integrates with popular tech stacks and programming languages, making it a versatile tool for any development environment.

Key features

notion image
  • Session Replay: With Sentry’s session replay tool, you can watch a recording of their interactions, including mouse movements, clicks, and keyboard inputs.
notion image
  • Error Monitoring: Sentry's error monitoring feature provides a simple yet powerful solution to help you resolve bugs and errors efficiently. It captures and logs errors, exceptions, and crashes in your application.
notion image
  • Performance Monitoring: Sentry offers limited performance insights, helping identify slow requests and inefficient code segments affecting application performance.

Pricing

Sentry offers four different pricing plans for their users—Developer (free), Team ($26/mo), Business ($80/mo), and Enterprise (custom).
notion image
Developer allows you to enjoy features such as GitHub issues, language support, and release tracking. Team offers unlimited member use, third-party integration, metric alerts, and more. Business offers features that are perfect for running a business, such as advanced analytics, custom dashboards, cross-project visibility, and many more.

Pros and Cons

Pros
  • Allows real-time error tracking
  • Provides detailed error reports
  • Customizable alerts
  • Allows you to group similar errors
  • Integrates with various programming languages
Cons
  • Performance monitoring feature has limitations
  • Requires a learning curve
  • Can be costly

What is New Relic?

New Relic is a leading application performance monitoring (APM) and observability platform that empowers organizations to gain deep insights into their digital applications and services' performance, health, and user experience.
notion image
Using New Relic, you can monitor servers, networks, and other aspects, providing you with a comprehensive understanding of your complete technology setup. This tool furnishes in-depth technical information, enabling you to delve extensively into your application's performance. This encompasses areas such as the time taken for tasks to load, monitoring of the CPU's activity, and overseeing the functionality of databases.

Key features

notion image
  • Application Security: With features like code-level diagnostics and transaction monitoring, New Relic allows you to track and identify security risks in real-time.
notion image
  • Infrastructure Monitoring: New Relic's deep insights and customizable dashboards allow you to gain key metrics and information about your infrastructure's performance at a glance.
notion image
  • Application Monitoring: Monitor your application's performance, infrastructure's health, and security all in one place with New Relic.

Pricing

New Relic offers three plans—Standard ($0+/mo), Pro (custom), and Enterprise (custom).
notion image
The actual price you pay depends on users and the amount of data you need to ingest per month. If you’re looking for advanced features (SAML SSO, priority support, etc.) and higher limits on full platform users, you’ll need to check out Pro and Enterprise.

Pros & Cons

Pros
  • Sends alerts
  • Fast relay of data from host agent to New Relic
  • Easy debugging of the code stack
  • Collates various data collected from various sources
Cons
  • Some users encountered issues with the interface
  • Poor data visualization
  • Takes a longer time to load data

Sentry and New Relic alternative: Bugpilot

If you're looking for alternative error monitoring software to Sentry and New Relic, Bugpilot is a great option.
notion image
Bugpilot is a bug-tracking and issue-management platform designed to assist development teams in effectively identifying, tracking, and resolving software bugs, tasks, and issues throughout the software development lifecycle.
Bugpilot focuses on streamlining the process of managing and resolving software issues, and enhancing collaboration among development teams, quality assurance (QA) professionals, and stakeholders. With its simple and user-friendly interface, Bugpilot makes it easy for startups, SaaS companies, web agencies, and even non-technical founders to identify application bugs and zero in on potential solutions.
Bugpilot also provides customizable dashboards and reports, allowing you to monitor the metrics that matter most to your business. Additionally, it supports a wide range of programming languages, making it compatible with diverse tech stacks.

Key features

notion image
  • User-Frustration Monitoring: Track and analyze user frustration in real-time, helping you identify any issues that may be causing frustration or hindering the user experience.
notion image
  • Technical Bug Reports: Create detailed bug reporting that includes relevant information such as error messages, screenshots, and steps to reproduce the issue quickly.
notion image
  • Session Replays: Watch recordings of user sessions, giving you a visual understanding of their actions, clicks, and navigation patterns.
notion image
  • Bug Tracker: Identify and address any potential issues that may be affecting your users' experience by tracking bugs in real-time.

Pricing

Bugpilot offers different pricing tiers to cater to different requirements.
notion image
Better-Than-Nothing is our free-forever plan—it supports the bug reporting widget, unlimited bug reports, and one user seat. Pay As You Grow ($10/user/mo) gives users access to all Bugpilot’s features, including automated bug detection, 20+ integrations, and more.
Business ($240/mo) is a fixed package deal that supports 20 user seats and offers five workspaces, permission management, and custom branding.

Pros & Cons

Pros:
  • Real-time monitoring
  • Custom dashboards
  • Automated bug reports
  • Easy to integrate
  • Excellent customer support
  • Collaboration features
Cons:
  • Users reported that the setup process isn’t very intuitive
  • Requires learning curve

Sentry vs. New Relic vs. Bugpilot: Feature Comparison

Please see the table below for a feature comparison among Sentry, New Relic, and Bugpilot to help you understand and choose the best error-monitoring tool for you.
Sentry
New Relic
Bugpilot
User-Frustration Monitoring
Bug Reporting Widget
Session Replays
AI-assisted Troubleshooting
🟡
🟡
Bug Tracking
Technical Bug Reports
Error Tracking
🟡
Detailed Error Reports
🟡
Alerting and Notifications
Performance Insights
🟡
Application Metrics
🟡
User Context Information
Release Tracking
Integration Options
Self-Hosting Options
With Bugpilot’s free plan offering full access to core features like session replay, AI troubleshooting, detailed bug reports, and bug tracking features, it’s a cost-effective option for developers on a budget. Plus, the $10/user/month price point makes premium features more accessible than Sentry’s and New Relic’s.

It’s time to upgrade your monitoring tool

For bug tracking and application monitoring, Sentry, New Relic, and Bugpilot are all great options. These comprehensive monitoring tools provide deep insight into your application's performance and potential issues, allowing you to identify and resolve bugs quickly.
If your primary focus is efficiently tracking and fixing bugs and ensuring seamless collaboration between development teams, Bugpilot could be an excellent choice. Its emphasis on customizable workflows, collaboration tools, and project management features could enhance your team's productivity and communication.
Create a free account and see Bugpilot in action!

Get automatic notifications when coding errors occur, failed network requests happen, or users rage-click. Bugpilot provides you with user session replay and all the technical info needed to reproduce and fix bugs quickly.

Never Miss a Bug Again!

Start a free trial today