Side by side
New Relic Kubernetes Monitoring vs Thanos
Both stand on kubernetes monitoring. Which one you can start free with, which one lets you read the code, and what each costs once you pay.
Free plan LinuxSelf-hostedWeb+1
New Relic Kubernetes Monitoring covers cluster telemetry, application correlation, and alerting in one integration. Its free tier has a stated ingest allowance, but installation requires a license key and the default configuration uses a privileged sidecar.
Visit New Relic Kubernetes Monitoring Free plan APILinuxSelf-hosted
Thanos provides cross-cluster querying and long-term storage for Prometheus environments. Its security limitations around local metrics and HTTP APIs should be weighed when planning a deployment.
Visit ThanosThe facts
| New Relic Kubernetes Monitoring | Thanos | |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Open source | Not published | Not published |
| Runs on | Linux, Self-hosted, Web, Windows | API, Linux, Self-hosted |
| Lowest paid plan | Free or on request | Free or on request |
| Plans published | 4 | 1 |
| Maker | Not published | Not published |
| Website | newrelic.com | thanos.io |
| On kubernetes monitoring | #13 of 49 | #29 of 49 |
New Relic Kubernetes Monitoring: what it does well
- Combines Kubernetes metrics, events, logs, and traces.
- Collects Prometheus metrics through workload service discovery.
- Links application performance data with Kubernetes data.
- Supports predefined and custom Kubernetes alerts.
- Free tier includes 100 GB monthly ingest.
What to know first
- Installation requires a New Relic license key.
- Default setup uses a privileged Infrastructure Agent sidecar.
- Unprivileged mode provides reduced host visibility.
Thanos: what it does well
- Queries metrics across Prometheus servers and clusters.
- Supports unlimited retention using object storage.
- Downsamples historical data for large-range queries.
- Works with Grafana via the Prometheus Query API.
What to know first
- Requires Prometheus v2.2.1+ with persistent disk.
- Local metrics are not encrypted by Thanos.
- HTTP APIs lack authorization and TLS support.
- Single-node production use is not recommended.
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