Firebase Crashlytics vs. New Relic

Firebase Crashlytics and New Relic are both software designed to monitor applications to provide businesses with insights on user behavior and performance.  Firebase Crashlytics is a mobile analytics tool built to analyze the performance of iOS and Android applications.  New Relic is an Application Performance Monitoring tool that analyzes applications of all kinds. Both application monitoring solutions are popular with businesses of all sizes.

Features

Firebase Crashlytics and New Relic both provide essential application monitoring features like user behavior analysis, but they also have some standout features that set them apart from each other.

Firebase Crashlytics is a lightweight program that specializes in identifying crashes so developers can fix issues as they arise.  In addition to identifying causes of crashes, Firebase Crashalytics can also help businesses identify the most important issues to fix by grouping together similar crash causes and identifying what devices they occur on. For businesses looking for a cheap, fast solution for identifying crashes, Firebase Crashlytics is a great choice.

New Relic is an all in one web and mobile application monitoring solution.  Businesses can use New Relic to see how users are interacting with their applications and how the application performs. New Relic also provides detailed analytics features that help businesses glean insights on their application with customizable reports.

Limitations

Though Firebase Crashlytics and New Relic both provide insights on application performance, they also have some limitations that are important to consider.

Firebase Crashlytics provides detailed crash reports and useful reports on how the development team should focus their resources, but it doesn’t provide significant information about user behavior.  If a business is seeking application data about performance and user behavior they may consider an option like New Relic.

New Relic provides detailed information regarding user behavior and application performance, but it is a more resource intensive software compared to the lightweight Firebase Crashlytics.  Additionally, New Relics provides good crash reporting, but doesn’t provide detailed insights as to what crashing issues should be prioritized.  For organizations focusing on application crashing issues, Firebase Crashlytics may be ideal.

Pricing

Firebase Crashlytics offers a free version for smaller applications, and a pay as you go plan for businesses with a large amount of application data.

New Relic offers an essentials pricing package for $12.50 per month that retains application data for a few days. The pro package, which costs $25.00 per month retains application data for three months.