APILens vs New Relic
API observability without the credit card.
New Relic is powerful but complex. APILens gives you the API monitoring features you actually need — with one line of code and zero setup friction.
Get your API key — free| Feature | APILens | New Relic |
|---|---|---|
| Setup time | 60 seconds | 30+ min |
| Lines of code | 1 | 15+ |
| Dependencies | 0 | 40+ |
| Infrastructure | None | Agent |
| Auto DB profiling | — | |
| Distributed tracing | ||
| Error tracking | ||
| N+1 detection | — | |
| Real-time dashboard | ||
| Self-hostable | — | — |
| Price | Free to start | Scales per user |
Choose APILens if:
- You want to start monitoring without a credit card
- You want auto DB profiling for 9 libraries out of the box
- You need N+1 query detection out of the box
- You want zero dependencies in production
- You prefer a simple npm middleware over an APM agent
Choose New Relic if:
- You need full-stack APM (frontend + backend + mobile)
- You need browser performance monitoring
- You have a multi-language stack (not just Node.js)
- You need AI-powered anomaly detection
- You need NRQL query language for custom dashboards
Try APILens in 60 seconds
$ npm install auto-api-observeapp.use(observe({ apiKey: 'sk_...' }))No credit card. No agent. No YAML. Works in 60 seconds.