But New Relic isn't necessarily designed to be a tool to save you hosting $ (although I suppose it could). What about as a tool to save engineering hours, and increase conversion rates by reducing error rates and improving performance? Maybe the "worth it" changes then -- especially when you consider that we have a Lite product that's absolutely free for unlimited apps, servers, and request volume -- just limited to 24 hour data retention and missing some of our more advanced/in-depth features.

I work for New Relic, obviously :)

> What about as a tool to save engineering hours, and increase conversion rates by reducing error rates and improving performance?

The problem I have with that argument is that the number of hours New Relic saves me isn't really related to the number of instances I'm running. If I've got 10 AWS medium instances and I swap them out for 30 AWS micro instances, my NR cost just tripled but its utility to me likely didn't.

You just need to talk your account rep (or sales if you don't have one). You will definitely not pay this price. I work for New Relic, so if you need help, let me know.

I really don't like playing "what's the real price" games.

I hear you. It's just a matter of simplicity. We can't have every single environment configuration on the site. So, we have a few list prices with links to contact us if your model doesn't fit. I hope that helps. If you have other questions, let me know.