The 12 Best Real User Monitoring Tools for Small Businesses
Online businesses want to know what their users are doing on their websites or applications. This is essential to gauge the performance of these important digital properties and track customer satisfaction levels. Performance is important. As per studies, 88.5% of website designers believe that online visitors are likely to leave a slow-loading website. 73.1% believe that users leave due to non-responsiveness.
Favorably, real user monitoring (RUM) tools are effective for monitoring website performance and user activity.
Here’s a look at the 12 best real user monitoring tools designed for small businesses:
#1 appNeura
#2 Sematext
#3 Dynatrace
#4 AppDynamics
#5 Raygun
#6 Uptime
#7 Pingdom
#8 Uptrends
#9 Atatus
#10 RapidSpike
#11 New relic
#12 Datadog
1. appNeura
Source – appNeura
appNeura, created by Avekshaa Technologies, uses artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to improve how users experience apps and to increase brand loyalty. It provides real-time feedback on app quality, helping developers, IT managers, and product owners improve their apps immediately and handle potential issues in advance.
appNeura integrates data from diverse sources, including non-relational databases. appNeura offers recommendations for quickly fixing issues across various elements like APIs, networks, devices, operating systems and apps.
Its patented ApDex health indicator, smarter alerting system, and customizable dashboards further enable a robust understanding and management of application performance.
The creators of appNeura, Avekshaa Technologies, have a rich experience in improving app performance, with their work leading to over a 150% average improvement in application performance for their clients.
Features
- Predictive Analytics: One of appNeura’s major advantages is its predictive analytics capability. While other tools provide certain levels of monitoring and alerting, appNeura offers superior predictive power. This results in businesses being able to anticipate and prevent issues, thereby ensuring a better customer experience.
- Ease of Integration: appNeura’s lightweight SDK can be integrated with just a few lines of code. Unlike many DEM tools, there’s no need to install agents on every server or device, which simplifies both the implementation and management process.
- ApDex Health Indicator: appNeura offers a patented ApDex feature, a clear and simple health indicator for your application. ApDex allows you to quickly gauge your app’s performance using percentage scores, numerical scales, or color-coded indicators (green, amber, red), facilitating quick issue identification and resolution.
- Proactive Monitoring: With appNeura, issues are identified and resolved before they impact end-users. This proactive approach maintains a positive user experience, protecting revenue and preserving the organization’s reputation.
- Advanced Analytics: Powered by AI and ML, appNeura’s advanced log analytics provide deeper insights into issue root causes than New Relic and AppDynamics. It can analyze a wide variety of performance parameters, such as third-party JavaScript, image loading, and Ajax requests.
- Web Vitals Focus: appNeura emphasizes Web Vitals, Google’s set of metrics for gauging web user experience.
- First Contentful Paint (FCP): Measures when the first content (image, text, or video) shows up; slow FCP feels sluggish.
- Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): Tracks time for main content to load; long LCP frustrates users.
- First Input Delay (FID): Checks response time to first user action; high FID can annoy users.
- Total Blocking Time (TBT): Notes time when the site is unresponsive; high TBT can lead to task abandonment.
- Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): Measures how much page layout moves during load; unexpected shifts can cause confusion for users.
- Intelligent Alerting: appNeura’s smart algorithms prioritize alerts based on impact, enabling quicker response times and less downtime. Its SDK buffers data every 15 seconds and alerts mobile devices if time surpasses a predetermined threshold. This indicates to the user that their network is not up to speed.
- Customizable Dashboards: appNeura’s dashboards can be customized to monitor and track performance metrics that align with your specific application and business goals.
Business Benefits
- Complete insight into the customer experience on different devices and across geographies
- Predictive analytics that can proactively prevent major issues with real-time monitoring
- Delivery of efficient and digital-ready applications
- Identification of the most vulnerable device or network
- Extraction of more business value from digital experience initiatives
Pricing
appNeura is available for a free trial – valid for 28 days. Sign up today!
2. Sematext
Source – Sematext
As a real user monitoring tool, Sematext provides complete visibility into websites and web applications. Easy to install, Sematext supports single-page applications (SPAs).
Features
- Waterfall view enables users to pinpoint the resources or assets that are slowing down the website or web app
- A well-designed dashboard visually depicts the number of active users and performance
- The efficient alerting system notifies whenever performance drops below the threshold level
With Sematext, organizations can analyze every page-loading event, including the consumed time and time spent in the frontend and backend.
Business Benefits
- Identification of performance bottlenecks to improve user satisfaction
- Rapid status recognition feature with smiley faces that reflect the website speed and user satisfaction
- Exceptional backend support for website managers and administrators
Pros and Cons
| Pros | Cons |
| Detailed browser checks for any loading failures Efficient alerting system for both external and internal monitoring Flexible subscription plan | Limited free trial period |
Pricing
Sematext is available for a 14-day free trial. After that, businesses have to pay a subscription fee that is charged monthly based on page views.
3. Dynatrace
Source – Dynatrace
Dynatrace offers both synthetic and real user monitoring as its built-in capability. Based on their purchased credits, customers can choose which of these services to utilize.
Features
- Tracks business-related metrics to correlate the potential business impact of performance issues
- Maps the entire customer journey, including the user’s actions on the website
- The session recording feature enables technicians to monitor the screen as a remote desktop view
With Dynatrace, companies can evaluate and improve user satisfaction by monitoring all mobile and web applications across all devices.
Business Benefits
- Run-through tracing of individual user actions on the website
- Data aggregation that enables companies to monitor the performance of every website element
Dynatrace – Pros and Cons
| Pros | Cons |
| Intuitive dashboard designed for non-technical users Visual reports & interactive UI for tracking ROI Monitoring mobile users | Expensive for small businesses Not very user-friendly for beginners |
Pricing
Dynatrace is available for a 15-day free trial. The RUM pricing starts from $0.00225/session.
Explore Dynatrace Alternatives for Small Business
4. AppDynamics Browser RUM
Source – AppDynamics
AppDynamics provides a real user monitoring tool that tracks customer journeys and provides complete visibility into their interactions with web applications. With these insights, companies can easily optimize user experiences.
Features
- Dynamic Baselines that allow for anomaly detection
- Real-time intelligent alerting system for quick performance monitoring
- Frontend and backend systems monitoring
Besides, AppDynamics is effective for registering events during every user session and aggregating them into system performance metrics.
Business Benefits
- Useful for checking which third-party application is slowing down the website
- Using event analysis, it can track the user’s entire journey through the website
AppDynamics – Pros and Cons
| Pros | Cons |
| Designed for large enterprises Self-learning platform and free training Good dependency mapping and visualization | Limited templates for real user monitoring Expensive than other RUM tools |
Pricing
AppDynamics offers a 15-day trial period. The RUM pricing starts off based on page views and users.
We have compared AppDynamics with New Relic. Learn which is better for your business: New Relic vs AppDynamics
5. Raygun
Source – Raygun
The Raygun tool for real user monitoring is designed for both web and mobile applications and provides valuable insights into the user experience. With it, companies can see who is using the applications and the problems (if any) they are facing.
Features
- Monitoring of every individual user session for any problems and possible solutions
- Support for real-time user tracking
- Support for single-page applications (SPAs)
- Web page performance monitoring
With Raygun, companies can work with real-time data from every user session and make optimum changes to improve user experience.
Business Benefits
- Monitoring user experience metrics like loading time and errors
- Retracing the user navigation path to discover how they encountered errors
Raygun – Pros and Cons
| Pros | Cons |
| Tracking of individual user sessions User-friendly interface User-centric profiling | Inaccurate metrics Poor customer support |
Pricing
Raygun’s real user monitoring plan is priced at $80/month for 100,000 sessions.
6. Uptime
Source – Uptime
Uptime offers a package of built-in services, including synthetic monitoring, web asset testing, and real user monitoring. With this tool, companies can leverage real website visitors’ data to optimize their website performance and user experience.
Features
- Capacity analysis
- Web page and element load speed feedback
- Error reports
With Uptime, organizations can easily switch between synthetic and real user monitoring to perform root cause analysis. It’s easy to integrate with third-party monitors like Datadog and Opsgenie.
Business Benefits
- Improve frontend performance by reporting response time
- Diagnose any issues with website speed
- Discover JavaScript issues that impact the users
Uptime – Pros and Cons
| Pros | Cons |
| Ease of use Quick resolution of reported issues Efficient email and SMS services | Not suited for SLA and OLA calculations |
Pricing
Uptime offers a 14-day free trial. Real user monitoring plans start from $67/month.
7. Pingdom
Source – Pingdom
As a unified monitoring tool, Pingdom integrates real user monitoring with transaction and uptime monitoring. Using Pingdom, companies can obtain greater sales insights from their website’s performance across regions.
Features
- Color-coded nation-wise traffic data on the dashboard
- Indicators, such as the number of live website connections and bounce rate (over the last 24 hours)
- Incident management
- Real-time data insights and alerts
With its unified monitoring platform, Pingdom eliminates guesswork and leverages actual visitors’ data to influence business decisions.
Business Benefits
- Provides real-time insights into marketing campaigns
- Indicates the website’s load time across nations
- Useful for tracking user experience and satisfaction levels
Pingdom – Pros and Cons
| Pros | Cons |
| External monitoring from over 70 locations Cloud hosting thus ensures no setup complication Customized alerts in the form of email, SMS, or through custom solutions | Limited free trial period |
Pricing
Pingdom offers a 30-day free trial. Real user monitoring plans start at $10/month for 100,000 page views.
8. Uptrends
Source – Uptrends
Uptrends is a simple and intuitive tool used for real-time data analysis. It combines users’ data with its synthetic monitoring tests.
Features
- Website performance analysis from the user’s perspective
- Multi-browser monitoring, along with API and server monitoring
- Copy-paste code snippets on the web page for immediately collecting data about the user experience
- Tracking of key metrics like page usage, nation-wise performance, and browser usage
Along with Uptrends, companies can profile users using web analytics tools like Google Analytics.
Business Benefits
- Gain immediate insights into user profiles
- Review the complete picture of the website’s health and performance
Uptrends – Pros and Cons
| Pros | Cons |
| User-friendly and intuitive interface Customizable dashboard Geographical distribution of users | The custom alert option is only on email |
Pricing
Uptrends offers a 30-day free trial. The premium plans begin from $17.50/month.
9. Atatus
Source – Atatus
With its real-time monitoring, Atatus provides end-to-end visibility into inefficient website areas that are impacting the user experience.
Features
- Webpage monitoring to identify and diagnose slow-loading pages and assets
- Support for single-page applications (or SPAs)
- Support for Google Core Web Vitals for measuring the quality of user experience
- AJAX monitoring for fixing slow-performing requests
With Atatus, companies get a detailed view of each page load event. They can also filter data based on URL, type of connection, device, and country.
Business Benefits
- Provides immediate insights into customer behavior and website performance
- Helps understand which site assets are slowing down web pages through waterfall view
Atatus – Pros and Cons
| Pros | Cons |
| Insights into the customer journey Identifying JavaScript errors impacting user experience | Doesn’t support all web frameworks |
Pricing
Atatus pricing is based on the number of monthly (or hourly) hosts, page visits, and log size. Atatus RUM is priced at $1.96/month for 10,000 views.
10. RapidSpike
Source – RapidSpike
RapidSpike RUM is an effective tool for identifying real-time performance issues using live data from live users.
Features
- Lightweight customized RUM script to set up this tool
- Highlighted vital traffic metrics through graphs and tables
- Detailed data analysis to track page loading across various metrics
Also, the RapidSpike RUM tool is easy to setup and configure.
Business Benefits
- Enables companies to understand how their website performs during the busiest hours
- Tracks user experience based on country, browser, and device
- Solves latency problems and eliminates performance bottlenecks
RapidSpike – Pros and Cons
| Pros | Cons |
| Detailed insight into the customer journey RUM product functionalities Customer support | Confusing UI Difficult to learn for new users |
Pricing
RapidSpike is available for a 30-day free trial. Priced plans start from £60/month.
11. New Relic
Source – New Relic
The New Relic RUM tool is designed for monitoring browsers and optimizing website performance. New Relic includes real user monitoring along with application performance monitoring (APM).
Features
- Monitoring of page views and load times in the browser
- AJAX timing and call reports
- Details about JavaScript errors and instances
- Performance monitoring of individual sessions
With its end-to-end insights, New Relic ensures that companies spend more time optimizing the customer experience and less time on calls. Here are some of the main benefits of New Relic:
- Monitoring the entire lifecycle of a page or view
- Provides access to insights from the user’s perspective
New Relic – Pros and Cons
| Pros | Cons |
| Built-in synthetic monitoring Efficient alert system APM-driven insights | High licensing costs UI issues |
Pricing
New Relic offers a free lite version with lesser features. Premium pricing is available only on request.
Explore top New Relic alternatives for small businesses in 2023.
12. Datadog
Source – Datadog
With its real user monitoring service, Datadog can accurately monitor page load times, error rates, or any service dependency. It represents data-driven insights on a clutter-free dashboard.
Features
Here are some of the main features of Datadog:
- Graphical dashboard screen
- Error tracking and crash reporting
- Dependency mapping
- Real-time performance alerts
Besides, the Datadog RUM service includes thresholds for performance drops and associated alerts.
Business Benefits
- Viewing aggregated data based on country, device, and browser
- Choosing between different data and time horizons
- Visibility into user behavior and interaction
Datadog – Pros and Cons
| Pros | Cons |
| Clean and simple UI Templates and widgets for real user monitoring A holistic view of network performance & accessibility | Users cite issues related to documentation Entry barrier, and cost |
Pricing
Datadog offers a 14-day free trial. The mobile and browser RUM pricing plans start from $1.5/month for 1,000 sessions. The Browser RUM & Session Replay plan is priced at $1.8/month for 1,000 sessions.
We’ve compared Datadog with Dynatrace in another article. Learn Dynatrace vs Datadog and compare which could be a better option for your business.
Which Real User Monitoring Tool Should You Go For?
For small and growing businesses, a real user monitoring tool is helpful in monitoring user activities and website performance. Based on the business requirements, you can choose from any of these real-user monitoring tools.
appNeura, in particular, helps you significantly improve the quality of the digital experience facilitated. Want to know how? Get in touch with us today.