Real User Monitoring (RUM) collects performance data from actual visitors to your website. Unlike synthetic monitoring, RUM captures real-world conditions including various devices, browsers, network speeds, and geographic locations.
Benefits of RUM
- See how real users experience your site
- Capture data from all device types and browsers
- Understand performance across geographic regions
- Identify issues that only appear in production
- Track Core Web Vitals from the field
RUM vs Synthetic Monitoring
| Aspect | RUM | Synthetic | |--------|-----|-----------| | Data source | Real users | Simulated tests | | Conditions | Variable | Controlled | | Coverage | All pages visited | Tested pages only | | When | Continuous | Scheduled |
What RUM measures
- Page load times
- Core Web Vitals (LCP, INP, CLS)
- JavaScript errors
- User interactions
- Geographic and device distribution
VitalSentinel RUM
VitalSentinel provides RUM with minimal performance impact, tracking Core Web Vitals and user experience metrics across all your pages.
Related Terms
Chrome User Experience Report (CrUX)
A public dataset of real user experience data from millions of websites, collected from Chrome users who have opted in to usage statistic reporting.
Core Web Vitals
A set of three metrics defined by Google that measure the loading performance, interactivity, and visual stability of a web page.
Field Data
Performance metrics collected from real users in production environments, as opposed to lab data collected in controlled testing conditions.
Synthetic Monitoring
A type of performance monitoring that uses automated scripts to simulate user interactions and measure performance in controlled conditions.