5 Best Real User Monitoring Tools for an Optimal User Experience

Real user monitoring tools track and analyze how users interact with your website or app, providing actionable insights to optimize performance and user experience.

For example, FullSession offers real-time session recordings and replays, interactive heatmaps, website feedback forms, conversion funnel analysis, and error tracking to help you capture and analyze key behavioral patterns and optimize your website for peak performance. 

Book a demo to explore its capabilities.

Real user monitoring tools also help identify performance issues and ensure product or service quality to boost conversion rates. However, choosing the right solution can be challenging, as each software differs in features, benefits, and pricing. 

This article will guide you through the best RUM tools to help you make an informed choice.

Key Takeaways

• FullSession is a user behavior analytics software that provides visual insights to help you optimize website UI, UX and performance and boost conversion rates. It includes session recordings, replays, interactive heatmaps, conversion funnel analysis, and error tracking. FullSession fully complies with GDPR, CCPA, and PCI standards. Pricing starts at $39/month, with a 20% discount for annual plans. Book a demo now.
• Dynatrace RUM is a real user monitoring tool that provides full-stack visibility, helping large enterprises track user interactions and performance issues in real time. Key features include AI-powered problem detection, real-time session monitoring, and mobile app support. While it offers deep insights, its pricing can be expensive, starting at $0.00225 per session. It may also be complex for smaller teams.
• Retrace is an application performance management tool that also includes real user monitoring. It offers error tracking, real-time user monitoring, session replays, and application performance monitoring. Retrace is best for development teams and small to medium businesses. Pricing is tiered based on the number of applications and servers. Its interface can seem cluttered for inexperienced users.
• Datadog RUM is a full-stack monitoring platform that links user behavior with back-end infrastructure performance. It provides real-time monitoring, error tracking, and session replays. Datadog integrates well with its ecosystem, though its usage-based pricing can escalate quickly. The base plan starts at $31/month, but setup and managing data volume can be complex for smaller teams.
• New Relic is a real user monitoring tool that focuses on front-end performance insights. It tracks real-time user interactions, page load performance, error tracking, and session traces. It integrates with New Relic’s larger suite of tools, making it useful for monitoring both front-end and back-end performance. Pricing can rise as usage increases, and it may be complex for smaller teams with fewer resources. A limited free tier is available, with premium features offered at higher costs.

Best 5 Real User Monitoring Tools Right Now

If you’re looking for a real user monitoring tool, consider these options:

1. FullSession (Get a demo)
2. Dynatrace RUM
3. Retrace
4. Datadog RUM
5. New Relic 

1. FullSession

FullSession is a user behavior analytics software that tracks every detail of user interaction on your website. It gives you real-time visual insights into how visitors engage with your site, which helps you identify and analyze behavior patterns and trends, reveal issues with UI and UX  and improve website performance to increase user satisfaction.

With real-time session recordings and replays, you can watch users navigate your site, pinpoint what repels or draws their attention, and where they encounter problems in their journey. Interactive heatmaps show cold spots, dead zones and ineffective content, helping you optimize key page elements to reach your website goals.

FullSession also offers conversion funnel analysis and error tracking, allowing you to spot where visitors drop off and fix website issues affecting their experience. Additionally, customizable feedback forms enable you to gather direct insights from users, learn about their pain points and immediately resolve issues to increase their satisfaction.

Committed to user and data privacy, FullSession fully complies with GDPR, CCPA, and PCI standards, ensuring secure data handling.

Book a demo now to see how FullSession can help optimize your website’s performance and user experience.

Best for

FullSession is the first choice of:

• E-commerce businesses
• SaaS companies
• Digital marketers
• UX designers
• Data analysts
• Product development teams
• Customer support teams
• Customer experience professionals

Key features

• Advanced user and event segmentation: Categorize users, events and sessions by diverse criteria such as location, device, and behavior to spot trends and optimize the user journey.
• Session recordings and replays: Watch how users navigate your website in real-time and replay sessions to diagnose issues.
• Interactive heatmaps: Track user clicks, scrolls, and mouse movements to identify engagement hotspots or dead zones on your site.
• Feedback forms: Gather user feedback directly on your site with branded forms, then link responses to session recordings for additional context.
• Conversion and funnel optimization tools: Track drop-offs in your funnels and adjust your design or content  to improve completion rates.
• Error analysis: Automatically detect issues like JavaScript errors or failed API calls, preventing them from impacting the user experience.

Supported platforms

FullSession supports tracking user behavior on websites, web apps, landing pages, and online stores. It also offers mobile user session recordings.

Integrations

Whether you're using Shopify, WordPress, Wix, or BigCommerce, FullSession integrates effortlessly with these platforms to help you monitor user behavior.

With support for Zapier, open APIs, and modern webhooks, you can integrate FullSession with a variety of other apps, automating data flow and ensuring everything works across your systems.

Customer support

FullSession offers live chat and email support, and a help center that provides step-by-step guides and FAQs to troubleshoot common issues.

Pricing

FullSession provides flexible pricing plans to suit businesses of all sizes. Starting at just $39 per month, the Starter Plan includes key features like session recordings, unlimited heatmaps, and up to 5,000 sessions per month, making it a cost-effective solution for smaller businesses.

As your needs grow, you can move to higher-tier plans, such as the Business Plan, which provides additional features and increases session limits. For large enterprises, FullSession offers a custom Enterprise Plan to fit specific requirements.

Additionally, if you opt for an annual subscription, you’ll enjoy a 20% discount on all plans, offering significant savings for long-term users. Visit the Pricing page to learn more.

Pros

• Gain up-to-the-second insights into user interactions with dynamic elements
• Experience fast heatmap generation without compromising website speed
• Ensure privacy by excluding sensitive information from session recordings
• Easily manage extensive data sets to uncover key insights quickly
• Limit tracking to your website to improve data security
• Analyze conversion funnels thoroughly to eliminate performance bottlenecks
• Foster collaboration across multiple teams to boost overall productivity

Cons

• Does not support tracking for mobile apps

2. Dynatrace RUM

Image source: G2

Dynatrace RUM is an analytics and automation platform that provides businesses with deep insights into user interactions across websites, web apps, and mobile platforms.

It tracks user behavior and links data to your back-end systems for a comprehensive view of how performance issues affect user experience.

User rating

Dynatrace has an average user rating of 4.5 out of 5 stars based on 1,248 reviews on G2.

Image source: G2

Best for

Dynatrace RUM is suited for large enterprises needing full-stack monitoring, IT teams focused on performance optimization, and development teams troubleshooting complex issues.

Key features

• Full-stack visibility: Connects front-end user interactions to back-end performance for a complete picture.
• AI-powered problem detection: Automatically detects and highlights issues affecting user experience.
• Real-time user session monitoring: Tracks user behavior in real-time to identify bottlenecks and errors.
• Conversion funnel analysis: Pinpoints where users drop off in key processes.
• Mobile app support: Monitors mobile apps alongside web platforms.

Supported platforms

Dynatrace RUM supports tracking on both web and mobile platforms.

Integrations

Dynatrace integrates with cloud services, CI/CD tools, and DevOps systems, enabling performance tracking and automation across the stack.

Customer support

Dynatrace offers live chat and email. It also provides online resources like documentation, tutorials, and community forums.

Pricing

Dynatrace offers custom pricing based on usage, typically tailored to large businesses. Real user monitoring costs $0.00225 per session.

Pros

• Full-stack visibility
• AI-powered insights and issue detection
• Real-time monitoring across web and mobile platforms
• Tools for performance optimization and troubleshooting

Cons

• Can be complex for smaller teams to navigate and configure
• Pricing can be on the higher end for small businesses
• Integrations may be tedious for some users

3. Retrace

Image source: G2

Retrace is an application performance management tool that helps developers track user interactions while monitoring web app performance. It helps identify performance issues, track errors, and optimize the user experience.

User rating

Retrace has an average user rating of 4.2 out of 5 stars based on 56 reviews on G2.

Best for

Retrace is suitable for development teams and small to medium businesses needing a combined solution for user monitoring and performance tracking.

Key features

• Error tracking: Detects and reports application issues like crashes or failed transactions.
• Real-time user monitoring: Tracks live user interactions to identify performance bottlenecks.
• Application performance monitoring: Monitors server-side performance metrics to provide a full view of app health.
• Session replays: Offers session recordings to help developers understand the root causes of errors.
• Log management: Consolidates and analyzes logs for more efficient troubleshooting.

Supported platforms

Retrace supports web platforms and integrates with common development environments.

Integrations

Retrace integrates with DevOps tools and services, such as Jira, Oracle, and Azure, helping streamline performance monitoring and error tracking within the development workflow.

Customer support

Retrace offers email support and access to a comprehensive online help center.

Pricing

Retrace provides tiered pricing based on the number of applications and servers you want to monitor. It's flexible enough for small businesses while offering features that scale with larger teams. Subscription-based pricing ensures you pay for only what you need.

Pros

• Good for RUM and application performance monitoring
• Error tracking and session replay capabilities
• Integrates with common development tools

Cons

• Interface can be cluttered, especially for new users
• Lacks live chat or phone support

4. Datadog Real User Monitoring

Image source: G2

Datadog is a monitoring platform for cloud applications that tracks and analyzes user interactions on websites and applications in real-time.

It offers visibility into how users experience your site, linking front-end performance issues to back-end infrastructure, making troubleshooting and improving overall performance easier.

User rating

Datadog has an average user rating of 4.3 out of 5 stars based on 532 reviews on G2.

Best for

Datadog RUM is used by DevOps teams and enterprises managing complex applications, providing real-time insights into user behavior and system performance.

Key features

• Real-time monitoring: Provides live insights into user behavior, identifying slow load times or errors.
• Full-stack visibility: Links front-end user issues to back-end performance, offering a complete picture.
• Session replays: Replays user sessions to identify specific site performance issues impacting the end-user experience.
• Custom dashboards: Enables tailored data visualizations and custom metrics for better monitoring and analysis.

Supported platforms

Datadog RUM supports both web and mobile platforms.

Integrations

Datadog RUM integrates with Datadog’s larger ecosystem, including infrastructure monitoring, logs, and APM tools, providing unified monitoring and alerting capabilities across the stack.

Customer support

Datadog provides support via live chat, phone, and email, as well as a robust knowledge base and community forums to assist users.

Pricing

Datadog RUM follows a usage-based pricing model, which you can customize based on your needs. Their basic APM plan starts at $31 per host per month for core features like live trace search and analytics, universal service monitoring, and performance metrics.

Pros

• Full-stack visibility connecting front-end and back-end performance
• Real-time user monitoring and error tracking
• Integrates with Datadog’s suite of tools

Cons

• Pricing can escalate with higher data usage, and the structure can be difficult to understand
• Complex for smaller teams without dedicated resources
• Setting things up can take more time than expected

5. New Relic 

Image source: Capterra

New Relic is a cloud APM that tracks how users interact with your website or web applications in real-time. It provides real user data into front-end performance, helping businesses identify and resolve issues that impact user experience, such as slow load times, errors, and inefficient code.

User rating

New Relic has an average user rating of 4.3 out of 5 stars based on 450 reviews on G2.

Best for

New Relic suits businesses and development teams looking to monitor real-time front-end performance.

Key features

• Real-time performance monitoring: Tracks how users interact with your website in real-time, detecting slow load times and performance issues.
• Error tracking: Automatically identifies and reports errors like JavaScript problems and broken links.
• Page load performance: Monitors page load times across different devices and browsers to enhance user satisfaction.
• Session traces: Provides detailed traces of user sessions to uncover specific performance bottlenecks.
• Custom dashboards: Allows users to create tailored dashboards to focus on the most important metrics.

Supported platforms

New Relic supports web platforms, monitoring desktop and mobile web experiences for a complete view of user interactions.

Integrations

New Relic integrates with its APM tools and other New Relic services, allowing users to monitor front-end and back-end performance in one platform. It also integrates with popular DevOps tools and cloud services.

Customer support

New Relic offers support through email and a knowledge base.

Pricing

New Relic offers a free tier with limited features. However, as your monitoring needs grow, premium plans provide more advanced features and pricing based on usage and performance data volume.

Pros

• Real-time front-end performance insights
• Error tracking and session trace features
• Integrates with New Relic’s full suite of monitoring tools

Cons

• Pricing can rise significantly as usage scales
• May be complex for smaller teams with fewer resources
• Does not capture logs automatically
• Large volumes of data may lead to latency

Best 5 Real User Monitoring Tools Comparison Table

The comparison table below highlights the top RUM tools, helping you decide which one best fits your needs based on key features.

	FullSession	Dynatrace	Retrace	Datadog	New Relic
Real-time user tracking	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
Session recordings	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
Heatmaps	✔	✘	✘	✘	✘
Conversion funnel analysis	✔	✔	✘	✘	✘
Error tracking	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
Customer feedback forms	✔	✘	✘	✘	✘
Mobile app support	✘	✔	✘	✔	✔
Monthly pricing	$39	n/a	n/a	$31	n/a

Best 5 Real User Monitoring Tools: Our Verdict

After reviewing the top real user monitoring tools, FullSession stands out as the best option for businesses seeking to optimize user experience and website performance with powerful user behavior analytics features. 

Here are the key benefits that make it the top option:

• Track dynamic elements to gain accurate insights into user behavior
• Speed up heatmap generation without impacting website performance
• Safeguard privacy by excluding sensitive data from session recordings
• Identify performance trends and pinpoint conversion blockers
• Use filters to analyze key user journeys for more focused insights
• Manage large data sets easily to uncover valuable insights quickly
• Restrict tracking to your site to ensure data security and prevent misuse
• Enable seamless coordination across teams on a unified platform

Conclusion About Best 5 Real User Monitoring Tools

Real user monitoring tools are essential for any online business that wants to improve user experience, track performance, and ensure their website or app runs smoothly.

By offering real-time insights into how actual users interact with your platform, these tools help identify problem areas, optimize conversion funnels, and improve overall performance, leading to better customer satisfaction and business growth.

Among the best tools available, FullSession stands out for its comprehensive features, real-time tracking, and user-friendly interface. It helps you analyze user behavior and ensure privacy and efficient data management, making it the first choice for businesses of all sizes.

Book a demo today to discover how it can transform your website performance and user experience.

FAQs About Best 5 Real User Monitoring Tools

What is a real user monitoring tool?

A real user monitoring (RUM) tool tracks and analyzes the actual interactions of users on websites or apps in real time. It helps businesses understand how users experience their platform by monitoring performance and core web vitals, detecting errors, and providing insights to improve user experience.

What is an example of real user monitoring?

An example of real user monitoring is session recordings, where the tool captures user actions like clicks, page views, and interactions, allowing businesses to see how users navigate their website or app and identify any issues they face.

What is Datadog real user monitoring?

Datadog Real User Monitoring (RUM) tracks real-time user interactions, linking front-end performance issues to back-end infrastructure. It helps teams troubleshoot problems quickly and optimize the user experience by providing full-stack visibility and critical performance data.

What is Dynatrace real user monitoring used for?

Dynatrace Real User Monitoring is used to track every user transaction or interaction across websites and apps. It provides insights into how performance issues affect user experience by linking front-end interactions with back-end systems, helping teams fix problems and improve overall efficiency.

What's the difference between RUM and synthetic monitoring?

RUM tracks the actual interactions of real users on a website or app, providing insights into how the platform performs under real conditions. It focuses on real-time data from real user behavior, identifying issues as they occur. On the other hand, synthetic monitoring uses automated scripts to simulate user interactions, testing performance and functionality under controlled conditions.