Real User Monitoring
ELI5 — The Vibe Check
Real User Monitoring (RUM) tracks actual user experiences — real page loads, real clicks, real frustrations. Unlike synthetic monitoring that uses robots, RUM measures what your actual humans experience. Slow load in Brazil? RUM shows it. Users rage-clicking a broken button? RUM catches it.
Real Talk
Real User Monitoring captures performance and experience data from actual user sessions in production. It tracks page load times, Core Web Vitals, JavaScript errors, user journeys, and session replays. Provides insights segmented by geography, device, browser, and user cohort.
When You'll Hear This
"RUM data shows our p95 load time in India is 8 seconds — we need a CDN edge there." / "Session replay from RUM revealed users were confused by the new navigation."
Related Terms
Core Web Vitals
Core Web Vitals are the three most important Web Vitals that Google actually uses as ranking signals.
Observability
Observability is the ability to understand what's happening inside your system from the outside, using three types of data: metrics (numbers), logs (events...
Sentry
Sentry catches errors in your app before your users email you about them.
Synthetic Monitoring
Synthetic Monitoring runs fake user journeys on a schedule to make sure your site works.