Application Monitoring Tools You Must Try: Everything depends on the initial impression. And for that reason, you must ensure that your applications are free of errors and bugs. For the best possible user experience, developing an application is just as important as monitoring it. To ensure that your business is successful and that you never have to worry about KPIs like constant performance, high availability, and accessibility, you must have an excellent monitoring approach.
Frontend application monitoring is important, but many firms need to remember that. They view monitoring as a component of their operational activities and typically delegate it to an operations engineer or system administrator. Well, it overburdens them and might result in loopholes; thus, it might not be a good practice. Nevertheless, monitoring the front-facing applications is very important.
But Why Frontend?
The frontend and back end are the two fundamental parts of software architecture. On the client side, frontend application components are executed and processed via mobile or web interfaces. As a result, components like CSS, HTML, JavaScript, or pictures are loaded when a webpage is loaded. Today’s end-user-facing interfaces and applications are getting more sophisticated and powerful, which increases the risk of things going wrong.
An application’s front end might encounter any downtime, which could result in significant losses in terms of income, resources, and, most importantly, customer experience. Furthermore, the front end is becoming more complex and difficult because of ongoing changes, shifting frameworks, and an increased number of end users from various devices, browsers, regions, and ISPs. In addition, SaaS and eCommerce enterprises dealing with huge audiences find that uptime monitoring needs to be improved and that they cannot take any chances with their application’s performance since it is essential to their operations.
What’s All About Frontend Application Monitoring?
The process of tracking errors, fixing them, and maintaining the functionality of online applications is known as frontend application monitoring. Eliminating errors of any kind that can damage your application improves user experience. It would be easy for your developers to address errors if you caught them early on. They can then work on improving the code and debugging it. Unlike application performance monitoring, it is more concerned with the result that users will see when they launch your application.
What Kind Of Issues Do These Tools Help In Fixing?
JavaScript Errors
The functionality of the vast majority of applications is based on JavaScript. As a result, one of the important objectives of frontend monitoring is to discover JavaScript errors. It would be best if you examined the gravity of the impact of these errors as well as how frequently they occur during the process.
Framework-specific Issues
The work of developers is made simpler by powerful frameworks like Angular or React. A frontend application monitoring tool can identify issues based on the application’s features, such as the application status.
Network Request Failure
Web applications and sites interface with several other solutions to carry out extra tasks. They bombard the server where they are housed with many requests in this manner. Monitoring systems can track user-initiated HTTP requests and responses to find the errors.
Performance Issues
Some monitoring solutions may also keep track of application performance data, such as the average time it takes for a page to load, the average time it takes for a server to respond, and more.
User Experience Problems
The technologies can efficiently monitor “rage clicking” when a user repeatedly clicks on a single element simultaneously. They can also ensure that components are appropriately shown and recognized when a user becomes trapped in a certain navigational loop. To prevent your clients from finding any issues that might impair its usefulness, if you build an application, you must constantly update it. Your applications’ functionality, availability, and performance are all improved through frontend monitoring. It is essential to use a good tool to monitor all of these factors. Check out some of the top application monitoring tools for this.
Tips For Evaluating Application Monitoring Tool
To get the most out of a monitoring tool, remember the following tips before you choose one.
- Verify how effective the tool’s dashboard is at evaluating data.
- Whether or whether the tool has an API reference.
- To continue using other applications and services, find out how many integrations the tool offers.
- The extent to which the tool can identify the issues.
- Verify whether the tool offers an on-premises option.
- The tool’s security features must be strong.
- The service provider must give top-notch technical assistance via several channels and be accessible around the clock.
- Choose the service by your budget, and last but not least. Check out several services, evaluate the options and pricing, and choose the best option.
Top Application Monitoring Tools
We’ve compiled a list of Application Monitoring Tools to help you find the right one.
1. Airbrake
An application’s performance, errors, and deployments may all be monitored using Airbrake. With this lightweight and straightforward tool, you can quickly set it up and get it working in no time. Your application notifies you in real-time of any errors as soon as they happen. Then, using Breadcrumbs and Backtraces, which show the precise reason for the error and make fixing it easier, you may identify the error’s root cause.
Airbrake enables you to diagnose the issues more quickly by providing the context and scope for recognizing and prioritizing errors. It can monitor your technological stack, helps maintain the development process fresh, and offers insights and hotspots to uncover serious hazards. In addition to fixing failed deployments, its deployment tracking also helps avoid future issues. With technologies like GitLab, GitHub, Slack, and others, Airbrake works seamlessly. You can choose a subscription plan for $19/month or use Airbrake for free.
2. Sentry
Sentry, one of the original error monitoring software programs and a well-liked option contains numerous amazing functions to address various issues. With Breadcrumbs, you can examine the errors’ chain of occurrences, which helps you rank bugs based on their potential impact on users and your business. In addition, you may find the error’s root cause, which can cut down on debugging time. The client-side and the server side can use this capability.
Based on the entire context, Sentry informs you of what you need to know to find errors. The tool can link errors to a particular release. The error environment, including the language and operating system, is likewise defined by this context. Additionally, you may set up unique contexts based on your business and application. With the aid of the error feature, you can determine when and who committed the defect or error. It also offers context data, such as commit data, which helps you comprehend newly introduced errors and already fixed errors. You may automatically assign new errors to your team using Sentry.
From the dashboard, you may view errors through graphs for spikes, events, and errors arranged by release and location. Use distributed tracing to track errors across several projects, source maps for Node and JS, and a custom query builder. You may also receive notifications about bugs by SMS, email, or chat. Through two-factor authentication, audit logs, certified privacy shield, SOC-2 certification, SSL encryption, and COPPA compliance, Sentry manages security. The key frameworks and languages it interfaces with include JavaScript, PHP, Python, NodeJS, Ruby, Django, Go, C & C++, Java, Android, GitHub, GitLab, and more. You may use Sentry for free or purchase a premium version beginning at $26/month.
3. LogRocket
Now, this tool differs a little from others in that it can register user sessions so that you may understand how an error happened better. In addition, LogRocket enables you to replay user sessions to see the same thing your users do in real-time. As a result, you don’t need to request logs or images to fix any issues your user encounters. Instead, view the requests and answers made on the network.
Additionally, you may check the console logs, the status and activities at a particular moment in time, and JavaScript errors. It shows the impact of the bugs and errors and how to fix them. You can track IP addresses and user-agent tracking for each session using LogRocket, which helps learn what browser users use and diagnose issues exclusive to that browsers. Custom attributes can be added to logs, creating user-value pairs that provide extra data about users and sessions.
Within an hour, start using LogRocket on your servers or those of GCP, AWS, and Azure. They provide SDKs for many technologies and enable interaction with tools like Salesforce, Drift, Sentry, Rollbar, JIRA, Intercom, Zendesk, GitHub, Trello, and more. They also support React, Angular, Plain JS, Redux, Vue.js, and Ember. The subscription package starts at just $99 monthly for 10,000 sessions, or you may sign up for the free one.
4. Firebase
The Firebase Crashlytics application monitoring tool helps track errors and prioritize and fix stability issues that degrade the application’s quality. Crashlytics may organize crashes into lists of issues that are easy to handle. The tool also offers data on the crash’s impact. As a result, you may find the real problem, fix it, and make your application future-proof. In addition, Crashlytics offers real-time warnings for new, emerging, and reverted issues needing quick attention since problems can arise at any time.
5. Rollbar
Rollbar is an advanced error-tracking tool created in 2012 and is currently regarded as one of the finest on the market. On a wide range of available platforms, it can track errors. Therefore, you may spend time improving the codes and feeling safe rather than wasting it on detecting errors. In addition, Rollbar automates triaging and error monitoring so developers can easily build software and fix errors in only a few minutes.
In addition to stacking traces against local variables, it offers findings in real-time. Additionally, it helps shorten the gap in time between development and quality control. Additionally, bug reports are available, which may be used to prioritize issues that impact test cases and fix them accordingly. APEX, Ruby, PHP, Java, dotNet, JavaScript, and Python are some of the languages and platforms that Rollbar supports. There are also free and premium options accessible here.
6. Raygun
Raygun makes it easy to correct errors, allowing you to manage the commotion around your software. It guarantees that users have error-free experiences, helps swiftly detect issues in the code base, and enables faster development cycles. Raygun monitors your applications and notifies you of any issues as soon as they arise. All you need to do is include Raygun throughout the technological stack and into your code. You can find all of the errors in your application in minutes by doing this. In addition, its error report provides comprehensive diagnostic information about the root cause, which helps fix error data more quickly while maintaining a faultless user experience.
It also shows the whole stack trace, the browser version, the environment, the operating system, the host, the class name, and more. Additionally, you can see a change or release that causes the problem. You may build personalized dashboards with Raygun to track metrics in the manner you want and to analyze error rates and regressions connected to new codes. Additionally, you may scrub sensitive data, PII information and schedule reports based on specific crash reporting information. Use frameworks like Angular, React, Vue.js, Ember, JavaScript, and more to integrate Raygun with apps like Slack, Trello, Bitbucket, GitHub, JIRA, and more. Starting at $19 per month, the pricing is set.
7. AppSignal
With the all-powerful AppSignal’s capabilities merged to provide total visibility on your application, enjoy five monitoring tools in one. Elixir, Node.js, Ruby, and JavaScript are among the frameworks and languages that AppSignal supports. Its installation takes about five minutes or less and is equally simple and easy to use. Following installation, they will immediately establish a user-friendly dashboard to receive performance problems and messages for exceptions.
In terms of build, they used Rust to create AppSignal’s agent, which is dependable and lightweight and has already enabled thousands of applications. Furthermore, they pledge a monitoring system uptime of 99.999%, ensuring that nothing goes wrong with your application while it is under their watch. Additionally, AppSignal complies with GDPR. Starting at $19/month for 250k requests, AppSignal has a range of pricing options. Additionally, it offers a risk-free 30-day trial with unlimited requests.
Consider The Following:
The Bottom Line: Application Monitoring Tools
Creativity and a lot of resources are needed to build an application. Well, the final thing you would want is to neglect it to the point where its performance and functionality are compromised. But don’t worry; use one of the errors mentioned above monitoring tools to find and fix errors, ensuring that your application always performs at its best.