Real User Monitoring
Tracking actual user experience and performance in production environments.
Definition
Real User Monitoring (RUM) is the practice of capturing and analyzing performance and behavior data from actual users in production environments. Unlike synthetic testing that simulates users, RUM measures what real people actually experience across real devices and network conditions.
RUM provides visibility into page load times, interaction responsiveness, errors, and other metrics as actually experienced by users. This data helps teams prioritize performance improvements based on real impact rather than hypothetical scenarios.
Why It Matters
Lab testing can't capture the diversity of real user experiences. RUM reveals what users actually experience, enabling data-driven performance optimization where it matters most.
For digital teams, RUM provides the evidence needed to prioritize performance work and measure its actual impact.
Examples in Practice
RUM data reveals that mobile users on 3G connections experience 5-second load times, driving investment in mobile optimization.
A team correlates RUM data with business metrics, proving that performance improvements drive measurable conversion increases.
RUM alerts immediately when a deployment causes real user experience to degrade, enabling quick rollback.