Monitoring
Monitoring Tools
Comparison of frontend monitoring and observability tools
Monitoring Tools Comparison
A comparison of popular frontend monitoring tools for error tracking, RUM, and APM.
Overview
| Tool | Primary Focus | Pricing Model | Open Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sentry | Error Tracking | Per-event | Yes (self-host) |
| Datadog | Full-stack APM | Per-host + events | No |
| New Relic | APM + RUM | Per-GB ingested | No |
| LogRocket | Session Replay | Per-session | No |
| Bugsnag | Error Tracking | Per-event | No |
| Grafana | Dashboards | Per-user | Yes |
Error Tracking Tools
Sentry
Best for: Developers focused on error tracking and debugging.
| Aspect | Details |
|---|---|
| Strengths | Deep stack traces, breadcrumbs, issue grouping |
| Weaknesses | APM less mature than competitors |
| Pricing | Free tier: 5K errors/mo, Team: $26/mo |
| Self-hosting | Available (open source) |
// Sentry setup
import * as Sentry from '@sentry/react';
Sentry.init({
dsn: 'https://xxx@sentry.io/xxx',
integrations: [
Sentry.browserTracingIntegration(),
Sentry.replayIntegration(),
],
tracesSampleRate: 0.1,
replaysSessionSampleRate: 0.1,
});Bugsnag
Best for: Mobile-first teams needing cross-platform support.
| Aspect | Details |
|---|---|
| Strengths | Mobile SDKs, stability score |
| Weaknesses | Less community, closed source |
| Pricing | Free tier: 7.5K errors/mo, Team: $59/mo |
APM & RUM Tools
Datadog
Best for: Enterprise teams needing full-stack observability.
| Aspect | Details |
|---|---|
| Strengths | Unified platform, AI-powered analysis |
| Weaknesses | Expensive at scale, complex pricing |
| Pricing | RUM: $1.50/1K sessions, APM: $31/host |
// Datadog RUM setup
import { datadogRum } from '@datadog/browser-rum';
datadogRum.init({
applicationId: 'xxx',
clientToken: 'xxx',
site: 'datadoghq.com',
service: 'my-app',
env: 'production',
sessionSampleRate: 100,
trackUserInteractions: true,
trackResources: true,
});New Relic
Best for: Teams wanting comprehensive APM with RUM.
| Aspect | Details |
|---|---|
| Strengths | Mature APM, good free tier |
| Weaknesses | UI can be overwhelming |
| Pricing | Free: 100GB/mo, Pro: $0.30/GB |
Session Replay Tools
LogRocket
Best for: Product teams needing session replay for debugging.
| Aspect | Details |
|---|---|
| Strengths | Video-like replay, Redux integration |
| Weaknesses | Limited backend monitoring |
| Pricing | Free: 1K sessions/mo, Team: $99/mo |
// LogRocket setup
import LogRocket from 'logrocket';
LogRocket.init('app-id/project');
LogRocket.identify('user-id', {
name: 'User Name',
email: 'user@example.com',
});Sentry Replay
Best for: Existing Sentry users wanting replay.
| Aspect | Details |
|---|---|
| Strengths | Integrated with error tracking |
| Weaknesses | Newer, fewer features than LogRocket |
| Pricing | Included in Sentry plans |
Open Source Alternatives
Grafana Stack
- Grafana: Dashboards and visualization
- Loki: Log aggregation
- Tempo: Distributed tracing
- Prometheus: Metrics collection
OpenTelemetry
Vendor-neutral observability framework:
import { WebTracerProvider } from '@opentelemetry/sdk-trace-web';
import { OTLPTraceExporter } from '@opentelemetry/exporter-trace-otlp-http';
const provider = new WebTracerProvider();
provider.addSpanProcessor(
new BatchSpanProcessor(new OTLPTraceExporter({
url: 'https://collector.example.com/v1/traces',
}))
);
provider.register();Feature Comparison
| Feature | Sentry | Datadog | New Relic | LogRocket |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Error Tracking | ★★★★★ | ★★★☆☆ | ★★★★☆ | ★★★☆☆ |
| RUM / Web Vitals | ★★★☆☆ | ★★★★★ | ★★★★☆ | ★★★★☆ |
| Session Replay | ★★★★☆ | ★★★☆☆ | ★★★☆☆ | ★★★★★ |
| APM / Tracing | ★★★☆☆ | ★★★★★ | ★★★★★ | ★★☆☆☆ |
| Alerting | ★★★★☆ | ★★★★★ | ★★★★☆ | ★★★☆☆ |
| Pricing Value | ★★★★★ | ★★☆☆☆ | ★★★★☆ | ★★★☆☆ |
| Self-hosting | ★★★★★ | ☆☆☆☆☆ | ☆☆☆☆☆ | ☆☆☆☆☆ |
Recommendations
| Scenario | Recommended Tool |
|---|---|
| Startup / Small Team | Sentry (free tier) |
| Enterprise Full-stack | Datadog |
| Cost-sensitive | Sentry self-hosted + Grafana |
| Product-focused | LogRocket + Sentry |
| Existing AWS/Azure | New Relic or native tools |
| Open Source Priority | Grafana + OpenTelemetry |
Cost Comparison (Monthly, 100K users)
| Tool | Estimated Cost |
|---|---|
| Sentry Team | ~$80 |
| Datadog RUM | ~$150 |
| New Relic Pro | ~$100 |
| LogRocket Team | ~$200 |
| Self-hosted (Sentry + Grafana) | ~$50 (infra) |