In today’s mobile app ecosystem, informed decision-making is vital for the ongoing enhancement of app performance. By utilizing data-driven insights, developers can discover improvement areas, fix performance hurdles, and carry out essential modifications. This article will guide you in choosing the best tool for this task.
What is an application performance monitoring tool?
An application performance monitoring tool (APM) is a program that aids in monitoring app performance and pinpointing potential errors. By providing real-time insights, actionable metrics, and deep diagnostics, such tools can help developers deliver fast, stable, and high-quality mobile apps.
APM areas of focus
Many APM tools often provide comprehensive solutions for modern apps; here are some capabilities that might prove helpful to mobile app developers:
- Performance monitoring, like identifying slow database queries that may influence overall performance or pinpointing parts of the app’s code that are causing the delay;
- Real-time tracking, such as collecting data that reveals how users interact with the application and how the application responds to their actions. Acknowledging page load times or getting insights about critical user’s actions might reveal areas that could be improved;
- Monitoring the hardware and network that your app depends on, for instance, by looking for possible hardware failures;
- Diagnosing and fixing app errors that may reveal code-related issues causing an app malfunction.
How to choose a suitable APM tool
Your first step in choosing the proper monitoring solution should be defining the key performance metrics you want to track. They might include a large spectrum of data, from the very front to the backend. After that, it’s best to check whether the tool is user-friendly but, at the same time, has all the essential features. The ideal technological solution should be aligned with your app’s technology stack and goals as well as easily integrate and deliver meaningful insights. Additionally, ensure that the chosen program can handle increasing traffic and new features as your app grows. Although there are some free APM tools, many still require a fee, so it’s advisable to balance cost with value so you will be able to get a good return on investment.
Best APM tools
- Firebase, which has been part of Google since 2014, is a robust solution that supports mobile app developers in developing, managing, and monetizing their mobile and desktop applications. It aids in building and testing the backend, testing your app across different devices and settings with the possibility of automating this process. Regarding mobile app monitoring, it offers “Crashlytics” and “Firebase Performance Monitoring.” The first helps pinpoint crashes and ANRs (“Application Not Responding” error), while the second enables developers to understand how well an app runs when real users use it. Firebase comes in two versions – free-of-charge with limited options and “Pay as you go”;
- Datadog helps you monitor and improve your app by tracing how it works, from the user’s device to the backend. It uses AI to identify issues in your code and combines data from logs, metrics, and security tools to help you fix problems faster, improve performance, and enhance user satisfaction. Datadog offers a user-friendly interface and a machine learning–based alert system to inform about issues. You can test the tool for 14 days without a fee;
- UXCam is a mobile app analytics tool that offers user behavior metrics. Thanks to interactive heatmaps, session replays (recording of user’s sessions), custom data segmentation options, and user journey suggestions or alerts, you can better understand your user’s experience and pinpoint issues. You can check the tool with the 14-day free-of-charge trial or use it for free in case of low traffic;
- Appknox is a mobile app security testing solution that integrates seamlessly with CI/CD pipelines, offers detailed scan reports, and conducts deep-level security assessments at the binary code level. After showing reports pinpointing issues, it provides clear guidance on how to fix them. The final price of the product is based on the size of the organization; you can also try the tool for free;
- Dynatrace delivers automated, real-time monitoring to observe user interactions, device behaviors, and app performance. Developers can take advantage of capabilities like root cause analysis for quicker troubleshooting, crash analytics to evaluate the consequences of errors, and active identification of bottlenecks, ensuring that apps perform effectively and satisfy user expectations. With Dynatrace, mobile app developers can connect front-end user experience data with back-end performance metrics, offering them an extensive overview of how their app is performing. The company offers subscriptions that allow full platform access and an hourly pricing structure that adjusts as your usage increases;
- Embrace is a tool that helps teams monitor mobile apps, understand user experiences, and fix issues faster. Its tracking capabilities include back-end and front-end metrics and allow mobile app teams to spot and fix problems before users notice them. The main aim of the tool is to link mobile performance to back-end insights and give Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) and DevOps teams a clear view of everything that happens on mobile devices. Pricing is based on the app’s popularity, allowing even less popular apps the opportunity to use the tool free of charge;
- IBM Instana Observability (Instana) is another solution offering performance monitoring capabilities. It provides back-end and front-end services, allowing real-time monitoring, detecting anomalies, and providing context around performance data. Additionally, “Automated Smart Alerts” let developers know about issues and pinpoint precisely where in the code a problem exists. AI-powered automation optimizes applications by preventing problems before they occur and handling tasks like setup, monitoring, and error detection. The tool automatically captures issues in web and mobile apps and provides real-time resolutions through tools like IBM Watson AIOps and Turbonomic ARM. You can estimate the price for the usage on the company site.
Monitoring your app monetization with Bidlogic
An efficient mobile app is the backbone of successful monetization. It ensures user satisfaction, fosters engagement, and attracts and retains a larger audience, which appeals to advertisers. To further enhance your earning capabilities, it’s worth partnering with trusted monetization partners like Bidlogic. We streamline the entire process of managing eCPM and bidding events across leading mobile ad mediation platforms. Furthermore, clients working with Bidlogic can monitor their app’s monetization efficiency through a dashboard that provides detailed insights into key performance data. This dashboard offers deep insights into critical metrics, enabling you to track the performance of advertising networks for potential issues, errors, or anomalies and identify and address drops in key performance indicators (KPIs). This includes Impressions Per Daily Active User (IMPDAU), effective Cost Per Mille (eCPM), and Average Revenue Per Daily Active User (ARPDAU). With Bidlogic, you gain the tools to optimize your monetization strategy, minimize inefficiencies, and maximize your revenue potential. Let us take the hassle out of managing monetization so you can focus on creating exceptional mobile app experiences.
