Raygun

Overview

Founded in 2013 and headquartered in Wellington, New Zealand, Raygun is an application performance monitoring platform delivering three core capabilities—Crash Reporting, Application Performance Monitoring (APM), and Real User Monitoring (RUM). As one of the few providers combining all three in a unified platform, Raygun helps teams identify errors, track performance regressions, and analyze real user experiences in one place.

Raygun serves 10,000+ customers worldwide, including major US airlines and large e-commerce platforms. Founder and CEO John-Daniel Trask is a prominent figure in New Zealand's tech scene, and Raygun stands as one of the country's most representative SaaS enterprises, differentiating through geographic positioning and full-stack monitoring capabilities.

Key Strengths

• Crash Reporting + APM + RUM All-in-One: A single platform providing error and crash capture, transaction-level performance tracing, and real user interaction recording—3 capabilities in one, no need to integrate multiple tools. Cross-data analysis pinpoints exactly which error affected which users on which page and how long it took.
• Deep Real User Monitoring: RUM captures not only page load performance (LCP, FID, CLS Core Web Vitals) but also 3 interaction types—user clicks, scrolling, and form interactions. When linked with crash reports, teams can replay the user action path leading to errors; see Core Web Vitals Optimization Guide.
• AI-Powered Alerts & Diagnostics: Anomaly detection automatically identifies performance degradation trends before users complain. Each error event carries 1 complete diagnostic context (request headers, device info, browser version, custom metadata). Each error event includes complete request headers, device information, browser version, and custom metadata to reduce investigation time.
• Deploy Impact Analysis: Automatically correlates CI/CD deployment events with error and performance metric changes. Within 15 minutes of a new release, teams can assess stability and performance impact for rapid rollback decisions.

Product Ecosystem

Crash Reporting

Raygun's flagship product captures and aggregates application exceptions in real time. Supports iOS (Swift/ObjC), Android (Java/Kotlin), .NET, JavaScript, and React Native. Each crash automatically includes full stack trace, device information, OS version, and user action sequence, with intelligent grouping algorithms deduplicating similar errors.

APM Performance Monitoring

Distributed transaction tracing and code-level performance analysis. Supports .NET, Java, Node.js, and Python (4 backend languages), automatically tracking HTTP requests, database queries, external service calls, and cache operation latency. Transaction snapshots provide complete call chains for each request.

Real User Monitoring (RUM)

Records the complete user journey from page load to interaction. Automatically collects Core Web Vitals (LCP, FID, CLS), analyzes page resource loading, JavaScript execution, Ajax requests, and user interaction events, with multi-dimensional filtering by browser, device, and geographic location.

Deploy Tracking

Automatically records version release events through CI/CD tool integration. Each deployment comes with an independent stability report comparing error rates and performance metrics before and after deployment, supporting rollback marking and version-to-version difference analysis.

Limitations

• High Entry Barrier: No permanent free tier; the 14-day trial requires purchasing a paid plan ($149/month), making it costly for individual developers and small teams compared to Sentry's generous free tier.
• No Self-Hosted Option: Raygun is fully SaaS-based with no self-hosted or private deployment options, making it unsuitable for industries with strict data sovereignty requirements.
• Smaller Ecosystem: Compared to Sentry and Rollbar, Raygun has fewer community contributions, third-party integrations, and public documentation.
• Limited Language SDK Coverage: While covering mainstream platforms, support for emerging languages (Rust, Go, Flutter) lags behind competitors in both timeliness and update frequency.

Use Cases

• Full-Stack Performance Optimization (★★★★★): Crash Reporting + APM + RUM all-in-one platform, ideal for teams wanting a unified monitoring stack.
• UX-Focused Web Applications (★★★★): RUM provides Core Web Vitals and user interaction analysis, suitable for SEO-sensitive sites.
• ANZ/Asia-Pacific Teams (★★★★★): New Zealand-based provider with local timezone alignment, low latency, and strong local support.
• Budget-Conscious Individuals/Small Teams (★★): $149/month starting price is high; consider Sentry's free tier or open-source alternatives first.

Pricing

Note: All plans are usage-based with overage charges beyond quota. 14-day free trial available.

FAQ

• What is the main difference between Raygun and Sentry? Raygun offers Crash Reporting, APM, and RUM as an integrated platform, while Sentry focuses more on error tracking + APM. Raygun's RUM module is its key differentiator, while Sentry excels in open-source ecosystem, free tier, and broader SDK support.
• How does Raygun's RUM help with SEO? RUM automatically collects Core Web Vitals (LCP, FID, CLS), which are Google search ranking factors. Teams can use RUM data to identify performance bottlenecks and optimize for better search rankings and user experience; see frontend RUM and Core Web Vitals monitoring.
• Which programming languages does Raygun support? Frontend: JavaScript, React, Angular, Vue. Backend: .NET, Java, Node.js, Python, PHP, Ruby. Mobile: iOS (Swift/ObjC), Android (Java/Kotlin), React Native, Xamarin; see Sentry error monitoring setup.
• Where is Raygun's data stored? Raygun uses AWS infrastructure with default data storage in the US (us-east-1). Enterprise plans may negotiate data residency, but self-hosted deployment is not available; see APM and distributed tracing.
• Is Raygun suitable for small teams? The $149/month starting price is relatively high for small teams and startups. Consider Sentry's free tier first and migrate to Raygun as your business grows.