The Datadog RUM alternative that finds the bug behind user drop-off
Datadog RUM shows you sessions, vitals and errors for your web and mobile apps. Appxiom detects the bugs behind them on Android, iOS, Flutter and Web, from ANRs and app hangs to memory leaks and failing APIs, and ranks each one by how many users it stops from finishing checkout, signup or any goal you define. Keep Datadog for your servers.
Appxiom or Datadog RUM?
Both are good tools. The right one depends on what you ship and which bugs hurt you most.
Choose Appxiom if…
You want each bug in your Android, iOS, Flutter or Web app raised as its own issue, from ANRs and app hangs to memory leaks and failing APIs. You need to know which bugs stop users from finishing checkout, signup or onboarding. You want a flat price per app, by device tier, instead of a bill that grows with every session and replay. You want one Quality Score per release that engineering and product can both read.
Keep Datadog RUM alongside Appxiom if…
You run Datadog for APM, logs and infrastructure on your servers. You also ship React Native apps. Datadog supports React Native and Appxiom does not. Your team watches session replays to see exactly what users saw. You want custom dashboards, monitors and alerting across your whole stack in one tool.
Appxiom vs Datadog RUM
Every Datadog RUM claim links to its official documentation, so you can check it yourself.
| Feature | Appxiom | Datadog RUM |
|---|---|---|
| Score per journey and version | GFI 0 to 10 Goal Friction Impact scores each user journey from 0 to 10 for every app version, with the list of issues behind failed attempts (Professional). | No No score per journey and version. Journey Monitoring reports conversion and drop-off for each journey (see Journey and funnel analysis below). Source: Journey Monitoring |
| One quality score per release | Quality Score Crashes, ANRs, memory and network issues combined into one 0 to 10 score per version, weighted by severity and users affected (Professional). | No No single release score. Deployment Tracking compares two versions on errors, crash rate and start or load time. Source: RUM Deployment Tracking |
| Pricing model | Per app Flat price per app, by device tier. Starter $10/month, Professional $99/month, Enterprise custom. Unlimited seats, no per-event billing. | Per session Billed per 1,000 sessions ingested. A session ends after 15 minutes of inactivity or 4 hours. Sessions with replay are billed under a separate Session Replay plan. Source: RUM billing, Datadog pricing |
| Memory leaks | Yes Leaks, memory spikes, abnormal usage and low-memory warnings, on mobile and web. In production mobile builds, leaks are detected at screen level (Activity, Fragment and ViewController). In Kotlin Multiplatform, leaks are tracked on the ViewModels and Compose Multiplatform screens you register with Ax.watchLeaks or AxWatchLeakOnDispose. | Partial Memory utilization per view is tracked as a mobile vital. Leak detection is not described in the RUM docs. Source: Mobile vitals |
| Duplicate API calls | As issues The same request fired more than once is reported as an issue, with the screen and the trail that led to it. | Not documented Requests are tracked as resources. Detection of duplicate calls is not described in the RUM docs. Source: RUM errors dashboard |
| Android ANRs | Live Detected live while the main thread is blocked, plus ANR exit records on Android 11+. | Next launch on 11+ Fatal ANRs read through ApplicationExitInfo on Android 11+ and reported on the next launch. Non-fatal ANRs are off by default on Android 11+. Source: Android error tracking |
| iOS app hangs | On by default Detected automatically in debug and release builds, with a stack trace. | Off by default Off by default. Threshold is configurable; Datadog recommends 2 to 3 seconds to reduce noise. Source: iOS error tracking |
| Failed and slow API calls | As issues Each one reported as an issue: status code errors, network exceptions and delayed calls. | As resources Requests are tracked as resources, and an Errors dashboard shows which resources generate the most network errors. Source: RUM errors dashboard |
| Frozen frames and slow renders | As issues Reported as issues with screen context on Android, iOS, Flutter and Web. | As vitals Tracked as mobile vitals per view on Android, iOS and Flutter. Source: Mobile vitals |
| App startup and screen load | Yes Screen load delays, plus cold, warm and hot start on Android and cold start on iOS. | Yes Android launch monitoring (time to initial and full display) and app start time by version. |
| What the user did before a bug | Activity Trail Attached to every issue: screen lifecycle events, taps and clicks, network calls and custom markers, with free memory at each step. It logs events rather than recording the screen, and comes with every plan. | Session Replay Browser and mobile replay; Flutter replay is in Preview. Sessions with replay are billed under the Session Replay plan. Source: Mobile Session Replay, RUM billing |
| Journey and funnel analysis | Goals Mark a journey with two calls and see attempts, failures, drop-off and the issues behind them, per version (Professional). | Journey Monitoring Journey Monitoring shows conversion and drop-off for each journey, with Session Replays of users who converted or dropped off. Funnel analysis is part of Product Analytics. Source: Journey Monitoring, Funnel analysis |
| Release comparison | Yes Issue Distribution Analytics across every release, plus a 0–10 Quality Score per version (Professional). | Yes Deployment Tracking compares any two versions from the past 30 days on errors, crash rate and start or load time. Source: RUM Deployment Tracking |
| Crash reporting and grouping | Yes Stack trace, device state and Activity Trail with every crash. Issues grouped by root cause and tagged fatal, major or minor by user impact. | Yes Crash reporting with deobfuscated stack traces, including Android NDK and Flutter native crashes. Native crash reports upload on the next launch. Error Tracking groups errors into issues with users impacted and the commit that probably caused it. Source: Android error tracking, Flutter error tracking, Error Tracking for web and mobile |
| MCP server for AI coding agents | Yes Issues, occurrences, Activity Trails, Issue Distribution Analytics, Quality Score and GFI. | Yes Works with Claude Code, Cursor and other MCP clients. Datadog's docs say it is under significant development. Source: Datadog MCP Server |
| AI-assisted SDK setup | Yes Agent Skills set up the SDK on Android, iOS, Flutter, Kotlin Multiplatform and Web, plus MCP skills for goals, severity, quality and telemetry. | Yes Agentic Onboarding adds RUM to Android, iOS and web apps (React, Next.js, Angular, Vue, Svelte) from one prompt. Source: RUM Agentic Onboarding |
| Android, iOS, Flutter, Kotlin Multiplatform and Web | Yes Native SDKs for Android and iOS, a Flutter plugin, a Kotlin Multiplatform SDK and a JS/TS Web SDK with a React package and client-side setup for Next.js, Nuxt and SvelteKit. | Yes Android, iOS, Flutter and Kotlin Multiplatform SDKs, plus a Browser SDK. Source: Datadog client SDKs |
| Data retention | 30–60 days 30 days on Starter, 60 days on Professional. | 30 days Sessions, views, actions and errors for 30 days; resources and vitals for 15 days. Error Tracking issues for 1 year after last activity. Source: Data retention periods |
Score per journey and version
Goal Friction Impact scores each user journey from 0 to 10 for every app version, with the list of issues behind failed attempts (Professional).
No score per journey and version. Journey Monitoring reports conversion and drop-off for each journey (see Journey and funnel analysis below).
Source: Journey Monitoring
One quality score per release
Crashes, ANRs, memory and network issues combined into one 0 to 10 score per version, weighted by severity and users affected (Professional).
No single release score. Deployment Tracking compares two versions on errors, crash rate and start or load time.
Source: RUM Deployment Tracking
Pricing model
Flat price per app, by device tier. Starter $10/month, Professional $99/month, Enterprise custom. Unlimited seats, no per-event billing.
Billed per 1,000 sessions ingested. A session ends after 15 minutes of inactivity or 4 hours. Sessions with replay are billed under a separate Session Replay plan.
Source: RUM billing, Datadog pricing
Memory leaks
Leaks, memory spikes, abnormal usage and low-memory warnings, on mobile and web. In production mobile builds, leaks are detected at screen level (Activity, Fragment and ViewController). In Kotlin Multiplatform, leaks are tracked on the ViewModels and Compose Multiplatform screens you register with Ax.watchLeaks or AxWatchLeakOnDispose.
Memory utilization per view is tracked as a mobile vital. Leak detection is not described in the RUM docs.
Source: Mobile vitals
Duplicate API calls
The same request fired more than once is reported as an issue, with the screen and the trail that led to it.
Requests are tracked as resources. Detection of duplicate calls is not described in the RUM docs.
Source: RUM errors dashboard
Android ANRs
Detected live while the main thread is blocked, plus ANR exit records on Android 11+.
Fatal ANRs read through ApplicationExitInfo on Android 11+ and reported on the next launch. Non-fatal ANRs are off by default on Android 11+.
Source: Android error tracking
iOS app hangs
Detected automatically in debug and release builds, with a stack trace.
Off by default. Threshold is configurable; Datadog recommends 2 to 3 seconds to reduce noise.
Source: iOS error tracking
Failed and slow API calls
Each one reported as an issue: status code errors, network exceptions and delayed calls.
Requests are tracked as resources, and an Errors dashboard shows which resources generate the most network errors.
Source: RUM errors dashboard
Frozen frames and slow renders
Reported as issues with screen context on Android, iOS, Flutter and Web.
Tracked as mobile vitals per view on Android, iOS and Flutter.
Source: Mobile vitals
App startup and screen load
Screen load delays, plus cold, warm and hot start on Android and cold start on iOS.
Android launch monitoring (time to initial and full display) and app start time by version.
What the user did before a bug
Attached to every issue: screen lifecycle events, taps and clicks, network calls and custom markers, with free memory at each step. It logs events rather than recording the screen, and comes with every plan.
Browser and mobile replay; Flutter replay is in Preview. Sessions with replay are billed under the Session Replay plan.
Source: Mobile Session Replay, RUM billing
Journey and funnel analysis
Mark a journey with two calls and see attempts, failures, drop-off and the issues behind them, per version (Professional).
Journey Monitoring shows conversion and drop-off for each journey, with Session Replays of users who converted or dropped off. Funnel analysis is part of Product Analytics.
Source: Journey Monitoring, Funnel analysis
Release comparison
Issue Distribution Analytics across every release, plus a 0–10 Quality Score per version (Professional).
Deployment Tracking compares any two versions from the past 30 days on errors, crash rate and start or load time.
Source: RUM Deployment Tracking
Crash reporting and grouping
Stack trace, device state and Activity Trail with every crash. Issues grouped by root cause and tagged fatal, major or minor by user impact.
Crash reporting with deobfuscated stack traces, including Android NDK and Flutter native crashes. Native crash reports upload on the next launch. Error Tracking groups errors into issues with users impacted and the commit that probably caused it.
Source: Android error tracking, Flutter error tracking, Error Tracking for web and mobile
MCP server for AI coding agents
Issues, occurrences, Activity Trails, Issue Distribution Analytics, Quality Score and GFI.
Works with Claude Code, Cursor and other MCP clients. Datadog's docs say it is under significant development.
Source: Datadog MCP Server
AI-assisted SDK setup
Agent Skills set up the SDK on Android, iOS, Flutter, Kotlin Multiplatform and Web, plus MCP skills for goals, severity, quality and telemetry.
Agentic Onboarding adds RUM to Android, iOS and web apps (React, Next.js, Angular, Vue, Svelte) from one prompt.
Source: RUM Agentic Onboarding
Android, iOS, Flutter, Kotlin Multiplatform and Web
Native SDKs for Android and iOS, a Flutter plugin, a Kotlin Multiplatform SDK and a JS/TS Web SDK with a React package and client-side setup for Next.js, Nuxt and SvelteKit.
Android, iOS, Flutter and Kotlin Multiplatform SDKs, plus a Browser SDK.
Source: Datadog client SDKs
Data retention
30 days on Starter, 60 days on Professional.
Sessions, views, actions and errors for 30 days; resources and vitals for 15 days. Error Tracking issues for 1 year after last activity.
Source: Data retention periods
Where Appxiom and Datadog RUM differ
Turn slow sessions into named bugs
Datadog RUM records sessions, views, resources and errors, and reports mobile vitals such as frozen frames, slow renders and memory utilization per view. Crashes, ANRs and app hangs go to Error Tracking. Several of these are opt-in: iOS app hang reporting is off by default, non-fatal ANRs are off by default on Android 11+, and fatal ANRs are read on the next launch.
Appxiom raises each problem as its own issue, with a stack trace, device state and Activity Trail: ANRs while the main thread is blocked, iOS app hangs, screen-level memory leaks in release builds (Activity, Fragment and ViewController), Kotlin Multiplatform leaks in ViewModels and Compose Multiplatform screens you register with Ax.watchLeaks or AxWatchLeakOnDispose, failed, slow and duplicate API calls, frozen frames, and screen load and startup delays.
The key difference
Datadog RUM:
A view's memory climbs through a session and shows up as a vital on a chart.
Appxiom:
The leak is an issue with the screen, the device and the steps that led to it.
A score for every journey, in every version
Datadog has journey and funnel analysis. Journey Monitoring shows each journey's traffic, conversion and drop-off, and the users who converted or dropped off, with their Session Replays. Funnel analysis is part of Datadog Product Analytics.
The difference is the score. Appxiom's Goal Friction Impact (GFI) gives each user journey a 0 to 10 score for every app version, built from attempts, failures and drop-off, with the list of issues behind the failed attempts. You mark a goal with two calls (beginGoal and completeGoal on mobile, startGoal and endGoal on web). GFI is part of the Professional plan.
The key difference
Datadog RUM:
The signup journey shows conversion, drop-off and replays of users who converted or left.
Appxiom:
For example, the signup goal for the new version shows failed attempts, drop-off and the validation bug at the top of its issue list.
A price that doesn't move with sessions
Datadog bills RUM per 1,000 sessions ingested. A session ends after 15 minutes of inactivity, so a user who opens your app several times a day can create several billable sessions. Sessions with replay are billed under a separate Session Replay plan, and Product Analytics is a separate product.
Appxiom charges a flat price per app, by device tier: Starter is $10/month for up to 10,000 devices and Professional is $99/month for up to 100,000. Seats are unlimited and there's no per-event billing, so an error storm doesn't change the bill.
The key difference
Datadog RUM:
Cost grows with every session, plus replay if you turn it on.
Appxiom:
A flat price per app, by device tier.
One score per release
Datadog Deployment Tracking compares versions on error rate, crash rate, and load or start time, for any two versions from the past 30 days.
Appxiom Issue Distribution Analytics compares bug occurrences across releases, and Quality Score combines crashes, ANRs, memory and network issues into one 0–10 score per version, weighted by severity and users affected (Professional plan).
The key difference
Datadog RUM:
Several charts per version to read side by side.
Appxiom:
One number per release that engineering and product can agree on.
Let your coding agent rank bugs by impact
Datadog also has an MCP server for Claude Code, Cursor and other clients, and Agentic Onboarding can add RUM to Android, iOS and web apps from a single prompt.
Appxiom's Agent Skills set up the SDK on Android, iOS, Flutter, Kotlin Multiplatform and Web. Its MCP server gives your agent GFI for each user journey, Quality Score, Issue Distribution Analytics and the full Activity Trail, and the @appxiom/mcp-skills package teaches the agent how to rank goal drop-offs and judge severity by business impact.
The key difference
Datadog RUM:
The agent can query Datadog errors and sessions.
Appxiom:
The agent also gets the GFI score for each journey and version, with its issue list, to decide what to fix first.
Keep Datadog for your servers. Add Appxiom for your apps.
Appxiom doesn't replace Datadog APM, logs or infrastructure monitoring. Add it to your apps next to Datadog RUM and compare them on a real release before you decide whether you still need RUM.
Add Appxiom next to Datadog RUM
Your coding agent can set up the integration using Appxiom Agent Skills. Prefer to do it by hand? Add the SDK and call init with your app and platform keys.
Track one key journey
Wrap a flow that matters, such as checkout or signup, in a goal. That turns on Goal Friction Impact for it.
Compare on a real release
Ship a version with both and see what each one reports. Then keep both, or drop Datadog RUM and keep Datadog for your backend.
No data migration is needed. Appxiom reports issues from the first release that includes it, and your RUM history stays in Datadog.
Datadog RUM alternative FAQs
Straight answers to the questions teams ask when comparing Appxiom and Datadog RUM.
Last updated: 3 November 2026. Datadog RUM features change often; every Datadog RUM claim in the comparison table links to its official source.
We use cookies to improve your experience.