Grafana Faro vs Amazon CloudWatch RUM

Grafana Faro8.6Visit Amazon CloudWatch RUM7.5Visit

Higher score Grafana Faro #6 in Real User Monitoring 8.6/10 Free plan Free plan✓ 4 of 5 features Visit Grafana Faro

vs

Amazon CloudWatch RUM #16 in Real User Monitoring 7.5/10 Paid ✓ 5 of 5 features Visit AWS

• Grafana Faro fits best

  Open-source-minded web RUM teams

• Amazon CloudWatch RUM fits best

  AWS-centric teams needing broad RUM coverage

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Side by side

Feature	Grafana Faro 8.6/10 Visit ↗	Amazon CloudWatch RUM 7.5/10 Visit ↗
At a glance
Editor score	8.6	7.5
Ranking	#6 in Real User Monitoring	#16 in Real User Monitoring
Best for	Open-source-minded web RUM teams	AWS-centric teams needing broad RUM coverage
Pricing model	Free plan + paid	Paid
Starting price	$19/mo	$0.35/GB usage-based
Free plan	✓ (best)	—
Free trial	—	—
Deployment	Cloud, Self-hosted	Cloud, Mobile
Platforms	Web	Web, iOS, Android
Support	Email, Community, Docs	Docs
Integrations	6 integrations	3 integrations
Built for	Small business, Mid-market, Enterprise	Small business, Mid-market, Enterprise
Features Grafana Faro 4/5 · Amazon CloudWatch RUM 5/5
Core Web Vitals	✓	✓
Mobile app monitoring	Not checked yet	✓ (best)
Interaction tracking	✓	✓
Geographic breakdown	✓	✓
Error correlation	✓	✓
Specs
Data retention	30 days	30 days
Pricing metric	Sessions	Custom
Our review
Pros	Free plan includes up to 50k sessions per month Tracks Web Vitals, errors, interactions, geography, and sessions Connects frontend telemetry with Grafana and OpenTelemetry tools	Covers web, Android, and iOS application experiences Correlates sessions with traces, errors, and journeys Provides privacy-masked replay and detailed geographic breakdowns
Cons	Web-focused rather than native mobile monitoring Free plan includes community support only Published retention period is 30 days	No free plan; usage charges apply monthly Collected RUM data is retained for 30 days Pricing varies by AWS Region and usage volume
Our verdict	Grafana Faro is an open-source JavaScript SDK for real user monitoring in browser-based applications. It is designed for developers, DevOps teams, and SREs that need frontend performance, error, interaction, session, and trace data. Faro… Read the review →	Amazon CloudWatch RUM monitors real-user experiences across web, Android, and iOS applications. It is suited to AWS-centric teams that need visibility into page loads, Core Web Vitals, app launches, screen loads, crashes, client-side… Read the review →

Strengths and trade-offs

• Grafana Faro — where it wins

  • Free plan includes up to 50k sessions per month
  • Tracks Web Vitals, errors, interactions, geography, and sessions
  • Connects frontend telemetry with Grafana and OpenTelemetry tools

  Where it doesn't

  • Web-focused rather than native mobile monitoring
  • Free plan includes community support only
  • Published retention period is 30 days

• Amazon CloudWatch RUM — where it wins

  • Covers web, Android, and iOS application experiences
  • Correlates sessions with traces, errors, and journeys
  • Provides privacy-masked replay and detailed geographic breakdowns

  Where it doesn't

  • No free plan; usage charges apply monthly
  • Collected RUM data is retained for 30 days
  • Pricing varies by AWS Region and usage volume

• Grafana Faro8.6/10 · Free plan

  A flexible web RUM SDK with free usage, Grafana integrations, and self-hosted deployment.

  Visit Grafana FaroFull verdict →
• Amazon CloudWatch RUM7.5/10 · Paid

  Broad web and mobile RUM coverage with usage-based AWS pricing.

  Visit AWSFull verdict →