User experience is key to ensuring the success of your website. There are many metrics that help you gauge and improve it, but Core Web Vitals are probably the most important ones. They are a set of real-world, user-centered metrics that quantify key aspects of the user experience. By measuring dimensions of web usability such as load time, interactivity, and the stability of content as it loads, Core Web Vitals help you understand how your website is doing in terms of performance. Therefore, it is important to measure them.
To help you get started, in this article we will review the best Core Web Vitals monitoring tools available.
How to Test Core Web Vitals: Lab vs Field Data Solutions
There are two ways to measure Core Web Vitals – based on lab data or field data.
- Lab data that’s collected in a controlled environment.
- Field data, also known as real user monitoring (RUM) data is collected from real users visiting a website.
For optimal results, lab and field data can be analyzed together utilizing both artificial and real user data, complementing each other nicely.
There are numerous tools to help you monitor your Core Web Vitals performance score using one type of data or a combination of both.
Top Tools for Core Web Vitals Testing and Monitoring
1. Sematext
Sematext offers website monitoring tools that enable you to collect both field and lab data on your Core Web Vitals, on both mobile and desktop devices.
To measure field data, Sematext has Experience, a real user monitoring tool that gives you real-time insight into your users’ experience and satisfaction with your website. It’ll report on website performance across the world, broken down by location, device, or connection speed.
In a similar fashion, Synthetics, Sematext’s synthetic monitoring solution, looks at various locations around the world, but to collect lab data on your Core Web Vitals. It will report on resources such as website speed, uptime, error rates, third-party API answers, SSL certificate expiry, and a variety of other mission-critical metrics. You may also use it to compare against competitors and identify areas of your website that could be enhanced for performance.
Features:
- Collects both field and lab data on Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS), First Input Delay (FID), First Contentful Paint (FCP), Time to First Byte (TTFB).
- Identify resources and requests with the biggest negative impact on your website performance.
- Debugging solutions and alerts in real-time.
- Support for all major frameworks.
Pricing: Plans start at $5/mo. Free trial available.
2. Chrome User Experience Report (CrUX)
Chrome User Experience Report (CrUX) is a public dataset that comprises real-world user experience data from millions of websites, allowing you to measure the experience on you website and your competitors’. The data originates from Chrome users who have opted in, therefore it monitors field data on all Core Web Vitals metrics. If you’re a developer, you can use the CrUX API to measure the field versions of Core Web Vitals in your own app.
If your site does not use RUM, CrUX may give a quick and straightforward approach to measure and analyze your Core Web Vitals. The CrUX dataset on BigQuery contains fine-grained performance statistics for all Core Web Vitals and is available in monthly origin-level snapshots.
Features:
- Field Core Web Vitals monitoring tool.
- Every Chrome user has access to it for free.
- You may easily test code by running commands.
- After a short learning curve, it is really simple to use.
- Easy to use.
Pricing: Free.
3. Google Lighthouse
Lighthouse is an automatic website auditing tool that measures various aspects of user experience quality in a laboratory setting, including performance and accessibility. The diagnostic report includes individual assessments of the three Web Core Vitals, Total Blocking Time (TBT), Total Time to Interactive (TTI), and speed index, as well as an overall performance score based on these, and recommendations for how to improve your site. new audits
Lighthouse may be installed as a Chrome extension and integrated into your website development and testing flow via your CI/CD pipeline using the Lighthouse CI.
Features:
- Measures lab user experience metrics: LCP, CLS, FID, TBT, TTI.
- Simple to set up and use.
- Examines web page performance, saerch engine optimization (SEO), best practices and accessibility.
- Built into Chrome DevTools.
Pricing: Free.
4. Google Page Speed Insights
PageSpeed Insights (PSI) is a well-rounded web-based tool for measuring Web Core Vitals performance for individual pages on mobile and desktop devices. PSI is designed using Chrome UX Report and Lighthouse. CrUX provides the field data showing how real-users perceive the page, while Lighthouse brings in the lab data, as well as a collection of practical recommendations for site owners on how to enhance the page experience.
The PSI report includes an overall page performance score that indicates whether your page passed the Core Web Vitals assessment. The score is later explained with both lab and field data on the metrics monitored for you to understand exactly what dragged down your site performance.
Features:
- Povides both lab and field information on the three Web Core Vitals.
- Simple solution if you only need your page speed.
- A quick and easy test, which can be run from any device.
- Provides accurate information about customer experience.
Pricing: Free.
5. Web Vitals Chrome Extension
Web Vitals is a useful Google Chrome extension that allows you to analyze the Core Web Vitals metrics on your desktop in real time. The extension allows developers to easily analyze the Core Web Vitals by simply visiting a webpage and then clicking on the extension.
The Web Vitals extension will not provide optimization recommendations like other tools in this list, but is a quick and easy way to get immediate feedback for loading, interaction, and layout shift metrics. This is in line with how Google Chrome measures these metrics and how it reports them to other Google products such as Chrome User Experience Report, Page Speed Insights and Search Console.
Utilizing the Chrome UX Report API, the extension combines the current wepage’s Core Web Vitals experiences with real-user data. This allows you to compare the contextual insights provided with that of real-users browsing the same website.
Features:
- Measures field Web Core Vitals.
- Provides instant feedback on loading.
- Ambient Badge to help check if a page is passing the Core Web Vitals thresholds.
- Detailed drill-down in the popup.
- Heads up display (HUD) overlay of the page.
Pricing: Free.
6. Chrome DevTools Performance Panel
The Chrome DevTools Performance panel is a built-in feature of the Chrome browser itself, providing lab data on the Core Web Vitals. To open the panel, you simply need to right-click and choose “Inspect” from the popup menu.
The Chrome DevTools Performance panel features an Experience section that displays all the Core Web Vitals in vivid color, similar to Lighthouse. You may view more information about any of the metrics such as CLS, LCP, TBT etc. by simply clicking to open a more detailed view.
You can use DevTools Performance panel to spot sudden layout changes, which is useful in identifying issues with visual instability and Cumulative Layout Change (CLS).
Features:
- Provides detailed lab data on the Core Web Vitals, as well as other helpful web performance metrics.
- Built-in feature of Google Chrome.
- Easy to use.
Pricing: Free.
7. Google Search Console
Google Search Console (GSC) uses Chrome UX Report to provide real-user field data on the three Web Core Vitals. The GSC Web Vitals report allows you to examine and pinpoint collections of pages that might need to be fixed or optimized. The URLs are categorized by metric type and status (poor, needs improvement, good), letting you see how your web pages are performing in terms of Core Web Vitals.
Any URL which doesn’t meet the required data threshold for those metrics, is excluded from the report.
Features:
- Based on real-world field data for LCP, FID and CLS from CrUX.
- Report shows URL Web Core Vitals performance grouped by status.
- Provides specific optimization suggestions for each page.
Pricing: Free.
8. Web.dev
web.dev allows you to track your page’s performance over time. The Web Core Vitals measurement data is identical to that of the Page Speed Insight report.
web.dev also helps improve the accessibility of your web app by assessing user experience, security, and other factors. This guarantees that your page adheres to the fundamental SEO suggestions.
When it comes to export options, web.dev allows you to export HTML or JSON files and view Lighthouse reports by simply pasting the JSON or Gist URL.
Features:
- Provides both lab and field data on the three Web Core Vitals.
- Allows HTML or JSON exporting.
- View Lighthouse reports.
- Audit page performance against best practices.
Pricing: Free.
9. WebPageTest
WebPageTest is one of the best online tools for testing a website’s performance, including the Web Core Vitals. There are multiple configurable options available when performing the tests, such as location, browser, connection type. Unfortunately though, WebPageTest is not as user friendly as some of the other offerings as the data provided is complex. However, for more advanced users, WebPageTest provides everything they need to perform an in-depth analysis, and also includes recommendations for how to fix the issues discovered.
Features:
- Provides field data on LCP, FID and CLS.
- Comprehensive professional analysis of Web Core Vitals.
- Many configurable options.
- More features than other Core Web Vitals monitoring tools.
Pricing: $0/month, with premium plans starting at $15/mo offering bulk testing, premium testing locations, high priority in testing queues.10. GTmetrix
GTmetrix Report Page highlights your page performance based on important page load speed metrics, including the three Web Core Vitals. It uses Google Lighthouse, to help you analyze your page for practical information on performance enhancements and performance metrics.
Scheduled monitoring allows you to keep track of page performance and view it with interactive graphs. GTmetrics allows you to set up notifications to alert you when your page is underperforming.
Features:
- Provides overview of important performance metrics: CLS, LCP, FID, TBT.
- Monitor performance using graphs, alerts, and Waterfall Charts.
- Multiple test locations available.
Pricing: $0/month, with premium plans start at $10/mo offeringmobile testing and premium test locations.
11. Treo Site Speed
Treo Site Speed Test is a free web-based website performance monitoring tool built on top of Chrome UX Report, Lighthouse, and Page Speed Insights, therefore reporting both field and lab data. It’s an excellent solution for businesses to learn more about how their website performs for users all over the world.
Treo provides a simple and intuitive UI for visualizing your Core Web Vitals for your entire site as well as individual pages. You can see results by country, time, origin percentile, metric and more, as well as historical data from past measurements of the metrics.
Features:
- Monitors lab and field data on CLS, LCP, FID, TTFB, FCP.
- User-friendly data reports.
- Performance budgets and alerts.
Pricing: From $100/mo. Free trial available.
12. PageSpeed Compare
PageSpeed Compare is a free tool that utilizes Google PageSpeed Insights to measure the web speed of a particular web pages, including its Web Core Vitals. It addition, you can use it to simultaneously compare the performance of multiple pages on your website against each other or against your competitors’ websites. PageSpeed Compare features an easy to use interface that displayss a website’s lab metrics, field metrics, page resources, DOM size, CPU time, and suggestions for improving web page performance.
Features:
- Measures field and lab ratings of FCP, LCP, FID, CLS, TBT, TTI and others.
- Supports CSV file export.
- Uses PageSpeed Insights to measure Core Web Vitals.
Pricing: Free.
13. New Relic
New Relic offers a real user monitoring solution that evaluates speed and performance as your site’s visitors from various web browsers, devices, operating systems, and networks. New Relic provides information on actual page performance. Pages may load material in a variety of ways, users can choose how they interact with that content.
You may also utilize the PageViewTiming event to implement a more real-time delivery method that is independent of any other event.
Features:
- Monitors field and lab data on the three Web Core Vitals, as well as other key metrics.
- Measures full page life cycle data.
- Compares real user browser interactions and synthetic monitoring trends with comparative charting.
- Detailed Web Core Vitals performance data view.
Pricing: From $0/month for Standard Plan (limited to 1 user). Pricing for upper tiers is available upon request.
Want to see how Sematext stacks up? Check out our page on Sematext vs New Relic.
14. Dynatrace
Dynatrace is a real-user monitoring technology that allows you to see your customers’ experiences in real time. It monitors the application, user activities, user sessions, action metrics, detects IP addresses and geolocation, replays sessions, and more.
Dynatrace offers a simple and intuitive dashboard that allows for easy reading of metrics. It also gives a detailed overview of mobile monitoring and provides complete transparency to the real-world user experience, aiding in the acceleration of application performance.
Features:
- Support for field and lab data for CLS, LCP, FID.Simple and elegant dashboard.
- Easy-to-understand metrics.
- Detailed analysis of mobile monitoring.
Pricing: From $10/mo. Free trial available.
Want to see how Sematext stacks up? Check out our page on Sematext vs Dynatrace. If you want to see how it compares in more than core web vitals monitoring, read our article on the top alternatives to Dynatrace.
15. AppDynamics
AppDynamics tracks every tap, click, and other interaction that occurs inside your website. AppDynamics provides a comprehensive set of tools for observing every element of your website and establishing total observability.
AppDynamics also provides a variety of other services such as Business Monitoring and others.
Features:
- Provides monitoring tools for the three Core Web Vitals and other key metrics.
- User session tracking and monitoring.
- Visually monitor global customer journeys.
- Proactively identify and resolve performance issues.
Pricing: Only paid plans, starting at $.06/month per 1000 tokens. Free trial available.
Want to see how Sematext stacks up? Check out our page on Sematext vs AppDynamics.
Get Started with Core Web Vitals Monitoring
The success of a website is determined by the impression it first makes on its visitors. Core Web Vitals are critical for understanding your users and ensuring their satisfaction, as they are, in essence, quality criteria for UX and web performance established by Google. . This makes choosing a good Web Core Vitals monitoring tool like Sematext is a must if you want your users who to spend more time – and money – on your site. Hopefully, this article gave you an idea of what’s available on the market. If you don’t know where to start, we encourage you to give Sematext a try!