Crash Reporting vs Application Performance Monitoring

Developers should use crash reporting tools in production environments to monitor application health, reduce downtime, and prioritize bug fixes based on real-world data meets developers should learn and use apm to proactively detect and resolve performance issues before they impact users, especially in microservices or cloud-native architectures where complexity can obscure root causes. Here's our take.

Crash Reporting

Nice Pick

Developers should use crash reporting tools in production environments to monitor application health, reduce downtime, and prioritize bug fixes based on real-world data

Pros

• It is particularly valuable for mobile apps, web applications, and desktop software where crashes can lead to user churn or negative reviews
• Related to: application-monitoring, log-aggregation

Cons

• Specific tradeoffs depend on your use case

Application Performance Monitoring

Developers should learn and use APM to proactively detect and resolve performance issues before they impact users, especially in microservices or cloud-native architectures where complexity can obscure root causes

Pros

• It is critical for maintaining service-level agreements (SLAs), optimizing resource usage, and improving user satisfaction in production environments
• Related to: observability, distributed-tracing

Cons

• Specific tradeoffs depend on your use case

The Verdict

Use Crash Reporting if: You want it is particularly valuable for mobile apps, web applications, and desktop software where crashes can lead to user churn or negative reviews and can live with specific tradeoffs depend on your use case.

Use Application Performance Monitoring if: You prioritize it is critical for maintaining service-level agreements (slas), optimizing resource usage, and improving user satisfaction in production environments over what Crash Reporting offers.

The Bottom Line

Crash Reporting wins

Developers should use crash reporting tools in production environments to monitor application health, reduce downtime, and prioritize bug fixes based on real-world data