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16 Application Performance Issues And How To Troubleshoot Them

Application performance issues can be a thorn in any business. Consider a scenario where an application experiences slow response times, leading to user dissatisfaction and presenting challenges for the team in identifying the root cause of the problem. This article offers valuable insights for troubleshooting common application performance monitoring issues that can help you get back on track quickly.

Introducing Alerty's solution, free APM, as a valuable tool to help readers achieve their objectives, such as troubleshooting common application performance issues.

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Table of Contents

How To Know If Your Web Application Has Performance Issues

Women Checking Code - Application Performance Issues

Poor User Experience

One of the most apparent signs of performance issues in web applications is poor user experience. A website that takes up to two seconds to load is considered poor. Half of internet users will abandon a website that takes less than three seconds to load.

Load tests that simulate production-level traffic on development-stage applications can help identify such performance problems. By detecting these issues before deployment, developers can address bottlenecks before they impact production users.

Excessive Resource Usage

Sometimes, performance issues arise from inefficient scripts that consume significant resources. Businesses may be tempted to allocate additional resources to tackle slow performance as a quick fix without addressing the root cause, often resulting in high costs. 

If your infrastructure scales automatically based on application load, you may face unexpected bills from your cloud services provider at the end of the month due to the escalating costs. Several tools can help identify excessive resource usage, such as:

  • AWS Cost Explorer 
  • AWS Budgets

These can track cost trends and alert you when costs spike beyond the average range or a specific level. 

Proactive Monitoring vs. Reactive Costs

Resource usage is a lagging performance indicator, making monitoring bottlenecks using load-testing frameworks crucial rather than addressing them only when a large bill arrives.

Low Search Rankings

Search engines have evolved from considering backlinks solely to examining various factors. Since July 2018, Google has used page speed as a ranking factor in search results. Slow websites are penalized, while faster websites are rewarded. 

Performance issues that affect search rankings are only sometimes obvious. For instance, website performance may seem excellent on a fast fiber internet connection, but the mobile experience on a cellular network could be significantly slower. Search engines take various factors into account when ranking per device.

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Common Causes Application Performance Issues

Code - Application Performance Issues

Network Issues

Slow network connectivity or high latency can cause app latency. This is particularly true for mobile apps, which often rely on cellular data connections that can be slower and less reliable than Wi-Fi connections.

Server Issues

If an app relies on a server or cloud-based infrastructure, slow server response times or server downtime can cause app latency.

Inefficient Code

Inefficient code can lead to slow app performance. This can be caused by factors such as

  • Poor algorithms
  • excessive use of CPU or memory resources
  • Inefficient use of network resources

Too Much Data

If an app processes or transmits too much data, it can cause latency. This can be caused by factors such as:

  • Large files
  • Excessive requests
  • Inefficient data processing

Device Issues

Older or less powerful devices may need help to run some apps, leading to latency.

External Factors

External factors like interference or environmental factors can also contribute to app latency. Poor GPS signal or interference can cause latency if an app relies on GPS data.

Real-World Impact of High Latency

High latency quickly leads to poor user experience, as evidenced by:

  • Gaming
  • IoT
  • Robotics
  • Autonomous Vehicles

In ecommerce, poor performance leads to a significant loss of revenue and customers.

The Revenue Cost of Slow E-commerce

According to a recent study, 79% of shoppers who experience performance issues on an e-commerce website are less likely to buy from the same site again. 47% of customers expect a web page to load in 2 seconds or less.

Alerty's Cloud Monitoring Suite

Alerty is a cloud monitoring service for developers and early-stage startups, offering:

  • Application performance monitoring
  • Database monitoring
  • Incident management

It supports technologies that help developers identify and fix issues. These include:

  • Nextjs
  • React
  • Vue
  • Node.js

Comprehensive Database Monitoring

Alerty monitors databases such as

  • Supabase
  • PostgreSQL
  • RDS

These databases track key metrics like:

  • CPU usage 
  • Memory consumption

It features quick incident management and Real User Monitoring (RUM) to optimize user experience. 

Alerty's Streamlined Monitoring with Free APM

Alerty’s Universal Service Monitoring covers dependencies like:

  • Stripe API
  • OpenAI
  • Vercel

Alerty uses AI to simplify setup, providing a cost-effective solution compared to competitors. It is designed for ease of use, allowing quick setup, and integrates with tools like Sentry, making it ideal for developers and small teams needing efficient, affordable monitoring. 

Today, catch issues before they affect your users with Alerty's free APM solution!

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16 Application Performance Issues And How To Troubleshoot Them

Woman Looking at Computer - Application Performance Issues

1. DNS Issues and Network Connectivity

DNS issues and network connectivity can cause problems with website accessibility and performance. Faulty DNS queries can lead to:

  • Errors
  • 404s
  • Incorrect pathways

Implement DNS monitoring safeguards to identify and address these issues. To optimize network connectivity and firewall efficiency, distribute tasks between servers and check:

  • Switches
  • VLAN tags

2. Network Latency and Bandwidth Issues

Network latency and bandwidth problems can significantly impact application performance. Regularly monitoring network performance using tools can help identify and troubleshoot issues. These include: 

  • Network monitoring software
  • Analyzers
  • Ping
  • Traceroute commands. 

Optimizing routing using protocols like OSPF, BGP, or load balancers to distribute traffic can reduce latency and improve network performance. Utilizing CDNs can also reduce latency and enhance web application performance.

3. Slow Servers and Loading Time

Smaller servers hosted on shared accounts can lead to better website performance. Check if the site is on a dedicated server and switch if necessary. Use tools like Google's PageSpeed Insights to analyze site speed and identify elements slowing down the website to improve loading times.

4. Poorly Written Code

Another web application performance problem many face is poorly written code, which could refer to:

  • Inefficient code
  • Memory leaks
  • Synchronization issues

Your application could also be deadlocked due to:

  • Ineffectual algorithms 
  • Performance degradation

Legacy Systems

Old software versions or integrated legacy systems can affect your website’s performance. You can tackle this issue by ensuring that your developers are using optimal coding practices and some automated tools such as profilers and code reviews.

5. App Architecture

A poorly designed app architecture can cause performance issues, impacting the data flow and how elements are processed. A complex or convoluted architecture causes delays in retrieving information and can lead to bloated code. 

Building a Scalable App Foundation

To improve app architecture, developers must:

  • Regularly review and refactor code
  • Remove redundancies
  • Simplify processes. 

Appropriate design patterns and frameworks help improve the overall structure and scalability of the application.

6. Traffic Spikes

The applications may experience sudden spikes in traffic, especially during peak usage times or due to viral content. If the application is not adequately prepared to handle these spikes, it can lead to slow performance and even crashes. 

Developers can fix this issue by optimizing code and using caching techniques to reduce server and application load. Load balancing and auto-scaling are valuable techniques to handle sudden traffic spikes by distributing the load across multiple servers. 

7. Unmanaged Growth of Data

Data systems tend to degrade over time. Developing a plan to manage and monitor data as it grows is indispensable to your web performance success. 

  • Decide who is accountable for data growth in your business.
  • Research and determine the appropriate storage for your data needs. 
  • Look at all your options, from databases to caches to more sophisticated layered storage solutions.

8. Traffic Spikes

Increased traffic is generally a good thing. Anyone who has experienced significant traffic spikes after a marketing promotion or viral video knows what can happen when you aren’t adequately prepared for them. 

Planning is key. Set up an early warning system through simulated user monitoring systems. That way, you’ll see when traffic impacts transactions before your users have a bad experience.

9. Poor Load Distribution

Poor load distribution can cause slow response times by incorrectly assigning new site visitors to bogged-down servers instead of others with cycles to spare. If too many people are on the same server, they will experience problems, even if the overall system is well under capacity. Testing with a product like NeoLoad is imperative, as it will help you find any infrastructural weaknesses.

10. Default Configurations

Systems must be tuned appropriately. While default configurations make it easy to get new components up and running, they’re not always appropriate for your web applications in a live production environment. Every setting should be checked: 

  • Review thread counts
  • Allocated memory
  • Permissions. 

Confirm that all configuration parameters suit the demands placed on your web application — and aren’t the way they are just out of convenience.

11. Troublesome Third-Party Services

If you rely on third-party services, you know some slowdowns are out of your control. If your users are experiencing problems, it’s essential to determine if the problem is on your side or due to the third-party service. If you decide to continue using the third-party service, consider making some design changes to protect your site from at least some of the effects of a third-party service issue. 

Logging and monitoring are used to track the systems’ interactions and identify any issues that may arise. Finally, ensure your company and the off-service provider clearly understand performance guarantees.

12. Specific HTML Title Tags

Even your website's name can affect its performance, as HTML title tags are essential to its success. These tags sum up the entire content of your website or web page to major search engines such as Google. 

A lack of specificity in your domain name can lower its visibility. Sometimes, site owners use the same title throughout their website, which causes search engines to look for duplicate title tags and pare them, causing sites to lose traffic. 

Identifying On-Page SEO Issues

You can tackle this issue by doing a name search as site: yourdomain.com. Go to Google Search Console (which used to be known as Google Webmaster Tools) to analyze your website. The tool will offer you information on HTML errors such as:

  • Missing title tags
  • Duplicate meta descriptions
  • Missing descriptions and more

13. Caching Issues

Caching is a technique that stores frequently accessed data in a temporary storage location, reducing the need to retrieve it from the server every time. Caching can cause issues like stale data and increased server load if not correctly configured. 

Developers should regularly review and update their caching strategies to fix web applications' slow performance issues. They should also consider implementing cache invalidation or time-based expiration to ensure data remains current.

14. Cookie Size

Cookies are small data stored on a user's browser that help track their preferences and activity on a website. If the size of these cookies becomes too large, it can impact the performance of web applications as it takes longer to transfer them between the server and the user's browser. 

To prevent cookie size from becoming an issue, developers should limit the amount of data stored in cookies and regularly review and clean up unnecessary cookies. Instead of relying solely on cookies, they can use server-side storage options like local or session storage to store more significant chunks of data.

15. Memory Leaks

Memory leaks occur when an application does not properly release allocated memory, causing it to accumulate and eventually leading to

  • Crashes, or 
  • Degraded performance. 

This can result from improper coding practices or issues with third-party libraries. To fix memory leaks, developers must regularly review and debug their code for any issues related to memory management. They should also ensure that all allocated resources are correctly released after use. Tools like heap analyzers can also help identify and fix memory leaks in the application.

16. Database Queries

Poorly optimized database queries can significantly impact the performance of web applications. Inefficient queries can slow data retrieval, causing loading and response time delays. As the data in the database grows, these issues become more severe. 

Database Indexing

To increase application performance, developers must regularly review and optimize database queries. This includes:

  • Proper indexing
  • Avoiding complex joins wherever possible
  • Limiting the data retrieved when unnecessary. 

Properly indexed tables can significantly improve:

  • Query response time 
  • Overall application performance

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Free Tools For Checking Web Performance

Web Analytics - Application Performance Issues

One of the first steps in addressing performance issues is to identify them. Luckily, there are free web application troubleshooting tools available that can help developers analyze and monitor the performance of their web applications. 

Google Analytics and Google Search Console

These application performance analyzer tools provide valuable insights into how users interact with the app and can help identify bottlenecks or issues. Google Analytics can also track:

  • Page loading times
  • Bounce rates
  • Other metrics that impact user experience

Google PageSpeed Insights

This free tool provides a detailed analysis of a web application's performance. It gives suggestions on how to fix these issues and identifies areas for improvement, such as:

  • Image optimization
  • Caching
  • Minification

Chrome DevTools

A built-in tool in the Google Chrome browser specifically designed for developers. It allows them to:

  • Analyze network performance
  • Debug JavaScript
  • Identify any potential issues with the CSS or HTML code

Alerty

A free APM that uses AI to help developers identify and fix performance issues, featuring quick incident management and Real User Monitoring (RUM) to optimize user experience.

These tools are handy for developers looking to improve the performance of web applications without breaking the bank.

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Performing Performance Testing To Identify Bottlenecks In An Application

Performance testing is crucial for identifying bottlenecks and ensuring an application can handle the expected load. You must:

  • Define the key performance metrics 
  • Set goals based on business requirements

Selecting Appropriate Testing Tools

Choosing the right tools is essential for effective performance testing. To simulate user load, consider using load testing tools like:

  • JMeter
  • LoadRunner
  • Gatling
  • K6 

Monitoring tools like Alerty can be used to track system performance metrics.

Planning and Designing Test Scenarios

Identify critical use cases and user journeys to simulate realistic load conditions. Test data that mimics real-world usage must be created to ensure accurate testing results.

Setting Up the Test Environment

To accurately replicate the production environment, set up a testing environment that closely resembles the production environment, including:

  • Hardware
  • Software
  • Network configurations. 

Configure monitoring tools to track server and application performance during tests.

Executing Performance Tests

Conduct baseline testing to establish baseline performance metrics. Gradually increase the load on the application to observe its behavior under normal and peak conditions. Push the application beyond its expected limits to identify the breaking point and understand how it fails.

Analyzing Test Results

Analyze the test results to pinpoint performance bottlenecks, such as:

  • Slow response times
  • High CPU or memory usage
  • Database query delays

Log Analysis and Profiling

Review application logs to find:

  • Errors
  • Exceptions
  • Other issues contributing to performance problems 

Utilize profiling tools to examine the application’s code execution and identify inefficient code segments or resource-intensive operations.

Optimizing and Retesting

Implement optimizations based on the identified bottlenecks, such as:

  • Code refactoring
  • Database query optimization
  • Server configuration changes

Re-execute the tests to verify that optimizations have resolved the bottlenecks and improved overall performance.

Continuous Monitoring and Improvement

Continuously monitor the production application to detect and promptly address performance issues. Perform regular performance testing during the development and release cycle to ensure ongoing performance optimization.

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Application Performance Issues Best Practices

Application Checklist - Application Performance Issues

Regularly Load Test

Load testing is the best way to identify performance bottlenecks before they reach production users. If you catch them early on, you don't have to worry about those problems down the road. There are two types of load tests that you can leverage: 

  • Protocol-based load tests
  • Browser-based load tests. 

Protocol-based load tests are ideal for testing APIs that may be causing poor performance on applications that consume them, including:

  • Single-page applications
  • Mobile applications
  • Internet-of-Things applications. 

On the other hand, browser-based load tests are ideal for testing web applications with heavy client-side components. They can help identify bloated JavaScript code or outright errors causing performance issues.

Monitor Cloud Costs

Setting up cost monitoring for cloud services can help you quickly identify performance-related cost increases. This way, you won't have to wait until the end of the month to see if there’s a problem – and a surprise bill.

Monitor Performance

Monitoring performance should be a regular part of your software development requirements. Developers should know load times when writing code, even before load testing. By monitoring performance, you can catch issues early on and address them before they escalate.

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Catch Issues Before They Affect Your Users with Alerty's Free APM Solution

Alerty is a cloud monitoring service for developers and early-stage startups, offering:

  • Application performance monitoring
  • Database monitoring
  • Incident management

It supports technologies like:

  • NextJS
  • React
  • Vue
  • Node.js

Database Performance Monitoring

Alerty monitors databases such as:

  • Supabase
  • PostgreSQL
  • RDS

These databases track key metrics like:

  • CPU usage 
  • Memory consumption

Enhanced User Experience & Streamlined Management

It features quick incident management and Real User Monitoring (RUM) to optimize user experience. Its Universal Service Monitoring covers dependencies like:

  • Stripe API
  • OpenAI
  • Vercel

Alerty uses AI to simplify setup, providing a cost-effective solution compared to competitors. It is designed for ease of use, allowing quick setup, and integrates with tools like Sentry, making it ideal for developers and small teams needing efficient, affordable monitoring.

Catch issues before they affect your users with Alerty's free APM solution today!

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