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.
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.
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:
These can track cost trends and alert you when costs spike beyond the average range or a specific level.
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.
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.
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.
If an app relies on a server or cloud-based infrastructure, slow server response times or server downtime can cause app latency.
Inefficient code can lead to slow app performance. This can be caused by factors such as
If an app processes or transmits too much data, it can cause latency. This can be caused by factors such as:
Older or less powerful devices may need help to run some apps, leading to latency.
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.
High latency quickly leads to poor user experience, as evidenced by:
In ecommerce, poor performance leads to a significant loss of revenue and customers.
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 is a cloud monitoring service for developers and early-stage startups, offering:
It supports technologies that help developers identify and fix issues. These include:
Alerty monitors databases such as
These databases track key metrics like:
It features quick incident management and Real User Monitoring (RUM) to optimize user experience.
Alerty’s Universal Service Monitoring covers dependencies like:
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!
DNS issues and network connectivity can cause problems with website accessibility and performance. Faulty DNS queries can lead to:
Implement DNS monitoring safeguards to identify and address these issues. To optimize network connectivity and firewall efficiency, distribute tasks between servers and check:
Network latency and bandwidth problems can significantly impact application performance. Regularly monitoring network performance using tools can help identify and troubleshoot issues. These include:
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.
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.
Another web application performance problem many face is poorly written code, which could refer to:
Your application could also be deadlocked due to:
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.
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.
To improve app architecture, developers must:
Appropriate design patterns and frameworks help improve the overall structure and scalability of the application.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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:
Confirm that all configuration parameters suit the demands placed on your web application — and aren’t the way they are just out of convenience.
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.
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.
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:
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.
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.
Memory leaks occur when an application does not properly release allocated memory, causing it to accumulate and eventually leading to
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.
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.
To increase application performance, developers must regularly review and optimize database queries. This includes:
Properly indexed tables can significantly improve:
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.
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:
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:
A built-in tool in the Google Chrome browser specifically designed for developers. It allows them to:
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.
Performance testing is crucial for identifying bottlenecks and ensuring an application can handle the expected load. You must:
Choosing the right tools is essential for effective performance testing. To simulate user load, consider using load testing tools like:
Monitoring tools like Alerty can be used to track system performance metrics.
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.
To accurately replicate the production environment, set up a testing environment that closely resembles the production environment, including:
Configure monitoring tools to track server and application performance during 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.
Analyze the test results to pinpoint performance bottlenecks, such as:
Review application logs to find:
Utilize profiling tools to examine the application’s code execution and identify inefficient code segments or resource-intensive operations.
Implement optimizations based on the identified bottlenecks, such as:
Re-execute the tests to verify that optimizations have resolved the bottlenecks and improved overall performance.
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.
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 are ideal for testing APIs that may be causing poor performance on applications that consume them, including:
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.
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.
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.
Alerty is a cloud monitoring service for developers and early-stage startups, offering:
It supports technologies like:
Alerty monitors databases such as:
These databases track key metrics like:
It features quick incident management and Real User Monitoring (RUM) to optimize user experience. Its Universal Service Monitoring covers dependencies like:
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!