--- title: Journey Monitoring description: >- Monitor and analyze critical user flows to troubleshoot user experience and technical issues. breadcrumbs: Docs > Journey Monitoring --- > For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.datadoghq.com/llms.txt). # Journey Monitoring {% callout %} # Important note for users on the following Datadog sites: app.ddog-gov.com {% alert level="warning" %} Journey Monitoring is not available for your selected [Datadog site](https://docs.datadoghq.com/getting_started/site.md) ({% placeholder "user-datadog-site-name" /%}). {% /alert %} {% /callout %} ## What is Journey Monitoring?{% #what-is-journey-monitoring %} Journey Monitoring lets you track the health of critical user flows, such as sign-in, checkout, or media streaming, from a single place. For any flow, you can answer: - Are users experiencing friction? - How fast and reliable is performance? - Are issues coming from the frontend, network, or backend? A *journey* represents a user flow from a defined start to a defined end. Journey Monitoring combines data from [Real User Monitoring (RUM)](https://docs.datadoghq.com/real_user_monitoring.md), [Synthetic Monitoring & Testing](https://docs.datadoghq.com/synthetics.md), [Product Analytics](https://docs.datadoghq.com/product_analytics.md), and [Session Replay](https://docs.datadoghq.com/session_replay.md) in a shared view for engineering, product, and operations teams. {% image source="https://docs.dd-static.net/images/journey_monitoring/journey-monitoring-map-3.bba0f592e2c0216507f1a6e0a16e5a98.png?auto=format&fit=max&w=850 1x, https://docs.dd-static.net/images/journey_monitoring/journey-monitoring-map-3.bba0f592e2c0216507f1a6e0a16e5a98.png?auto=format&fit=max&w=850&dpr=2 2x" alt="The Journey Monitoring map showing a catalog of journeys on the left with traffic and conversion metrics, and a visual flow map on the right displaying user paths between application views and actions." /%} ## Prerequisites{% #prerequisites %} Journey Monitoring requires an active trial or paid subscription to at least one of the following products: - **[Product Analytics](https://docs.datadoghq.com/product_analytics.md)**: Provides starts volume, conversion volume, conversion rate, and average time to convert. - **[RUM without Limits™](https://docs.datadoghq.com/real_user_monitoring/rum_without_limits.md)**: Provides [frontend errors](https://docs.datadoghq.com/error_tracking.md) and performance data from [RUM operations](https://docs.datadoghq.com/real_user_monitoring/operations_monitoring.md). - **[Synthetic Browser Tests](https://docs.datadoghq.com/synthetics/browser_tests.md) or [Synthetic Mobile Tests](https://docs.datadoghq.com/synthetics/mobile_app_testing.md)**: Provides uptime data from a [Synthetic test suite](https://docs.datadoghq.com/synthetics/test_suites.md). {% alert level="info" %} RUM-enabled applications have a Product Analytics Preview enabled by default. The Preview retains Product Analytics events for a rolling 30-day window. Disabling Product Analytics also disables Product Analytics Preview. For questions, contact Datadog Support at [support@datadoghq.com](mailto:support@datadoghq.com). {% /alert %} ## How journeys are structured{% #how-journeys-are-structured %} ### RUM and Product Analytics{% #rum-and-product-analytics %} If RUM is enabled and you have Preview, trial, or paid access to Product Analytics, define the journey with action or view events. A journey can include [variants](https://docs.datadoghq.com/journey_monitoring/variants.md) that represent specific sequences of intermediate events between its start and end. Variants require a Product Analytics trial or paid subscription. {% image source="https://docs.dd-static.net/images/journey_monitoring/journey-monitoring-explainer-diagram-final.075f72268a42494e4ab18c3754404560.png?auto=format&fit=max&w=850 1x, https://docs.dd-static.net/images/journey_monitoring/journey-monitoring-explainer-diagram-final.075f72268a42494e4ab18c3754404560.png?auto=format&fit=max&w=850&dpr=2 2x" alt="Diagram of a journey with a start event, end event, and three variants, monitored by RUM and Product Analytics in the Live Environment and by Synthetic tests in the Synthetic Environment." /%} ### Synthetics only{% #synthetics-only %} If RUM and Product Analytics are not enabled, Synthetic test suites appear automatically as journeys. In this configuration, the test suite defines the journey. Create another test suite to add a journey. ## Get started{% #get-started %} Follow [Configure journeys](https://docs.datadoghq.com/journey_monitoring/configuring_journeys.md) to define an event-based journey, add variants, link RUM operations, and add [Synthetic test coverage](https://docs.datadoghq.com/journey_monitoring/configuring_journeys.md#step-3-add-synthetic-test-coverage). Create a journey manually or start from a [suggested journey](https://docs.datadoghq.com/journey_monitoring/suggested_journeys.md). ## Key performance indicators{% #key-performance-indicators %} Event-based journeys report [starts volume, conversion volume, conversion rate, and time to convert](https://docs.datadoghq.com/journey_monitoring/details_report.md#traffic-and-conversion-trends). Journeys with Synthetic coverage also report [uptime](https://docs.datadoghq.com/journey_monitoring/details_report.md#test-suite-and-journey-coverage). Product access determines each KPI's data source, retention period, and calculation. ## API{% #api %} Use the [Journey Monitoring API](https://docs.datadoghq.com/api/latest/dem.md) to query, create, update, and delete journeys. ## What's next{% #whats-next %} Explore Journey Monitoring: - [**Configure Journeys**: Define a journey and add technical coverage.](https://docs.datadoghq.com/journey_monitoring/configuring_journeys.md) - [**Variants**: Track and compare different paths users take through a journey.](https://docs.datadoghq.com/journey_monitoring/variants.md) - [**Journey Overview**: Understand a journey's health and its relationships to upstream and downstream journeys.](https://docs.datadoghq.com/journey_monitoring/overview.md) - [**Map**: Visualize all your journeys and their traffic and conversion metrics.](https://docs.datadoghq.com/journey_monitoring/map.md) - [**Suggested Journeys**: Get automatically generated journey suggestions based on real user behavior in your application.](https://docs.datadoghq.com/journey_monitoring/suggested_journeys.md) - [**Status**: Understand a journey's technical health based on RUM operation and Synthetic test suite service level objectives (SLOs).](https://docs.datadoghq.com/journey_monitoring/status.md) - [**Details Report**: Analyze a journey's traffic, conversion, errors, and uptime in a unified report.](https://docs.datadoghq.com/journey_monitoring/details_report.md) ## Further reading{% #further-reading %} Additional helpful documentation, links, and articles: - [Monitor critical user journeys with Datadog Journey Monitoring](https://www.datadoghq.com/blog/journey-monitoring/) - [Coordinate product launches with Datadog](https://www.datadoghq.com/blog/coordinate-product-launches-with-datadog/)