--- title: "From failed check to real user impact: Pairing Synthetic Monitoring and Frontend Observability in Grafana Cloud" url: https://daily.dev/posts/from-failed-check-to-real-user-impact-pairing-synthetic-monitoring-and-frontend-observability-in-gr-tdjffwftw source_url: https://grafana.com/blog/from-failed-check-to-real-user-impact-pairing-synthetic-monitoring-and-frontend-observability-in-grafana-cloud type: article source: "Grafana Labs" published: 2026-08-24T12:15:05.616Z updated: 2026-08-24T12:15:32.578Z tags: ["observability", "grafana"] reading_time: 10 upvotes: 1 comments: 0 language: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # From failed check to real user impact: Pairing Synthetic Monitoring and Frontend Observability in Grafana Cloud **[Grafana Labs](https://daily.dev/sources/grafana)** · 10 min read · 1 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary Grafana Cloud's Synthetic Monitoring and Frontend Observability (built on the Faro SDK) can be paired to close blind spots that a synthetic-only strategy leaves open. Synthetic checks reliably detect that something broke but can't reveal who was affected, how badly, or why. Frontend Observability adds real-user data (Core Web Vitals, JS errors, session replay) to quantify blast radius, confirm root cause, and set smarter thresholds. The post walks through reactive workflows (using real-user data to scope a failed check) and proactive workflows (using real-user error patterns to fill gaps in synthetic test coverage), plus practical setup steps for correlating both signals in the same Grafana Cloud stack. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### What's the difference between synthetic monitoring and real user monitoring for frontend reliability? Synthetic monitoring runs scripted, scheduled checks from fixed probe locations, producing deterministic results that reliably detect when something breaks, but it only covers predicted user paths and can't show impact scope. Real user monitoring (RUM) captures actual browser sessions across real devices, networks, and geographies, revealing who is affected and what affected sessions have in common, though no single session is trustworthy alone. _Teams weighing synthetic checks versus RUM for frontend reliability can track this comparison on daily.dev._ ### How can I use real user data to reduce alert fatigue from synthetic monitoring checks? Pivot from a failed synthetic check directly into captured real-user sessions for the same page to quantify how many users were actually affected and what they have in common, such as browser, region, or a shared JavaScript error. This turns a vague alert into a data-driven statement like a specific percentage of users affected since a specific time, rather than a generic 'a check failed' message. _Engineers cutting through alert fatigue can follow ongoing observability practices on daily.dev._ ### How do I decide which pages need synthetic monitoring checks? Compare real-user data on top errors and slowest pages against the existing synthetic check inventory to find coverage gaps, then set latency thresholds from real-user p75/p95 baselines instead of arbitrary guesses. Checks on pages with little real traffic can be retired and their execution budget reallocated to high-traffic, high-struggle paths like an onboarding step users actually get stuck on. _Anyone tuning test coverage against real traffic patterns can revisit this workflow via daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Beyond performance monitoring: Understand the user experience with Grafana Cloud Frontend Observability](https://daily.dev/posts/beyond-performance-monitoring-understand-the-user-experience-with-grafana-cloud-frontend-observabil-vgqrtd6f3) · Grafana Labs · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Building an end-to-end reliability testing strategy with Grafana Cloud](https://daily.dev/posts/building-an-end-to-end-reliability-testing-strategy-with-grafana-cloud-j79wla2er) · Grafana Labs · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Actionable insights into the end-user experience: an overview of Grafana Cloud Frontend Observability dashboards](https://daily.dev/posts/actionable-insights-into-the-end-user-experience-an-overview-of-grafana-cloud-frontend-observabilit-w18363ccl) · Grafana Labs · 3 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#observability](https://daily.dev/tags/observability), [#grafana](https://daily.dev/tags/grafana) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/from-failed-check-to-real-user-impact-pairing-synthetic-monitoring-and-frontend-observability-in-gr-tdjffwftw)