Install the JavaScript tag

Install the Better Stack JavaScript tag to start collecting real user monitoring data: website analytics, web vitals, session replays, user events, and frontend errors. Install the snippet once. All collection features are managed remotely from the Better Stack UI, no redeploys needed.

Install the snippet

1. Connect an application or open an existing one.
2. Open your application's Frontend tab and copy the <script> tag.
3. Place it before the closing </head> tag on every page you want to monitor:

<script>
  !function(b,e,t,r){
    b[t]=b[t]||function(...args){(b[t].q=b[t].q||[]).push(args)};
    b[t].l=+new Date;
    var s=e.createElement('script'); s.async=1; s.crossOrigin='anonymous';
    s.src='https://betterstack.net/b.js?t='+r;
    (e.head||e.getElementsByTagName('head')[0]).appendChild(s);
  }(window,document,'betterstack','$APPLICATION_TOKEN');
  betterstack('init', { environment: 'production' });
</script>

The snippet loads asynchronously and won't block page rendering. You never need to update it, as the remote script is always generated with your latest configuration.

Initialize

The betterstack('init', opts) call starts data collection. You can pass the following options:

What's collected by default

All collection features are enabled out of the box. Each can be toggled individually in the Frontend tab, see Configure the JavaScript tag.

Track page views manually

Page views are tracked automatically. To send them yourself, set autoPageview: false in init, then track a page view on each navigation with betterstack('track', ...):

betterstack('track', 'page-load', {
  url: window.location.href,
});

Use 'page-change' for in-app navigation in single-page applications, and 'page-leave' when the visitor leaves the page.

Track custom events

Use betterstack('track', eventName, data) to send custom events with an arbitrary payload:

betterstack('track', 'cta-button-click', {
  button_id: 'signup_cta',
  page: '/pricing',
  variant: 'blue',
});

Events appear in Events and can be used in event funnels and dashboards. The full event schema is documented in JavaScript tag events.

Verify installation

1. Open your website in a browser.
2. Go to your application's Frontend tab and check the Verify data collection section that shows whether data has been received.
3. Open Sessions to see your first sessions arriving.

Next steps

• Identify signed-in users: link sessions, events, and replays to your users.
• Configure the JavaScript tag: collection toggles, sampling, session replays, privacy settings, and more.
• JavaScript tag events: schema of all captured events.