Transaction credits are used by transaction monitors to test complete user journeys across multiple web pages, such as login flows, shopping carts, or form submissions.
Transaction credits
Transaction credits depend on the complexity of your monitor. The more a monitor performs complicated checks, the more credits it consumes. A transaction monitor uses credits for the following checks:
- The number of pages (page loads) in the transaction.
- Whether waterfalls, filmstrips, and screenshots are enabled.
Calculation:
- 1 page load = 1 transaction credit
- 1 waterfall = 1 transaction credit
- 1 filmstrip = 1 transaction credit
- 1 screenshot = 1 transaction credit
Unlike uptime and browser monitors, the number of created transaction monitors doesn’t impact credit calculation. For detailed calculation, see Understanding transaction monitor credit calculations.
Examples
Scenario A: Online store
Suppose you operate an online store and want to monitor the complete checkout process of a customer. This involves 4 pages, such as:
- Homepage — shows a list of all your product inventory, including images, links, and description. This page is crucial as it’s the first step to attract users. Therefore, the waterfall and filmstrip option is enabled here.
- Product page
- Shopping cart page
- Checking out page (payment)
In this scenario, there are four transaction steps the user journey does, where each requires a page load. The credits are calculated as:
- Navigating to the Homepage = 1 credit
- Waterfall enabled = 1 credit
- Filmstrip enabled = 1 credit
- Loading and browsing the Product page = 1 credit
- Loading the Add to cart page = 1 credit
- Loading the Checkout page = 1 credit
A total of 6 credits are consumed in this scenario.
Scenario B: Registration and login
Suppose you have a seminar business that lets users register and sign in for different workshops. You want to monitor how the registration and login flow works.
You need to create two transaction monitors with the following details:
A. Transaction monitor A for registration process
Steps include user interacting with the page to:
a. Visit the website’s homepage.
b. In page 1, users provide their personal information.
c. In page 2, users provide their contact details.
d. In page 3, users provide other customization or preferences.
e. In page 4, users provide their information.
f. In page 5, users confirm and submit their registration.
Once registered, you need to know the login workflow for the user.
B. Transaction monitor B for login process
Steps include user interacting with the page to:
a. Visit the login page.
b. Enter their username and password.
c. Verify their login information.
In transaction monitor A, you consume 6 credits, one for each page. In transaction monitor B, you only consume two credits: navigation to the login page, plus the page load after logging in.
The total credits that you consume for these monitors is 6 + 2 = 8 credits. If you enable the waterfall option in page 4, the total number of credits is 9.