# Custom Dashboards with Grafana

One of the unique features of smoxy's Real User Monitoring is our **open source approach to data visualization**. While smoxy provides a built-in dashboard, we understand that every organization has unique monitoring needs. That's why we've created an open source reference implementation showing how to fetch your RUM data via API and visualize it in Grafana.

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### Why Custom Dashboards?

#### Your Data, Your Way

While the smoxy RUM dashboard provides built-in analytics, you might want to:

✨ **Customize visualizations** to match your team's specific needs\
✨ **Integrate with existing monitoring** tools and observability platforms\
✨ **Create custom alerts** based on your performance SLAs\
✨ **Build executive dashboards** with company-specific KPIs\
✨ **Combine RUM data** with application metrics, business metrics, or other data sources\
✨ **Self-host dashboards** within your own infrastructure

#### smoxy Keeps Collecting, You Control the Visualization

The beauty of this approach:

* **smoxy handles the hard part**: Collecting, validating, and storing billions of RUM data points reliably
* **You control the presentation**: Build dashboards that fit your workflow, tools, and requirements
* **No vendor lock-in**: Your data is accessible via standard APIs
* **No extra cost**: RUM data and API access are included with your smoxy account

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### Open Source Grafana Dashboard

We've created an **open source reference implementation** that shows you how to build custom dashboards with your RUM data.

**Repository**: [github.com/smoxy-eu/rum-dashboard](https://github.com/smoxy-eu/rum-dashboard)

The repository includes:

* Pre-built Grafana dashboards
* Docker Compose setup for quick deployment
* Complete API integration examples

**Getting Started**: Visit the repository and follow the README for setup instructions and examples.

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### Comparison: Built-in vs. Custom Dashboards

| Feature           | smoxy Built-in Dashboard         | Open Source Grafana Dashboard   |
| ----------------- | -------------------------------- | ------------------------------- |
| **Setup**         | Instant, no configuration        | 10 minutes with Docker          |
| **Customization** | Fixed layout                     | Fully customizable              |
| **Data Sources**  | RUM only                         | Combine with any data source    |
| **Alerts**        | No Alerts                        | Custom alert rules              |
| **Hosting**       | smoxy cloud                      | Your infrastructure             |
| **Best For**      | Quick insights, daily monitoring | Advanced analysis, custom needs |

**Recommendation**: Use both! The built-in dashboard for quick checks, and custom dashboards for deep analysis and team-specific views.

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**Ready to get started?**\
Visit the repository: [**github.com/smoxy-eu/rum-dashboard**](https://github.com/smoxy-eu/rum-dashboard)

For questions about RUM setup or configuration, see [Setting Up Real User Monitoring](https://docs.smoxy.eu/en/real-user-monitoring/setting-up-real-user-monitoring) or contact <support@smoxy.eu>.