What is the difference between frontend and backend timing in Dynatrace?

The distinction between frontend and backend timing in Dynatrace is crucial for understanding the complete picture of application performance and its impact on user experience.

Frontend timing refers to the time taken by the client-side interaction, which includes the time taken for the browser to render elements and how quickly the user can interact with the interface. This timing accounts for aspects such as network delays, rendering time, and user interaction delays.

On the other hand, backend timing encompasses the server-side processing of requests. This includes the time taken for the server to process the incoming request, execute application logic, and send a response back to the client. Specifically, backend timing details the processing time associated with handling the request, which may include server-side calculations and database queries, but it does not account for network delays or rendering times that are part of the frontend performance.

Understanding this segmentation is essential because it allows teams to diagnose issues more effectively and optimize both frontend and backend experiences separately. By recognizing that backend timing includes server processing while frontend timing measures the overall user interaction time, it becomes evident how the two dimensions affect perceived performance.