Find slow Rails endpoints in 10 minutes, not 10 hours
Scout's Ruby agent automatically detects N+1 queries, memory bloat, and slow endpoints in your Rails app. Real code locations, real fixes, no dashboards to babysit.
Built for scrappy Rails teams. Need help? Talk to a Scout developer. No escalation tiers or AI agents to get between you and an answer.
Query Analysis
N+1 query detection without configuration
Scout finds N+1 patterns in ActiveRecord automatically. The agent watches database queries inside Rails requests, Sinatra routes, and background jobs, then surfaces the repeated query patterns with the exact code location and total time impact. No manual setup. No 'configure your queries' step. It just works.
Memory Insights
Memory bloat detection at the transaction level
Long-running Sidekiq workers leaking memory? A specific controller eating RAM after every request? Scout pinpoints which actions, jobs, and code paths are growing memory. Not just 'memory is up' from your host metrics. Requires Ruby 2.1+.
Errors, Logs, and Traces
Stop debugging in three different tabs
When a Rails controller raises an exception or a Sidekiq job fails, you see the error, the request trace, and the surrounding log lines together. One view, one timeline. No tab juggling between Sentry, Datadog, and your log tool. Auto-instruments ActiveRecord, ActionView, ActionController, Redis, Sidekiq, Resque, GoodJob, and more.
AI Native
Query your Rails app from Claude Code, Cursor, or the CLI
Scout's MCP server gives Claude Code, Cursor, and other AI assistants direct access to your Rails app's errors, traces, and N+1 insights. Ask 'what's the slowest endpoint this week?' and get an answer with the actual data. There's also a CLI via Homebrew and a public API for whatever you want to build.
Real People
You're talking to actual humans
Everyone on the team sees support requests. Depending on what you need, you'll hear from product, support, success, or engineering. That way the person who can help you, helps you.
Get Started in Minutes
Add Scout to Your Ruby App
Get Scout running on your Rails app in under 3 minutes.
Add to your Gemfile:
gem 'scout_apm'Run:
bundle installDownload your customized config file, placing it at config/scout_apm.yml.
Deploy.
FAQ
Ruby Monitoring FAQ
Do I need a credit card to start?
No. The 14-day trial gives you unlimited APM access with no credit card required. After 14 days, you'll move to the free tier. Your account stays active, you keep monitoring, you just have lower limits. Upgrade to a paid plan whenever you're ready.
How much does Scout cost?
Plans start at the free tier (no cost). The cheapest paid plan is $19/month and includes 1 GB of log data, 5,000 errors, and a set number of transactions. Larger plans scale transactions up. We also offer custom plans for teams that don't fit our standard tiers.
Who actually answers when I email support?
Whoever can actually help. Every request comes into a queue the whole company sees, so depending on your question you might hear from product, support, success, or engineering. No bot triage, no tier-1 router. Email support@scoutapm.com or hop into our Discord (discord.gg/keGzRHD3pv) and you'll talk to a real person.
Is Scout a fit for small teams?
Yes, that's our sweet spot. Scout is built for scrappy Rails teams who need real APM without enterprise pricing or complexity. If you're 1 to 50 engineers shipping a Ruby/Rails product, you're exactly who we built this for. Bigger teams use Scout too, but we don't pretend you need an 'enterprise tier' to get the features that matter.
How fast is the setup, really?
Three minutes for most Rails apps: add `gem 'scout_apm'` to your Gemfile, run bundle, drop in a config file, and deploy. The agent auto-instruments ActiveRecord, ActionController, background jobs, and your HTTP clients with no additional configuration. Data starts flowing immediately.
Does Scout work with Sidekiq?
Yes. Scout monitors Sidekiq jobs out of the box with per-job timing, queue depth, error rates, and memory bloat detection. We also support Resque, DelayedJob, GoodJob, Shoryuken, Sneakers, and Solid Queue.
How does Scout compare to New Relic and Datadog?
Scout is built for Rails teams who want to fix problems, not configure observability platforms. New Relic and Datadog are powerful but heavy and expensive. They're designed for ops teams managing huge infrastructure. Scout is opinionated for Ruby and Rails, has automatic N+1 detection without configuration, and starts at $19/month instead of hundreds. If you've ever spent more time configuring your APM than fixing the bugs it found, you'll get why Scout exists.
Will Scout slow down my app?
Overhead is typically under 1% in production Rails apps. The agent samples expensive operations and uses background threads for data transmission, so it doesn't block requests. If you ever see meaningful overhead, our team will help you tune it. Talk to a real engineer, not a chatbot.
Can I use Scout with AI tools like Claude Code or Cursor?
Yes. Scout has a hosted MCP server (and a local one if you'd rather) with 17 tools covering apps, endpoints, traces, errors, N+1 insights, background jobs, and usage. Works with Claude Code, Cursor, VS Code Copilot, and any MCP-enabled assistant. The Scout CLI is available via Homebrew and outputs in TOON format for clean LLM consumption.