Learn the trade. Then make it yours.

Can I pay for a plan today?

Not yet. Paid plans open soon. Everything on the free plan works now, and we'll let you know when paid plans open.

How many sites can I track?

Starter covers 1 active site, Practitioner 5, and Agency has no limit. Pausing a site frees its slot; only active sites count. On the free plan, adding your own Google key lets you keep any number of sites as projects.

How many pages can I track?

On a paid plan, as many as you like. The free plan, with your own key, tracks your sites' homepages plus 5 pages in total. Daily monitoring is a separate opt-in with its own limit: 6 pages on the free plan (with your key); 50 without a key or 150 with one on Starter and Practitioner; 500 or 1,500 on Agency.

Do I need a Google CrUX API key?

Not to start. On a paid plan Rum Runner checks the first 1,000 pages of a site's sitemap for real-visitor data without a key (counted per site, up to 5 sites per sign-in). Daily monitoring without a key works on sites another member's key already funds. Your own key takes you further: it checks the rest of a large site at up to 1,200 pages an hour, starts daily monitoring on any site, and raises your daily limit. On the free plan, projects and daily monitoring start with your own key. Keys are free from Google Cloud Console.

Do you charge per seat?

No. A key pays for a site, not a person. Rum Runner fetches each page once a day and everyone watching it reads the same result, so a paid member joining a site that someone's key already funds adds an audience, not a cost.

What happens if I stop using Rum Runner?

After a month with no signed-in use, daily monitoring on Starter and Practitioner pauses, and your key stops funding other members' collection. When you come back, the weeks you missed are filled in from Google's history. Agency monitoring runs regardless of sign-ins.

Can several people work on the same sites?

Yes. Any number of accounts can track the same site. Google's data is public and the same for everyone. Findings from publicly reachable pages — response headers, page structure, scan results — are shared across accounts watching the same site. Data from your own extension visits stays with your account.

Can we go beyond Agency's daily limit?

Yes, with more than one Agency account on the same site. Each account has its own daily limit (500 pages, or 1,500 with its own key at a budget its owner sets). Accounts covering different sections of a large site each monitor their share in full. Google's data and public scan findings are shared across all of them.

Why does Rum Runner check the homepage first?

Google's API quota is finite. A site whose homepage doesn't answer — a parked domain, a DNS error, a redirect off-site — almost never has data to find, and one request tells us so. If the check fails, anyone can choose to try anyway; a site added that way stays out of public search until it has been reviewed. Agency accounts skip the check.

What does Compare do?

Starter and Practitioner compare your own pages side by side. Agency adds up to 10 competitor sites. Free accounts are sometimes offered Compare for a limited time, with competitor homepages only.

What does the page scanner check?

Three things: structured data (checked against Google's rich result requirements — missing required fields and wrong types show up as findings), meta tags (title length, description, canonical), and social cards (the Open Graph and Twitter Card tags that control link previews). Findings are stored per page.

What does the Chrome extension measure?

All three Core Web Vitals from real visits in your browser: LCP (when the main content appeared and which element it was), INP (your slowest interaction and what triggered it), and CLS (how much the layout moved and which elements moved). It also captures FCP, TTFB, long tasks and JavaScript errors, using the same browser APIs Chrome uses for its own field data. Requires Chrome 96 or later.

Can I use the extension without an account?

Yes. Developer Mode needs no account. Turn it on in the extension popup and you get a live LCP · INP · CLS readout on every page you visit, which opens into a panel with LCP candidates, interaction details, each layout shift, long tasks and errors. A separate panel shows interactions too fast for Google's INP reporting. Nothing is sent anywhere in Developer Mode.

Does the extension work on single-page applications?

Yes, with some nuances. The extension detects client-side route changes and treats each route as its own visit — INP and CLS reset at each navigation, and the navigation click's INP is credited to the page it started on, as Google does. LCP is measured once per full page load; on route changes it restarts on Chrome 123 or later when Chrome recognises the change as a soft navigation. On earlier versions the readout explains the limitation.

How does Rum Runner handle bot protection and robots.txt?

Rum Runner's own checks (header check, page scan, homepage check) make single, infrequent requests. When a site refuses them, Rum Runner stops — it does not try to force its way in or rotate around the block — and shows the refusal on your project. Robots.txt is respected for our crawler's user agent. Google's data comes from Google's API, not the site, so it is unaffected.

For a site that turns automated requests away, the extension is the way in: it runs as your browser, on your normal visit, and places no extra load on the site. A site owner can also issue Rum Runner a credential, such as a header their firewall accepts, which is stored for that one host and sent nowhere else.

What happens if I share my sign-in link with a team member?

Sign-in links work once — only the first person to click it gets the session. Rum Runner keeps one active session per email address. If a new link is requested and used, the previous session ends. Requesting a new link is how you hand off access on purpose.