diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index e7391a5c292d0..02b20da297fc6 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -29,7 +29,6 @@ disabledPlugins
 webpackstats.json
 /config/*
 !/config/kibana.yml
-!/config/apm.js
 coverage
 selenium
 .babel_register_cache.json
diff --git a/config/apm.js b/config/apm.js
deleted file mode 100644
index 0cfcd759f163b..0000000000000
--- a/config/apm.js
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,87 +0,0 @@
-/*
- * Licensed to Elasticsearch B.V. under one or more contributor
- * license agreements. See the NOTICE file distributed with
- * this work for additional information regarding copyright
- * ownership. Elasticsearch B.V. licenses this file to you under
- * the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you may
- * not use this file except in compliance with the License.
- * You may obtain a copy of the License at
- *
- *    http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
- *
- * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing,
- * software distributed under the License is distributed on an
- * "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY
- * KIND, either express or implied.  See the License for the
- * specific language governing permissions and limitations
- * under the License.
- */
-
-/**
- * DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE!
- *
- * This file contains the configuration for the Elastic APM instrumentaion of
- * Kibana itself and is only intented to be used during development of Kibana.
- *
- * Instrumentation is turned off by default. Once activated it will send APM
- * data to an Elasticsearch cluster accessible by Elastic employees.
- *
- * To modify the configuration, either use environment variables, or create a
- * file named `config/apm.dev.js`, which exports a config object as described
- * in the docs.
- *
- * For an overview over the available configuration files, see:
- * https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/apm/agent/nodejs/current/configuration.html
- *
- * For general information about Elastic APM, see:
- * https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/apm/get-started/current/index.html
- */
-
-const { readFileSync } = require('fs');
-const { join } = require('path');
-const { execSync } = require('child_process');
-const merge = require('lodash.merge');
-
-module.exports = merge(
-  {
-    active: false,
-    serverUrl: 'https://f1542b814f674090afd914960583265f.apm.us-central1.gcp.cloud.es.io:443',
-    // The secretToken below is intended to be hardcoded in this file even though
-    // it makes it public. This is not a security/privacy issue. Normally we'd
-    // instead disable the need for a secretToken in the APM Server config where
-    // the data is transmitted to, but due to how it's being hosted, it's easier,
-    // for now, to simply leave it in.
-    secretToken: 'R0Gjg46pE9K9wGestd',
-    globalLabels: {},
-    centralConfig: false,
-    logUncaughtExceptions: true,
-  },
-  devConfig()
-);
-
-const rev = gitRev();
-if (rev !== null) module.exports.globalLabels.git_rev = rev;
-
-try {
-  const filename = join(__dirname, '..', 'data', 'uuid');
-  module.exports.globalLabels.kibana_uuid = readFileSync(filename, 'utf-8');
-} catch (e) {} // eslint-disable-line no-empty
-
-function gitRev() {
-  try {
-    return execSync('git rev-parse --short HEAD', {
-      encoding: 'utf-8',
-      stdio: ['ignore', 'pipe', 'ignore'],
-    }).trim();
-  } catch (e) {
-    return null;
-  }
-}
-
-function devConfig() {
-  try {
-    return require('./apm.dev'); // eslint-disable-line import/no-unresolved
-  } catch (e) {
-    return {};
-  }
-}
diff --git a/package.json b/package.json
index 25f8809f2ddd5..8855b01ec1475 100644
--- a/package.json
+++ b/package.json
@@ -112,6 +112,7 @@
   "dependencies": {
     "@babel/core": "^7.5.5",
     "@babel/register": "^7.7.0",
+    "@elastic/apm-rum": "^4.6.0",
     "@elastic/charts": "^14.0.0",
     "@elastic/datemath": "5.0.2",
     "@elastic/ems-client": "1.0.5",
diff --git a/src/apm.js b/src/apm.js
index cea6f8fc072aa..e3f4d84d9b523 100644
--- a/src/apm.js
+++ b/src/apm.js
@@ -17,21 +17,81 @@
  * under the License.
  */
 
-const { existsSync } = require('fs');
 const { join } = require('path');
-const { name, version } = require('../package.json');
+const { readFileSync } = require('fs');
+const { execSync } = require('child_process');
+const merge = require('lodash.merge');
+const { name, version, build } = require('../package.json');
 
-module.exports = function(serviceName = name) {
-  if (process.env.kbnWorkerType === 'optmzr') return;
+const ROOT_DIR = join(__dirname, '..');
+
+function gitRev() {
+  try {
+    return execSync('git rev-parse --short HEAD', {
+      encoding: 'utf-8',
+      stdio: ['ignore', 'pipe', 'ignore'],
+    }).trim();
+  } catch (e) {
+    return null;
+  }
+}
+
+function devConfig() {
+  try {
+    const apmDevConfigPath = join(ROOT_DIR, 'config', 'apm.dev.js');
+    return require(apmDevConfigPath); // eslint-disable-line import/no-dynamic-require
+  } catch (e) {
+    return {};
+  }
+}
+
+const apmConfig = merge(
+  {
+    active: false,
+    serverUrl: 'https://f1542b814f674090afd914960583265f.apm.us-central1.gcp.cloud.es.io:443',
+    // The secretToken below is intended to be hardcoded in this file even though
+    // it makes it public. This is not a security/privacy issue. Normally we'd
+    // instead disable the need for a secretToken in the APM Server config where
+    // the data is transmitted to, but due to how it's being hosted, it's easier,
+    // for now, to simply leave it in.
+    secretToken: 'R0Gjg46pE9K9wGestd',
+    globalLabels: {},
+    breakdownMetrics: true,
+    centralConfig: false,
+    logUncaughtExceptions: true,
+  },
+  devConfig()
+);
+
+try {
+  const filename = join(ROOT_DIR, 'data', 'uuid');
+  apmConfig.globalLabels.kibana_uuid = readFileSync(filename, 'utf-8');
+} catch (e) {} // eslint-disable-line no-empty
 
-  const conf = {
-    serviceName: `${serviceName}-${version.replace(/\./g, '_')}`,
+const rev = gitRev();
+if (rev !== null) apmConfig.globalLabels.git_rev = rev;
+
+function getConfig(serviceName) {
+  return {
+    ...apmConfig,
+    ...{
+      serviceName: `${serviceName}-${version.replace(/\./g, '_')}`,
+    },
   };
+}
+
+/**
+ * Flag to disable APM RUM support on all kibana builds by default
+ */
+const isKibanaDistributable = Boolean(build && build.distributable === true);
 
-  const configFile = join(__dirname, '..', 'config', 'apm.js');
+module.exports = function(serviceName = name) {
+  if (process.env.kbnWorkerType === 'optmzr') return;
 
-  if (existsSync(configFile)) conf.configFile = configFile;
-  else conf.active = false;
+  const conf = getConfig(serviceName);
 
   require('elastic-apm-node').start(conf);
 };
+
+module.exports.getConfig = getConfig;
+module.exports.isKibanaDistributable = isKibanaDistributable;
diff --git a/src/core/public/injected_metadata/injected_metadata_service.ts b/src/core/public/injected_metadata/injected_metadata_service.ts
index 0bde1b68e1876..6a44000bf617e 100644
--- a/src/core/public/injected_metadata/injected_metadata_service.ts
+++ b/src/core/public/injected_metadata/injected_metadata_service.ts
@@ -80,6 +80,9 @@ export interface InjectedMetadataParams {
         user?: Record<string, UserProvidedValues>;
       };
     };
+    apm: {
+      [key: string]: unknown;
+    };
   };
 }
 
diff --git a/src/dev/build/tasks/copy_source_task.js b/src/dev/build/tasks/copy_source_task.js
index e5698c37ba16f..ee9dc159de47f 100644
--- a/src/dev/build/tasks/copy_source_task.js
+++ b/src/dev/build/tasks/copy_source_task.js
@@ -46,7 +46,6 @@ export const CopySourceTask = {
         'typings/**',
         'webpackShims/**',
         'config/kibana.yml',
-        'config/apm.js',
         'tsconfig*.json',
         '.i18nrc.json',
         'kibana.d.ts',
diff --git a/src/legacy/ui/apm/index.js b/src/legacy/ui/apm/index.js
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000..e2ff415865b56
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/legacy/ui/apm/index.js
@@ -0,0 +1,69 @@
+/*
+ * Licensed to Elasticsearch B.V. under one or more contributor
+ * license agreements. See the NOTICE file distributed with
+ * this work for additional information regarding copyright
+ * ownership. Elasticsearch B.V. licenses this file to you under
+ * the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you may
+ * not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+ * You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *    http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing,
+ * software distributed under the License is distributed on an
+ * "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY
+ * KIND, either express or implied.  See the License for the
+ * specific language governing permissions and limitations
+ * under the License.
+ */
+
+import { getConfig, isKibanaDistributable } from '../../../apm';
+import agent from 'elastic-apm-node';
+
+const apmEnabled = !isKibanaDistributable && process.env.ELASTIC_APM_ACTIVE === 'true';
+
+export function apmImport() {
+  return apmEnabled ? 'import { init } from "@elastic/apm-rum"' : '';
+}
+
+export function apmInit(config) {
+  return apmEnabled ? `init(${config})` : '';
+}
+
+export function getApmConfig(appMetadata) {
+  if (!apmEnabled) {
+    return {};
+  }
+  /**
+   * we use the injected app metadata from the server to extract the
+   * app URL path to be used for page-load transaction
+   */
+  const navLink = appMetadata.getNavLink();
+  const pageUrl = navLink ? navLink.toJSON().url : appMetadata._url;
+
+  const config = {
+    ...getConfig('kibana-frontend'),
+    ...{
+      active: true,
+      pageLoadTransactionName: pageUrl,
+    },
+  };
+  /**
+   * Get current active backend transaction to make distrubuted tracing
+   * work for rendering the app
+   */
+  const backendTransaction = agent.currentTransaction;
+
+  if (backendTransaction) {
+    const { sampled, traceId } = backendTransaction;
+    return {
+      ...config,
+      ...{
+        pageLoadTraceId: traceId,
+        pageLoadSampled: sampled,
+        pageLoadSpanId: backendTransaction.ensureParentId(),
+      },
+    };
+  }
+  return config;
+}
diff --git a/src/legacy/ui/public/routes/route_manager.js b/src/legacy/ui/public/routes/route_manager.js
index cf6413fb5ba7e..1cf2a5fc5a64a 100644
--- a/src/legacy/ui/public/routes/route_manager.js
+++ b/src/legacy/ui/public/routes/route_manager.js
@@ -56,7 +56,23 @@ export default function RouteManager() {
     }
   };
 
-  self.run = function($location, $route, $injector) {
+  self.run = function($location, $route, $injector, $rootScope) {
+    if (window.elasticApm && typeof window.elasticApm.startTransaction === 'function') {
+      /**
+       * capture route-change events as transactions which happens after
+       * the browser's on load event.
+       *
+       * In Kibana app, this logic would run after the boostrap js files gets
+       * downloaded and get associated with the page-load transaction
+       */
+      $rootScope.$on('$routeChangeStart', (_, nextRoute) => {
+        if (nextRoute.$$route) {
+          const name = nextRoute.$$route.originalPath;
+          window.elasticApm.startTransaction(name, 'route-change');
+        }
+      });
+    }
+
     self.getBreadcrumbs = () => {
       const breadcrumbs = parsePathToBreadcrumbs($location.path());
       const map = $route.current.mapBreadcrumbs;
diff --git a/src/legacy/ui/ui_bundles/app_entry_template.js b/src/legacy/ui/ui_bundles/app_entry_template.js
index 6e270b24ff4a9..2a95b48e83603 100644
--- a/src/legacy/ui/ui_bundles/app_entry_template.js
+++ b/src/legacy/ui/ui_bundles/app_entry_template.js
@@ -17,6 +17,8 @@
  * under the License.
  */
 
+import { apmImport, apmInit } from '../apm';
+
 export const appEntryTemplate = bundle => `
 /**
  * Kibana entry file
@@ -34,12 +36,14 @@ import 'custom-event-polyfill';
 import 'whatwg-fetch';
 import 'abortcontroller-polyfill';
 import 'childnode-remove-polyfill';
-
+${apmImport()}
 import { i18n } from '@kbn/i18n';
 import { CoreSystem } from '__kibanaCore__'
 
 const injectedMetadata = JSON.parse(document.querySelector('kbn-injected-metadata').getAttribute('data'));
 
+${apmInit('injectedMetadata.apm')}
+
 i18n.load(injectedMetadata.i18n.translationsUrl)
   .catch(e => e)
   .then((i18nError) => {
diff --git a/src/legacy/ui/ui_render/ui_render_mixin.js b/src/legacy/ui/ui_render/ui_render_mixin.js
index e3189f02bbbf2..549d4fb167e11 100644
--- a/src/legacy/ui/ui_render/ui_render_mixin.js
+++ b/src/legacy/ui/ui_render/ui_render_mixin.js
@@ -28,6 +28,7 @@ import { AppBootstrap } from './bootstrap';
 import { mergeVariables } from './lib';
 // eslint-disable-next-line @kbn/eslint/no-restricted-paths
 import { fromRoot } from '../../../core/server/utils';
+import { getApmConfig } from '../apm';
 
 export function uiRenderMixin(kbnServer, server, config) {
   function replaceInjectedVars(request, injectedVars) {
@@ -282,6 +283,8 @@ export function uiRenderMixin(kbnServer, server, config) {
         uiPlugins,
 
         legacyMetadata,
+
+        apm: getApmConfig(legacyMetadata.app),
       },
     });
 
diff --git a/x-pack/legacy/plugins/apm/public/new-platform/plugin.tsx b/x-pack/legacy/plugins/apm/public/new-platform/plugin.tsx
index 002f6af7fe6cc..216af91fbb591 100644
--- a/x-pack/legacy/plugins/apm/public/new-platform/plugin.tsx
+++ b/x-pack/legacy/plugins/apm/public/new-platform/plugin.tsx
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@
 import React from 'react';
 import ReactDOM from 'react-dom';
 import { Route, Router, Switch } from 'react-router-dom';
+import { ApmRoute } from '@elastic/apm-rum-react';
 import styled from 'styled-components';
 import { metadata } from 'ui/metadata';
 import {
@@ -52,7 +53,7 @@ const App = () => {
       <Route component={ScrollToTopOnPathChange} />
       <Switch>
         {routes.map((route, i) => (
-          <Route key={i} {...route} />
+          <ApmRoute key={i} {...route} />
         ))}
       </Switch>
     </MainContainer>
diff --git a/x-pack/legacy/plugins/apm/typings/apm-rum-react.d.ts b/x-pack/legacy/plugins/apm/typings/apm-rum-react.d.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000..6f500caabd824
--- /dev/null
+++ b/x-pack/legacy/plugins/apm/typings/apm-rum-react.d.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,7 @@
+/*
+ * Copyright Elasticsearch B.V. and/or licensed to Elasticsearch B.V. under one
+ * or more contributor license agreements. Licensed under the Elastic License;
+ * you may not use this file except in compliance with the Elastic License.
+ */
+
+declare module '@elastic/apm-rum-react';
diff --git a/x-pack/package.json b/x-pack/package.json
index 83db779666c96..5bf84b1be4149 100644
--- a/x-pack/package.json
+++ b/x-pack/package.json
@@ -66,6 +66,7 @@
     "@types/graphql": "^0.13.2",
     "@types/gulp": "^4.0.6",
     "@types/hapi__wreck": "^15.0.1",
+    "@types/hoist-non-react-statics": "^3.3.0",
     "@types/history": "^4.7.3",
     "@types/jest": "24.0.19",
     "@types/joi": "^13.4.2",
@@ -175,6 +176,7 @@
     "@babel/core": "^7.5.5",
     "@babel/register": "^7.7.0",
     "@babel/runtime": "^7.5.5",
+    "@elastic/apm-rum-react": "^0.3.2",
     "@elastic/datemath": "5.0.2",
     "@elastic/ems-client": "1.0.5",
     "@elastic/eui": "17.0.0",
diff --git a/yarn.lock b/yarn.lock
index 8a6c2e91d25d7..7ffd19d49bf55 100644
--- a/yarn.lock
+++ b/yarn.lock
@@ -1336,6 +1336,31 @@
     debug "^3.1.0"
     lodash.once "^4.1.1"
 
+"@elastic/apm-rum-core@^4.7.0":
+  version "4.7.0"
+  resolved "https://registry.yarnpkg.com/@elastic/apm-rum-core/-/apm-rum-core-4.7.0.tgz#b00b58bf7380f2e36652e5333e3ca97608986e40"
+  integrity sha512-/lTZWfA3ces3qoKCx72Sc+w43lZkyktaQlbYoYO86h3tNX7tScc/7YBBHI9oxKMcXweqkKOcpnwNZFy71bb86w==
+  dependencies:
+    error-stack-parser "^1.3.5"
+    es6-promise "^4.2.8"
+    opentracing "^0.14.3"
+    uuid "^3.1.0"
+
+"@elastic/apm-rum-react@^0.3.2":
+  version "0.3.2"
+  resolved "https://registry.yarnpkg.com/@elastic/apm-rum-react/-/apm-rum-react-0.3.2.tgz#134634643e15ebcf97b6f17b2c74a50afdbe1c64"
+  integrity sha512-hU1srW9noygppyrLmipulu30c+LWEie8V/dQjEqLYMx2mRZRwNIue3midYgWa6qrWqgYZhwpAtWrWcXc+AWk2Q==
+  dependencies:
+    "@elastic/apm-rum" "^4.6.0"
+    hoist-non-react-statics "^3.3.0"
+
+"@elastic/apm-rum@^4.6.0":
+  version "4.6.0"
+  resolved "https://registry.yarnpkg.com/@elastic/apm-rum/-/apm-rum-4.6.0.tgz#e2ac560dd4a4761c0e9b08c301418b1d4063bdd2"
+  integrity sha512-hsqvyTm5rT6lKgV06wvm8ID9aMsuJyw8wIOPjRwKmvzlTjayabxKTcr50lJJV8jY9OWfDkqymIqpHyCEChQAHQ==
+  dependencies:
+    "@elastic/apm-rum-core" "^4.7.0"
+
 "@elastic/charts@^14.0.0":
   version "14.0.0"
   resolved "https://registry.yarnpkg.com/@elastic/charts/-/charts-14.0.0.tgz#410c87e9ae53df5848aae09a210fa7d08510b376"
@@ -3609,7 +3634,7 @@
   resolved "https://registry.yarnpkg.com/@types/hoek/-/hoek-4.1.3.tgz#d1982d48fb0d2a0e5d7e9d91838264d8e428d337"
   integrity sha1-0ZgtSPsNKg5dfp2Rg4Jk2OQo0zc=
 
-"@types/hoist-non-react-statics@*":
+"@types/hoist-non-react-statics@*", "@types/hoist-non-react-statics@^3.3.0":
   version "3.3.1"
   resolved "https://registry.yarnpkg.com/@types/hoist-non-react-statics/-/hoist-non-react-statics-3.3.1.tgz#1124aafe5118cb591977aeb1ceaaed1070eb039f"
   integrity sha512-iMIqiko6ooLrTh1joXodJK5X9xeEALT1kM5G3ZLhD3hszxBdIEd5C75U834D9mLcINgD4OyZf5uQXjkuYydWvA==
@@ -11205,6 +11230,13 @@ error-ex@^1.2.0, error-ex@^1.3.1:
   dependencies:
     is-arrayish "^0.2.1"
 
+error-stack-parser@^1.3.5:
+  version "1.3.6"
+  resolved "https://registry.yarnpkg.com/error-stack-parser/-/error-stack-parser-1.3.6.tgz#e0e73b93e417138d1cd7c0b746b1a4a14854c292"
+  integrity sha1-4Oc7k+QXE40c18C3RrGkoUhUwpI=
+  dependencies:
+    stackframe "^0.3.1"
+
 error-stack-parser@^2.0.4:
   version "2.0.4"
   resolved "https://registry.yarnpkg.com/error-stack-parser/-/error-stack-parser-2.0.4.tgz#a757397dc5d9de973ac9a5d7d4e8ade7cfae9101"
@@ -11308,6 +11340,11 @@ es6-promise@^4.2.5:
   resolved "https://registry.yarnpkg.com/es6-promise/-/es6-promise-4.2.6.tgz#b685edd8258886365ea62b57d30de28fadcd974f"
   integrity sha512-aRVgGdnmW2OiySVPUC9e6m+plolMAJKjZnQlCwNSuK5yQ0JN61DZSO1X1Ufd1foqWRAlig0rhduTCHe7sVtK5Q==
 
+es6-promise@^4.2.8:
+  version "4.2.8"
+  resolved "https://registry.yarnpkg.com/es6-promise/-/es6-promise-4.2.8.tgz#4eb21594c972bc40553d276e510539143db53e0a"
+  integrity sha512-HJDGx5daxeIvxdBxvG2cb9g4tEvwIk3i8+nhX0yGrYmZUzbkdg8QbDevheDB8gd0//uPj4c1EQua8Q+MViT0/w==
+
 es6-promisify@^5.0.0:
   version "5.0.0"
   resolved "https://registry.yarnpkg.com/es6-promisify/-/es6-promisify-5.0.0.tgz#5109d62f3e56ea967c4b63505aef08291c8a5203"
@@ -21014,6 +21051,11 @@ opener@^1.4.2:
   resolved "https://registry.yarnpkg.com/opener/-/opener-1.5.1.tgz#6d2f0e77f1a0af0032aca716c2c1fbb8e7e8abed"
   integrity sha512-goYSy5c2UXE4Ra1xixabeVh1guIX/ZV/YokJksb6q2lubWu6UbvPQ20p542/sFIll1nl8JnCyK9oBaOcCWXwvA==
 
+opentracing@^0.14.3:
+  version "0.14.4"
+  resolved "https://registry.yarnpkg.com/opentracing/-/opentracing-0.14.4.tgz#a113408ea740da3a90fde5b3b0011a375c2e4268"
+  integrity sha512-nNnZDkUNExBwEpb7LZaeMeQgvrlO8l4bgY/LvGNZCR0xG/dGWqHqjKrAmR5GUoYo0FIz38kxasvA1aevxWs2CA==
+
 opn@^5.3.0:
   version "5.4.0"
   resolved "https://registry.yarnpkg.com/opn/-/opn-5.4.0.tgz#cb545e7aab78562beb11aa3bfabc7042e1761035"
@@ -26402,6 +26444,11 @@ stack-utils@^1.0.1:
   resolved "https://registry.yarnpkg.com/stack-utils/-/stack-utils-1.0.1.tgz#d4f33ab54e8e38778b0ca5cfd3b3afb12db68620"
   integrity sha1-1PM6tU6OOHeLDKXP07OvsS22hiA=
 
+stackframe@^0.3.1:
+  version "0.3.1"
+  resolved "https://registry.yarnpkg.com/stackframe/-/stackframe-0.3.1.tgz#33aa84f1177a5548c8935533cbfeb3420975f5a4"
+  integrity sha1-M6qE8Rd6VUjIk1Uzy/6zQgl19aQ=
+
 stackframe@^1.1.0:
   version "1.1.0"
   resolved "https://registry.yarnpkg.com/stackframe/-/stackframe-1.1.0.tgz#e3fc2eb912259479c9822f7d1f1ff365bd5cbc83"