The Pingdom alternative that checks more than a status code
Pingdom tells you the URL answered. Checkly tells you the login worked, the checkout completed, and the API returned the right payload. Written in Playwright and TypeScript, versioned in your repo, run in CI.
Playwright-native Monitors live in git A trace on every run
Trusted to monitor mission-critical flows at teams like these
“Currently we are working with Pingdom, one really old slash ancient product, let’s say. However, we kind of outgrew what it can offer us.”
Uptime is the floor, not the finish line
Pingdom was built in 2007, for a web where a 200 meant the site worked. Checkly is built for applications where the page loads fine and the checkout still fails.
Real Playwright, not a recorded script
Checkly browser checks are native Playwright. The same spec runs on your laptop, in CI, and in production. Pingdom transaction checks are a proprietary command script, authored in its portal and running in Chrome only.
Monitors live in your repo
Write checks in TypeScript, review them in a pull request, and ship them with the app. A Pingdom transaction script lives inside Pingdom. There is no git history, no code review, and no way to run it locally.
Failures arrive with evidence
Every check run captures a Playwright trace, a video, a screenshot, and console output, on passes as well as failures. When a Pingdom transaction fails you get the step that broke and a line of error text.
Checkly vs. Pingdom
A code-first synthetic monitoring platform against an uptime checker with a scripting portal bolted on. Here’s where the difference shows.
Browser check engine
What a check can assert
Local run and debug
Monitoring as code
Gate a deploy in CI
Failure evidence
Check frequency
Heartbeat monitoring
Status pages
● Full support·— Limited·✕ Not available
Where Pingdom leads: it is cheaper for plain uptime, it runs from far more probe locations than our 22, and it covers protocols we do not, including UDP and the mail protocols. It also ships real user monitoring, which Checkly does not do at all, and a point-and-click recorder for teams with no engineer to spare. If you need a cheap ping from everywhere, Pingdom is a reasonable answer. If you need to know your product works, keep reading.
A cheaper check that tells you less
We are not going to pretend to undercut Pingdom on a basic uptime check. Pingdom is inexpensive because a Pingdom check is cheap to run: it asks for a URL and reads the number that comes back. The question is what that buys you on the night the page returns 200 and nobody can log in.
Proves the product works.
When it breaks at 3am, the on-call engineer opens the trace and sees the click that failed.
Proves the server answered.
That check is cheap to run, and it is cheap to buy. It also cannot tell you that the login is broken.
“When the check was failing, I got much more information from Checkly than in Pingdom. For us, [Pingdom] is a bit of a black box when it fails, and sometimes it’s hard to identify why it failed.”
From your IDE to production in three commands
Write checks in TypeScript, run them in CI, deploy them to production. The same workflow as the rest of your code, with the same tools. None of it happens in a portal.
Code your monitoring checks
Your app code lives in the repository. Your monitoring should too. Reuse the Playwright tests you already write and turn them into always-on production monitors. No proprietary script language, no recorder, no copy-paste into a portal.
Test and verify locally or in CI
Run checks from your machine or on every deploy in CI. They execute on Checkly’s global infrastructure, exactly as they will in production, and a failing check can block the release. Pingdom has no CLI and no local execution, so this step has no equivalent there.
Deploy for 24/7 monitoring
Deploy and version your monitoring from the command line, right alongside your application deploys. One command puts it live across 20+ locations.
Fit check
When should you choose Checkly over Pingdom?
Checkly is a strong fit when
- You need to verify full browser workflows and API behavior, not only endpoint availability.
- Your developers want Playwright and TypeScript checks that live in Git and run before deployment.
- You want uptime and synthetic checks to share an alerting and monitoring-as-code workflow.
Checkly may not be the best fit when
- You only need a few basic uptime checks and prefer the smallest possible no-code setup.
- You need an existing proprietary transaction script to keep running unchanged instead of moving it to Playwright.
Key facts
Checkly at a glance
Including the places Pingdom is the better answer. Each value links to the documentation it comes from.
- Category
Synthetic monitoring and continuous testing
Checkly verifies that a workflow still works, not only that a URL answers. It is not a real user monitoring tool.
- Uptime monitor types
URL, TCP, DNS, ICMP, gRPC, and heartbeat
Plain availability checks are part of the same platform as browser and API checks, sharing alert channels and code workflow.
- Browser checks
Playwright scripts, versioned in Git
Multi-step journeys are written as code your engineers already know, rather than recorded in a portal and maintained there.
- Locations
22 public locations, plus private locations
Fewer probe locations than a dedicated uptime network. Private locations run an agent inside your network to reach internal services.
- Price position
Pingdom is cheaper for plain uptime
If a handful of ping checks is the whole requirement, Pingdom will cost less. Compare on depth of check, not on price.
Checkly pricing (opens in a new tab)Pingdom pricing (opens in a new tab)
- Where Pingdom leads
Probe-network breadth and real user monitoring
A much larger probe network, protocols Checkly does not cover such as UDP and mail, and real user monitoring, which Checkly does not offer.
Pingdom uptime monitoring (opens in a new tab)Pingdom transaction monitoring (opens in a new tab)
Facts checked . Vendor pricing and feature pages change without notice, so verify anything decision-critical against the linked source.
Decision criteria
How to evaluate Checkly against Pingdom
Six questions that decide this comparison. Two of them favour Pingdom, and they are included for the same reason as the rest.
What counts as "up"
A 200 response proves the server answered. It does not prove login worked, the cart saved, or search returned results.
How Checkly answers it: Playwright browser checks drive the real journey and assert on what the user sees, and API checks assert on status, headers, latency, and the response body.
VerifyCheckly browser check docs (opens in a new tab)Checkly API check docs (opens in a new tab)
How many probe locations you need
For regional latency reporting, more vantage points is genuinely better, and this is where a dedicated uptime network wins.
How Checkly answers it: Checkly runs from 22 public locations. If the requirement is a ping from as many countries as possible, Pingdom covers more ground.
VerifyCheckly locations docs (opens in a new tab)Pingdom uptime monitoring (opens in a new tab)
Who maintains the transaction scripts
Recorded scripts break on every meaningful UI change, and the person who broke it usually cannot see the recorder.
How Checkly answers it: Checks are Playwright files in the application repository, reviewed in the pull request that changed the UI and run locally before merge.
VerifyCheckly monitoring as code docs (opens in a new tab)Pingdom transaction monitoring (opens in a new tab)
Total cost at your real coverage level
The honest answer depends on what you monitor. Basic uptime is cheaper on Pingdom; browser journeys at frequency change the arithmetic.
How Checkly answers it: Browser, API, and uptime checks draw on one plan. Price your actual check mix and frequency against both public price lists.
VerifyCheckly pricing (opens in a new tab)Pingdom pricing (opens in a new tab)
What happens after the alert fires
An availability alert tells you something is wrong. It rarely tells you which service or deploy caused it.
How Checkly answers it: Failures carry the Playwright trace, screenshots, console and network logs, and OpenTelemetry traces for the requests the check made.
VerifyCheckly traces docs (opens in a new tab)Checkly browser check docs (opens in a new tab)
Whether you also need real user monitoring
Synthetic checks and RUM answer different questions, and only one of these products does both.
How Checkly answers it: Checkly does not do real user monitoring. If you need synthetic and RUM from one vendor, Pingdom covers that pairing and Checkly does not.
VerifyCheckly synthetic monitoring docs (opens in a new tab)Pingdom uptime monitoring (opens in a new tab)
Criteria were drawn from the questions teams ask when an uptime checker stops answering them. Statements describe Checkly's behaviour only; Pingdom capabilities and prices should be confirmed against Pingdom's own product and pricing pages, which change independently of this page. Last reviewed .
Need more proof? Listen to the engineers
“Checkly is incredible: it combines Pingdom, Ghost Inspector, and Assertible in the same app, and the insights are much more detailed.”
“The Checkly CLI has enhanced our engineering team’s ability to quickly build, validate, and deploy an entire suite of checks from their local development environment.”
“We’ve been using Checkly for months and it’s been phenomenal. Super easy to set up, works flawlessly and intuitively. The team is super receptive and quick to help.”
“Checkly is a fabulous developer tool. The flexible features and developer-friendly API made the integration super easy, and their support is friendly and knowledgeable.”
“Checkly has helped us save engineering resources and expenses. When we get an alert, we can tell customers directly about issues.”
“A real advantage Checkly gives us is that we’re not waiting for users to report an issue, or waiting on a staff member to file a ticket. Checkly gives us real-time feedback on what is and isn’t working.”
Coming from Pingdom?
See the Migrator in action. We'll show you how your uptime checks and transaction scripts become version-controlled Playwright monitors, and what the coverage you actually want costs.
We map your Pingdom checks
Show us your uptime checks and transaction scripts. We translate them into Checkly constructs and native Playwright specs that live in your repo.
You see the cost of the coverage you actually want
We take your current check volume, locations, and frequency, and put a real number next to it. If a plain uptime ping is genuinely all you need, we will tell you that too.
Your first monitors go live with us
A guided session with our team to get checks running in CI and deployed to production, not a slide deck.