StatusPulse vs Checkly
Checkly is excellent at one thing: code-first synthetic monitoring (Playwright browser flows + API checks, defined in JS/TS, deployed via CLI/CI). StatusPulse plays a different game — infrastructure probes (Postgres, gRPC, WebSocket, SMTP/IMAP) + a polished public status page in one product. Many teams run both. This page compares them honestly and tells you when each is the right call.
Prices and feature lists last verified 2026-05-22. Vendor pricing can change — check both pricing pages before deciding.
At a glance
Different
Different jobs
Checkly = code-first browser flows + API tests, defined as Playwright/JS. StatusPulse = infrastructure probes (DB, gRPC, WebSocket) + public status pages. Some teams run both.
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Protocol-level probes
StatusPulse ships native probes for HTTP, gRPC Health, WebSocket, Postgres, MySQL, SQL Server, Redis, SMTP/IMAP, DNS, SSL, Domain expiry. Checkly is HTTP/API + browser flows — bring-your-own scripting for the rest.
Bundled
Public status page
StatusPulse ships customer-facing status pages with custom domain, branding, and AI incident updates from Pro ($19/mo). Checkly's status pages are basic; many users pair Checkly with a separate status-page tool.
Pricing for a typical team
A team running ~30 monitors / API checks + a public status page on a custom domain.
| StatusPulse | Checkly | |
|---|---|---|
| Free / trial | 5 probes, 1 status page, forever | Generous free tier (10k API check runs, 1.5k browser/mo) |
| Entry paid | Starter $5 / mo | Team $80 / mo |
| Typical team paid | Pro $19 / mo | ~$80-200 / mo (depending on browser-check volume) |
| Public status page (custom domain + branding) | Pro+ included | Basic public dashboard; not a full branded status page |
| Code-first Playwright browser flows | No | Core feature |
| Infrastructure probes (DB, gRPC, WebSocket) | Native | Via custom scripted API checks only |
Honest framing: Checkly is the best in-class for developer-driven Playwright browser flows. If that's a core requirement, no monitoring tool — StatusPulse included — replaces it well. StatusPulse complements Checkly: use Checkly for the user-journey side, use StatusPulse for the infrastructure side + customer-facing status page.
Feature matrix
| Feature | StatusPulse | Checkly |
|---|---|---|
| Monitoring | ||
| HTTP / HTTPS / REST API probes | Free+ | Yes (API check) |
| SSL certificate expiry | Free+ | Via API check assertion |
| DNS record probe | Starter+ | No |
| TCP port | Starter+ | Via TCP check (newer) |
| Ping (ICMP) | Starter+ | No |
| Domain expiry (WHOIS/RDAP) | Starter+ | No |
| Heartbeat / cron probe | Starter+ | Heartbeat checks |
| gRPC Health probes | Pro+ (Check + Watch, mTLS) | Via custom script |
| WebSocket probes | Pro+ (HTTP/1.1 + HTTP/2) | Via custom script |
| Database (Postgres / MySQL / SQL Server / Redis) | Business (custom queries) | Via custom script |
| SMTP/IMAP round-trip | Pro+ (3 modes) | Via custom script |
| Browser / multi-step user-flow tests (Playwright) | No | Core (record + replay) |
| Anomaly forecast (ML) | Business | No |
| Multi-region probe locations | Business — EU + US + APAC + SA, quorum rules | 20+ locations |
| Status page | ||
| Public status page with custom domain | Pro+ (full branded) | Basic public dashboard |
| Custom branding (logo, colours, font) | Pro+ | Limited |
| Subscribers (Email, Slack, Teams, SMS, Webhook) | All five channels; public sign-up + double opt-in | Limited subscribers |
| Status badge (SVG + shields.io JSON) | Free+ | No |
| Embeddable widget + oEmbed | Free+ (zero-asset iframe) | No |
| Component groups | Free+ (flat groups, SortOrder) | No |
| Incidents | ||
| Auto-incident from probe transitions | Yes | Yes |
| Manual updates / post-mortems | Pro+ (post-mortems) | Basic |
| AI-drafted incident summaries | Pro+ | No |
| Incident metrics dashboard (MTTR, time-to-first-update) | Free+ (30/90/365-day windows) | Checkly insights |
| Incident CSV export (metadata + components + timeline + SLO) | Starter+ (RFC 4180-escaped) | No |
| Developer experience | ||
| Tests-as-code (Playwright / JS / TS) | No | Core differentiator |
| CLI + CI/CD deploy of checks | REST API (not check-as-code) | Yes (Terraform, CLI, CI) |
| Git-driven test versioning | No | Yes |
| Reports & analytics | ||
| PDF reports (uptime / SLA) | Starter+ (4 cadences, 14 sections) | Limited |
| AI executive summary | Business | No |
| Integrations | ||
| Slack / Teams alerts | Yes | Yes |
| Generic webhook (HMAC-signed + retry) | Pro+ | Yes |
| Custom request headers per webhook | Pro+ (PagerDuty / Opsgenie ready) | Yes |
| On-call rotation builder | Pro+ (weekly rotation + escalation policies) | No (developer-first, no built-in pager) |
| Custom Reply-To on alert emails | Business (route Reply to support@your-co) | No |
| SLO / error-budget impact per incident | Pro+ | No |
| Anomaly-driven incident proposals | Business | No |
| Internal-only incidents | Free+ | No |
| Severity escalation (auto-page on stale incident) | Pro+ | Via integrations |
| Public trust score panel (MTTR / postmortem rate) | Free+ | No |
| Compliance & hosting | ||
| EU hosting option | Yes (per tenant) | EU PoPs available |
| SOC 2 report | In progress | SOC 2 |
| Single sign-on (SAML) | Phase B (planned) | Yes |
| Developer / API & compliance | ||
| Public read API (status / incidents / probes) | Free+ | Yes (strong) |
| Audit log API export (cursor-paginated) | Business | Yes |
| SSO domain lock (Microsoft + Google work accounts) | Business | Business |
| White-label (hide "Powered by" + custom footer) | Business | No |
Which one is right for you?
Pick Checkly if…
- Playwright browser flows are core. Record-and-replay multi-step user journeys (login → search → checkout), screenshots per step, deploy from CI. Checkly is the best in class for this.
- You want tests-as-code in your repo. Checkly is git-driven: monitor definitions live alongside your application code, get reviewed in PRs, deploy via Terraform or CLI.
- Your team is developer-heavy and prefers scripting over UI configuration.
- You don't need a customer-facing status page (or already have one elsewhere).
Pick StatusPulse if…
- You need infrastructure-layer probes — real Postgres query checks, gRPC Health RPCs, WebSocket round-trips, SMTP/IMAP delivery confirmation. Checkly can do these via custom scripts; StatusPulse ships them as first-class types with the right defaults.
- You want a polished public status page bundled — custom domain, branding, AI incident updates included from Pro at $19/mo. Checkly's status page is basic.
- Tier pricing matters — flat $19/mo for Pro vs Checkly's $80+/mo Team tier.
- EU hosting per tenant matters for your DPA / SOC 2 review.
- You want AI-drafted incidents + anomaly forecasts without scripting or extra add-ons.
Or use them together
Many teams pair the two pragmatically:
- Checkly for the customer-journey side — Playwright flows replayed from N regions, deployed alongside app code in CI.
- StatusPulse for the infrastructure side — Postgres replicas, gRPC services, WebSocket channels, email round-trips — and for the public status page customers actually read.
- Wire alerts from both into the same Slack channel; if a Checkly browser flow fails, that's a customer-impact incident you'd post on the StatusPulse status page anyway. Different signals, one incident communication surface.
Try StatusPulse free
5 probes, 1 status page, forever. No credit card. US or EU host — you choose. Pair with Checkly or use standalone.