A free plan
100,000 uptime checks a month free, with no card. Pingdom offers a 30-day trial.
Pingdom alternative
A Pingdom alternative
A Pingdom alternative
with a free plan.
Pingdom is a SolarWinds uptime and synthetic monitor with a free trial but no free plan. Site Qwality has a free plan on every product and adds real user monitoring, session replay, logs, metrics and traces to the same account.
No credit card
Free plan on every product
Run it beside Pingdom first
Verdict
Choose Site Qwality if you want a free plan, 30-second checks, or uptime with real user monitoring, session replay, logs, metrics and traces in one account. At 5-minute checks we cost less at every size up to 1,000 monitors; at 1-minute checks it depends on size, as the worked costs show.
Last verified against each vendor's own pages. See sources.
At a glance
- Pingdom has no free plan. Its sign-up page offers a 30-day free trial. Site Qwality’s uptime plan is free with no card: 100,000 checks a month at 5-minute intervals from one location per monitor.
- Pingdom’s smallest plan is $18 a month ($16.50 a month billed annually) for 10 uptime checks, 1 advanced check and 50 SMS alerts. Site Qwality is $15 a month ($150 a year) for 500,000 checks, enough for 10 monitors at 1-minute intervals from one location.
- Pingdom sells synthetic monitoring and real user monitoring as separate subscriptions, with real user monitoring from $18 a month for 100,000 pageviews. On Site Qwality real user monitoring, session replay, logs, metrics and traces each have a free allowance.
Why teams leave Pingdom
30-second checks
Paid uptime plans check every 30 seconds. Pingdom’s fastest interval is one minute.
RUM and replay included
Real user monitoring starts with 1,000 free sessions a month and session replay with 100. Pingdom sells RUM separately, from $18 a month.
Site Qwality vs Pingdom
| Site Qwality | Pingdom | |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan | Yes: 100,000 checks a month, 5-minute checks, one location | No, 30-day free trial |
| 10 monitors at 1-minute checks | $15/mo ($150/yr) | $18/mo ($16.50/mo billed annually) |
| Fastest check interval | 30 seconds on paid plans | 1 minute |
| Check types | HTTP, TCP port, ping, TLS, DNS, DNS record, cron, browser, page speed | HTTP, custom HTTP, TCP, ping, UDP, DNS, SMTP, POP3, IMAP |
| Probe locations | 30 locations in 20 countries on AWS, Google Cloud and Azure | 100+ locations |
| Real user monitoring | 1,000 sessions/mo free, paid from $3/mo | Separate subscription from $18/mo (100,000 pageviews) |
| Session replay | 100/mo free, then from $2 per 1,000 | Not listed |
| Logs, metrics and traces | Yes: 5 GB each of logs and traces free, plus 2,000 metric series | Not in Pingdom (SolarWinds Observability is a separate product) |
| Scripted browser flows | 100 minutes/mo free | Yes, as advanced checks (1 on the smallest plan) |
| TLS certificate expiry | ||
| Status pages | 1 free with full branding, badge optional. Extra pages and custom domains $10/mo each | Included in all plans |
| SMS alerts | 10 credits/mo free, 100 for $10 | 50 included in the smallest plan |
Pingdom details are from its public pages as of October 17, 2026.
What it costs in practice.
Both of us price in steps, so the cheaper option changes with size. These use one location per monitor and list prices on October 17, 2026.
| Scenario | Site Qwality | Pingdom |
|---|---|---|
| 5 monitors, 5-minute checks (43,200 checks a month) | $0 (free plan) | $18/mo, the smallest plan |
| 10 monitors, 1-minute checks (432,000 checks a month) | $15/mo ($150/yr), 500K pack | $18/mo ($16.50/mo billed annually) |
| 20 monitors, 1-minute checks (864,000 checks a month) | $50/mo ($500/yr), 2M pack | $40/mo ($36.33/mo billed annually), 25-check plan |
| 100 monitors, 1-minute checks (4.32 million checks a month) | $200/mo ($2,000/yr), 10M pack | $149/mo ($136.42/mo billed annually), 100-check plan |
| 100 monitors, 5-minute checks (864,000 checks a month) | $50/mo ($500/yr), 2M pack | $149/mo ($136.42/mo billed annually), same plan as at 1 minute |
| 10 monitors at 1 minute plus real user monitoring for 100,000 pageviews | $25/mo ($250/yr): $15 uptime + $10 for 100K sessions | $36/mo ($33/mo billed annually): $18 uptime + $18 real user monitoring |
Checks a month = monitors x locations x 43,200 minutes / interval in minutes (30-day month), and each location counts as a check. A year costs ten months. At 1-minute checks from one location our price is lower for 1 to 11, 26 to 46, 101 to 231 and 501 to 1,000 monitors, and Pingdom’s is lower for 12 to 25, 47 to 100 and 232 to 500. At 5-minute checks ours is lower at every size up to 1,000, because Pingdom’s price does not vary by interval. Pingdom’s plans also include advanced checks (1 to 20 as plans grow) and SMS alerts that this table does not price. Pingdom bills real user monitoring per pageview and we bill per session, which holds one or more pageviews.
When to stay with Pingdom.
Moving has a cost. Stay if one of these describes you.
- You rely on UDP or mail-server checks, which Pingdom’s API lists.
- You want probes in more places. Pingdom says it checks from 100+ locations.
- You run 1-minute checks at a size where Pingdom costs less, such as 20 or 100 monitors (see the worked costs).
Bring your Pingdom checks with you.
Paste a read-only Pingdom API token and your checks come across with their settings. Run both until you trust the alerts, then cancel Pingdom if you choose to.
- Import your uptime checks, and see what each one becomes before anything is created. The import guide shows where to find the token.
- Recreate alert routing. Slack, Discord, Microsoft Teams, Telegram, webhooks and email are included on every account.
- Compare alert timing for a few weeks before you cancel anything.
- Add real user monitoring, session replay or logs later. Each starts with a free allowance.
FAQ
Pingdom has no free plan. Its sign-up page offers a 30-day free trial. Site Qwality’s uptime plan is free with no card: 100,000 checks a month at 5-minute intervals, enough for about 11 monitors.
On October 17, 2026 Pingdom listed its smallest synthetic plan at $18 a month ($16.50 a month billed annually) for 10 uptime checks, 1 advanced check and 50 SMS alerts. Larger plans were 25 checks at $40, 50 at $78 and 100 at $149 a month. Real user monitoring is a separate subscription, from $18 a month for 100,000 pageviews.
At 5-minute checks, yes, at every size up to 1,000 monitors. At 1-minute checks it depends on size: 10 monitors cost $15 a month against Pingdom’s $18, and 100 cost $200 against $149. For 10 monitors with real user monitoring, ours is $25 a month against Pingdom’s $36. The worked costs above show the arithmetic.
Yes. Pingdom’s uptime monitoring page says public status pages are included in all plans. On Site Qwality one status page with full branding is free and its badge can be turned off. Each extra page or custom domain is $10 a month.
It is sold as a separate subscription: $18 a month for 100,000 pageviews on its pricing page. Pingdom’s free trial includes both synthetic monitoring and real user monitoring. On Site Qwality real user monitoring is in every account with 1,000 sessions a month free, and 25,000 sessions cost $3 a month.
Pingdom’s API documentation says its highest check resolution is one minute. Site Qwality’s paid uptime packs check as often as every 30 seconds, and the free plan checks every 5 minutes.
Sources
Every competitor figure on this page comes from the vendor's own pages.
- Pingdom pricing checked October 17, 2026
- Pingdom sign-up (30-day free trial) checked October 17, 2026
- Pingdom uptime monitoring (status pages in all plans) checked October 17, 2026
- Pingdom real user monitoring checked October 17, 2026
- Pingdom home page (100+ locations) checked October 17, 2026
- Pingdom transaction monitoring checked October 17, 2026
- Pingdom API (check types, one-minute resolution) checked October 17, 2026
- SolarWinds docs: certificate monitoring in uptime checks checked October 17, 2026
- Site Qwality pricing checked October 17, 2026
- Site Qwality check locations checked October 17, 2026
Other comparisons
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