Synthetic monitoring software runs scripted visits to your website, API or checkout from outside, on a schedule, so a failure is found before a customer reports it.
This guide ranks twelve products on setup effort, the real bill once browser runs and locations are counted, how results can be exported, and whether you can buy without a platform.
Vendors can pay for more visibility on this website, for example a higher place in a ranking or more room on a page. Commercial relationships can also affect which products we feature and how prominently. Every vendor link is marked the same, whatever the arrangement behind it. How that works.
In short
What synthetic monitoring software does
Synthetic monitoring software executes scripted browser, API and network checks on a schedule from chosen locations, records timings and step results, and alerts staff when a journey fails or slows.
Our order comes from five tests, taken in turn: effort to set up, what you really pay, what happens to your data on the way out, how locked in you are, and the intended customer. Vendors outside the best-known names fill places 1 to 3 when they exist, and the big brands rank from place 4. We explain on how we work why the tests are these five and why no product receives a score.
Playwright browser and API checks defined as code and scheduled
Ranked #1 of 12 in Best Synthetic Monitoring Software in 2026.
Published pricingNorth America
Checkly treats a monitor as a file in your repository. Playwright suites run on a schedule from a choice of public locations, and the CLI deploys them from a pipeline. Alerts reach Slack and email on every plan, with SMS from Starter.
The cost driver is the run count: 1,000 browser runs a month on Hobby, 3,000 on Starter, 12,000 on Team. A check every five minutes from three places already consumes most of a small allowance.
What stands out
Playwright checks
Monitoring as code
Run allowances
Where it costs you
Browser check runs are capped per month on every self-serve plan, with a per-thousand overage rate once the allowance is spent.
Hobby and Starter are limited to six public locations, with at most three selected per check, and private locations are not part of them.
Right for
Developer teams that want browser journeys kept as code beside the application
Wrong for
Teams without engineers who can maintain test scripts
United StatesHobby plan at no charge; Starter and Team published monthly with run allowances; Enterprise quoted
Per-monitor synthetic checks for HTTP endpoints and Playwright browser journeys
Ranked #2 of 12 in Best Synthetic Monitoring Software in 2026.
Pricing on requestNorth America
The pricing page states a rate per HTTP monitor and a higher rate per browser monitor, a five-dollar monthly minimum, unlimited users and no commitment. Monitors can run from public locations or from private ones inside a network, and journeys are written in Playwright.
Synthetics is one of several Sematext Cloud apps, so alerts and dashboards can sit beside logs if you buy those too. Per-monitor pricing is easy to forecast, but the thirty-day retention shapes any trend report.
What stands out
Per-monitor billing
Playwright journeys
Private locations
Where it costs you
The pay-as-you-go level lists 30 days of retention, which is short for tracing a slow drift in a checkout journey.
Browser monitors carry a higher per-monitor rate than HTTP monitors, so a journey-heavy estate costs noticeably more than an uptime-heavy one.
Right for
Small teams wanting predictable per-monitor billing for uptime and browser journeys
Wrong for
Buyers who need a control plane inside their own network
United StatesPay-as-you-go priced per monitor, higher for browser than HTTP, with a monthly minimum; 14-day trial without a card
Scheduled page-speed tests alongside real-user sessions and Google field data
Ranked #3 of 12 in Best Synthetic Monitoring Software in 2026.
Published pricingAsia-Pacific
Each Calibre plan carries three feeds: lab tests on a timer, visitor sessions, and Chrome field figures published by Google. Starter and Team carry fixed allowances, 5,000 and 15,000 synthetic tests respectively, and the Company plan is billed yearly with 50,000.
Sites and URLs are unlimited on every plan, so growth in pages does not raise the price, only test volume does. A fifteen-day trial lets you check the allowances against a real schedule.
What stands out
Page-speed tests
Real-user sessions
Core Web Vitals
Where it costs you
The page lists scheduled performance tests and field data but no scripted multi-step transactions, so login and checkout flows need another tool.
Starter includes three seats, and SAML single sign-on is listed only from the Team plan upwards.
Right for
Front-end and SEO teams tracking page speed and Core Web Vitals over time
Wrong for
Operations teams that need uptime alerts and scripted transactions
AustraliaThree published plans by tests and sessions, monthly or annual billing, Company plan billed yearly; 15-day trial
The tool ships as a Docker image and as an npm package, and the documentation says it has existed since 2012. A single run produces a report with Core Web Vitals, filmstrip video and the Coach's advice; repeated runs feed metrics to Graphite or InfluxDB for Grafana dashboards.
Mobile testing works on a real Android phone or Safari on iOS. All of it costs nothing in licences, and all of it needs someone to operate it.
What stands out
Open source
Self-hosted runs
Graphite and InfluxDB
Where it costs you
There is no hosted service or vendor alerting described on the site, so scheduling, storage and notifications are yours to build and maintain.
Probes sit wherever you place them, so location coverage equals the number of machines you operate.
Right for
Engineers who want performance data they own and can script
Wrong for
Teams wanting managed probes and paged alerts out of the box
Not stated by the vendorFree to use under the MIT licence; you pay only for the machines and storage you run it on
Codeless browser tests recorded in a browser extension and run on schedules
Ranked #5 of 12 in Best Synthetic Monitoring Software in 2026.
Published pricingElsewhere
Ghost Inspector began in 2014 as one of the first codeless test recorders, and the About page says the founder built it so anyone could record a web test in seconds.
A run is one execution of one test, so a suite of ten tests counts as ten runs even when they run in parallel. Starter allows 10,000 runs and five members, Growth 30,000 and fifteen, the largest self-serve plan 100,000 and forty.
What stands out
No-code recorder
Test-run metering
Scheduled tests
Where it costs you
When the monthly run limit is reached, tests pause for the rest of the billing period, which turns an under-sized plan into a monitoring gap.
Single sign-on is a paid add-on on the three self-serve plans and included only on Enterprise.
Right for
QA and support staff who build browser checks without writing code
Wrong for
Teams wanting API checks and protocol-level uptime monitoring
Not stated by the vendorFour tiers published by monthly test runs; Enterprise quoted; 14-day trial without a card
Uptime, browser, transaction and API checks from over 230 city-level checkpoints
Ranked #6 of 12 in Best Synthetic Monitoring Software in 2026.
Published pricingEurope
Uptrends splits capability by plan. Core offers uptime and browser checks with ten users and ten public status pages, while Pro adds 25 users, transaction checks, one-minute API checks, SLA reporting and the full set of over 230 checkpoints, chosen by city.
Monitors can be managed through an API and a Terraform provider. Annual billing carries a ten per cent discount, and a thirty-day trial starts with Enterprise access before you choose a plan.
What stands out
230+ checkpoints
Transaction checks
Status pages
Where it costs you
Core restricts tests to US and EU checkpoint regions and lists neither transaction nor API checks, so they require Pro.
Core support is ticket-only and data is retained for 180 days.
Right for
Operations teams needing city-level checkpoints and status pages in one product
Wrong for
Teams wanting monitors defined purely in a code repository
NetherlandsCore, Pro and higher tiers published as from-prices, annual billing discounted; 30-day trial without a card
Checks that become SLOs beside metrics, logs and traces
Ranked #7 of 12 in Best Synthetic Monitoring Software in 2026.
Free tierPricing on requestElsewhere
A Grafana Cloud account includes an allowance of 100,000 API and 10,000 browser test executions each month, and beyond it pay-as-you-go starts at five dollars per ten thousand API executions and fifty per ten thousand browser executions.
A nineteen-dollar monthly platform fee applies on the paid tier. Private probes are installable software running in your environment. Volume discounts apply automatically at higher usage.
What stands out
Execution allowance
SLO burn alerts
Private probes
Where it costs you
Browser executions cost ten times as much per ten thousand as API executions, so journey-heavy estates grow expensive faster than the free allowance suggests.
The free tier gets community support only; the nineteen-dollar platform fee adds 8x5 email support.
Right for
Teams already on Grafana who want checks correlated with traces and logs
Wrong for
Buyers who want a standalone monitor with no wider platform
Not stated by the vendorAlways-on allowance of API and browser executions; pay-as-you-go per ten thousand executions above it
SmartBear's synthetic monitoring from 350 public nodes and private nodes
Ranked #8 of 12 in Best Synthetic Monitoring Software in 2026.
Pricing on requestNorth America
AlertSite's pitch is low-noise alerting: failures are retried and confirmed from more than one location before a notification goes out. Monitors cover web transactions recorded with DejaClick, and API checks with response-time thresholds and chained steps.
Deployment can be hybrid, with private nodes installed behind the firewall and no firewall changes needed, according to the product page. SmartBear says AlertSite usually runs alongside APM tools such as Dynatrace and New Relic.
What stands out
350+ public nodes
Private nodes
DejaClick recorder
Where it costs you
The pricing page publishes no figures, only a statement that pricing is customised, so budgeting needs a sales conversation.
SmartBear presents it as a companion to APM tools, so it is not a full observability suite on its own.
Right for
Teams that need private-network monitoring and API checks from a testing vendor
Wrong for
Buyers who need to see a price before booking a call
United StatesQuoted per organisation; trial offered
Page-speed and real-user monitoring with performance budgets, owned by Embrace
Ranked #9 of 12 in Best Synthetic Monitoring Software in 2026.
Published pricingElsewhere
The pricing page lets you build a plan by choosing a number of synthetic checks and real-user page views, starting from ninety dollars a month. Growth adds 13 months of data and priority testing.
The terms, updated in August 2026, name Embrace Mobile, Inc. as the contracting company. A Palo Alto Networks release of July 2026, updated after the sale closed on 27 August, covers its purchase of Embrace and its own new Synthetics capability.
What stands out
Performance budgets
Unlimited users
Owned by Embrace
Where it costs you
Internal sites cannot be tested on the lower tiers, because private agents are an Enterprise item.
Its owner, Embrace, now belongs to a security vendor, so roadmap and pricing may follow a different strategy.
Right for
Web performance teams wanting budgets and regressions tracked per release
Wrong for
Teams seeking uptime and transaction alerts on internal systems
Not stated by the vendorFrom-prices published, built by choosing synthetic checks and page views; Enterprise quoted
Zoho's website, transaction and API monitoring from 130+ global locations
Ranked #10 of 12 in Best Synthetic Monitoring Software in 2026.
Free tierPublished pricingAsia-Pacific
The synthetic page describes a no-code recorder, playback on real browsers and API monitoring with JSONPath or XPath assertions.
The pricing page sells packs: Web Uptime includes 25 websites, Web Perf includes 40 websites and 8 transaction monitors from 8 locations, and Enterprise Plus Web raises that to 2,500 websites and 16 locations. Infrastructure and RUM are separate lines, so a synthetic-only buyer pays for a pack whose other features go unused.
What stands out
Web transactions
130+ locations
Feature packs
Where it costs you
The entry Web Uptime pack lists a single monitoring location, so regional comparisons need Web Perf or above.
Packs bundle website, server and RUM features, which makes it hard to price synthetic checks alone.
Right for
Mixed IT teams wanting website, server and transaction checks on one invoice
Wrong for
Buyers who want a lone product from a small independent vendor
IndiaPublished monthly plans by feature pack; free plan limited to uptime checks; 30-day trial
Browser, API and mobile tests billed per run inside a platform
Ranked #11 of 12 in Best Synthetic Monitoring Software in 2026.
Published pricingNorth America
The product page lists browser, API, multistep API and network tests plus mobile app tests. Private locations run as containers or Windows services, pull configuration over HTTPS and need no inbound traffic.
Pricing is read off a per-run table with an annual rate and a higher on-demand rate, and multi-year and volume discounts are available on request. Test suites group browser, API and network tests into one unit per workflow.
What stands out
Per-run billing
Private locations
Mobile app tests
Where it costs you
Billing is per test run with separate rates for API, browser and mobile tests, so frequency multiplied by locations drives the invoice.
Value rests on the surrounding platform; a synthetic-only buyer pays platform prices for one module.
Right for
Teams already running Datadog who want checks tied to traces and logs
Wrong for
Small teams buying only a stand-alone uptime monitor today
United StatesPublished per test run with annual and on-demand rates; trial offered; discounts quoted
Internet performance and synthetic monitoring, now part of LogicMonitor
Ranked #12 of 12 in Best Synthetic Monitoring Software in 2026.
Published pricingNorth America
The homepage banner reads that Catchpoint is now part of LogicMonitor and that its internet performance and digital experience capabilities sit inside LogicMonitor Digital Experience.
The synthetic page is a LogicMonitor page offering a 14-day evaluation of the full platform. The pricing page shows Essentials, Advanced and Signature packages priced per hybrid unit and a 15-day trial, but no synthetic-only tier.
What stands out
Part of LogicMonitor
Internet monitoring
DNS and CDN views
Where it costs you
The pricing page is LogicMonitor's platform pricing and does not break out a synthetic-only price.
Catchpoint's own site now routes buyers to LogicMonitor, so independent purchase of the original product is unclear.
Right for
Organisations that monitor internet paths, DNS and CDN delivery globally
Wrong for
Small teams that want to buy checks without a platform
United StatesPublished per-unit packages on the parent LogicMonitor page; 15-day trial
Synthetic monitoring software executes scripted browser, API and network checks on a schedule from chosen locations, records timings and step results, and alerts staff when a journey fails or slows. A feature table will not settle this choice. These steps will.
01
Check who publishes a price
Prices are public at 9 products (Checkly, Calibre, sitespeed.io, Ghost Inspector, Uptrends, SpeedCurve, Site24x7, Datadog, Catchpoint) and on request at the remaining 3, so budget time for quotes if your favourite is in that second group.
02
Look at where the vendor sits
Check the vendor's home market (North America 5, Elsewhere 4, Asia-Pacific 2, Europe 1), because that is where subpoenas and data requests arrive first, whatever region holds your files.
03
Decide if open source matters
Open source here means sitespeed.io. The price of self-hosting is the time your team spends maintaining it.
What a synthetic run is billed in, and what runs out first
Every vendor here meters a different unit, and the unit decides which usage pattern becomes expensive. Checkly counts browser and API check runs against a monthly allowance, with overage rates once it is spent. Grafana Cloud counts test executions, and its browser executions are priced at ten times its API ones. Datadog bills per test run with separate rates for API, browser and mobile tests.
Sematext bills per monitor, so frequency costs nothing extra. Ghost Inspector counts test runs and pauses your tests at the limit. A five-minute browser check from three locations is roughly 26,000 runs a month, which exceeds several small allowances before any second journey is added, and a second journey doubles it.
Multiply frequency by locations by journeys and compare it with the monthly allowance.
Ask what happens at the limit: an overage charge, or paused checks.
Price browser runs separately from API runs, because the rates differ.
Where the probes sit, and whether yours can sit inside
A check from the wrong place proves little. Uptrends separates plans by checkpoint reach: Core is limited to US and EU regions and Pro opens over 230 city-level checkpoints. Checkly gives six public locations on its lower plans and 22 on Team, where private locations arrive. Site24x7 lists 130-plus locations, though its entry pack has one.
AlertSite offers more than 350 public nodes and private nodes inside a network, and Datadog and Grafana Cloud both run private probes in your own environment. sitespeed.io runs wherever you put it, so coverage equals the machines you operate. Internal applications need private probes, and several lower tiers withhold them, which is easy to miss because the pricing grids list them in a single row among dozens.
List which systems sit behind a firewall and confirm the plan includes private probes.
Check that the locations you need are on your tier, not only on the vendor's map.
Compare results from two locations during the trial before trusting one.
Page-speed tools and journey tools answer different questions
Calibre, SpeedCurve and sitespeed.io measure how fast a page renders and how that changes between releases; they report Core Web Vitals, waterfalls and budgets. Checkly, Ghost Inspector, AlertSite and Site24x7 check that a login, search or purchase completes and page someone if it does not.
Buying a speed tool to catch a broken checkout leaves the failure unseen, and buying a journey tool to track render time gives coarse numbers and no waterfall to act on. Calibre's pages describe scheduled performance tests rather than scripted transactions, and SpeedCurve's focus is budgets. Many teams need one of each, and the cheaper pair is often a speed tool plus a journey tool rather than one platform.
Write down whether the failure you fear is slowness or a broken flow.
Ask for a scripted multi-step check in the trial, not only a page-speed run.
Check whether the tool alerts on a failed step or only reports metrics.
Who owns the product after the acquisition
Several well-known names here have changed hands, and the change reaches the invoice. Catchpoint now describes itself as part of LogicMonitor, and its pricing page is LogicMonitor's per-unit platform pricing with no synthetic-only line. SpeedCurve's terms say it is wholly owned by Embrace Mobile, Inc., which Palo Alto Networks acquired, with the sale closing on 27 August 2026.
Uptrends is presented as ITRS Uptrends, and AlertSite sits inside SmartBear. None of this is a reason to avoid them, but a roadmap now answers to a platform strategy rather than to the original product team. Ask who the contracting entity is, and whether the product is still sold on its own, before signing a multi-year term.
Read the terms page for the contracting company, not the marketing name.
Ask whether the synthetic product is sold separately or only inside a platform.
Request price protection in writing if you sign beyond one year.
What goes wrong most often when buying synthetic monitoring software
Estimating runs from the number of monitors alone and forgetting that locations and frequency multiply the count that Checkly, Datadog and Grafana Cloud actually bill.
Buying an uptime pack such as Site24x7 Web Uptime and expecting scripted transactions that sit in a higher pack.
Treating a page-speed report from Calibre or SpeedCurve as proof that a checkout still works.
Assuming sitespeed.io is free to run, when the scheduler, storage and alert routing become your own maintenance.
07
Frequently asked questions
8 answers
What is the best synthetic monitoring software in 2026?
First of 12 on this page is Checkly. Checkly Inc. sells scheduled Playwright browser checks, API checks and uptime monitors, managed through a CLI and a Terraform provider. It suits engineering teams that already keep tests in a repository.
Browser runs are metered per month, with overage rates above the allowance, and private locations and the full set of 22 locations arrive only on Team. Nobody without a developer will find the code-first workflow quick to adopt.
Which synthetic monitoring tools publish their pricing?
Published pricing exists for 9 products on this page:
Checkly: Hobby plan at no charge; Starter and Team published monthly with run allowances; Enterprise quoted.
Calibre: Three published plans by tests and sessions, monthly or annual billing, Company plan billed yearly; 15-day trial.
sitespeed.io: Free to use under the MIT licence; you pay only for the machines and storage you run it on.
Ghost Inspector: Four tiers published by monthly test runs; Enterprise quoted; 14-day trial without a card.
Uptrends: Core, Pro and higher tiers published as from-prices, annual billing discounted; 30-day trial without a card.
SpeedCurve: From-prices published, built by choosing synthetic checks and page views; Enterprise quoted.
Site24x7: Published monthly plans by feature pack; free plan limited to uptime checks; 30-day trial.
Datadog: Published per test run with annual and on-demand rates; trial offered; discounts quoted.
Catchpoint: Published per-unit packages on the parent LogicMonitor page; 15-day trial.
3 vendors do not print a price.
Is there a free synthetic monitoring tool?
sitespeed.io, Grafana Cloud, Site24x7 have a free plan or free self-hosted edition.
Where are these synthetic monitoring software vendors established?
In 5 countries across 4 regions: North America 5, Elsewhere 4, Asia-Pacific 2, Europe 1.
Checkly: United States.
Sematext: United States.
Calibre: Australia.
sitespeed.io: Not stated by the vendor.
Ghost Inspector: Not stated by the vendor.
Uptrends: Netherlands.
Grafana Cloud: Not stated by the vendor.
AlertSite: United States.
SpeedCurve: Not stated by the vendor.
Site24x7: India.
Datadog: United States.
Catchpoint: United States.
Which synthetic monitoring tools are open source?
sitespeed.io.
Which synthetic monitoring tools can you host yourself?
sitespeed.io. The remaining 11 run only on the vendor's servers.
What should you use instead of Checkly?
Sematext and Calibre are the next two on this page. Sematext is for small teams wanting predictable per-monitor billing for uptime and browser journeys; Calibre is for Front-end and SEO teams tracking page speed and Core Web Vitals over time.
Who should not buy Checkly?
Teams without engineers who can maintain test scripts. Browser check runs are capped per month on every self-serve plan, with a per-thousand overage rate once the allowance is spent..
This list covers 12 synthetic monitoring software products. A product we left out can be put to us by its maker, with a short note on its purpose and its customers; we decide on inclusion ourselves. The rules are under software advice.
