For teams that need the phone to ring, not a Playwright suite
Checkly Alternative for Uptime Monitoring With Phone Calls to Every Number
Checkly is built for monitoring as code, and it is very good at it. If what you actually need is a URL checked every minute and a phone that rings for three people until the site is back, you pay for its Team plan to get calls at all, and then draw on 200 call credits a month. TrackDowntime calls every number on the endpoint, repeats until recovery and never counts a call.
Professional is $99 a month, or $49 billed yearly, for 25 endpoints at 60 second checks with calls and SMS to several numbers. Enterprise is $299 for unlimited endpoints.
Add an endpoint
- Billing unit
- Per endpoint, flat plans
- Check interval
- 60 seconds on Professional and Enterprise
- Phone calls
- Every number on the endpoint, no credits
- Setup
- Web form, no code or CLI
Paste the URL, create your account, and the first check runs right away.
Which Checkly alternative fits a team that just needs phone calls
If you use Checkly only for URL uptime checks and want phone calls, pick a monitor that includes calls on a lower plan and does not count them. Checkly lists phone alerts only on Team ($80 a month, $64 billed yearly) with 200 call credits a month. TrackDowntime Professional checks 25 endpoints every 60 seconds and calls every attached number, repeating until recovery, for $99 a month.
0
Phone call credits on Checkly Hobby and Starter, per the Checkly pricing page
200
Phone call credits a month included on Checkly Team
15
Times TrackDowntime repeats the call while a site stays down, from minute 0 to hour 96
What changes when uptime alerts move off Checkly
Checkly keeps its lead on browser checks, Playwright suites, multistep API checks and monitors defined in your repo. The things below are the narrow set where a team that only checks URLs gets more for its money here.
Phone calls on the plan you actually buy
On Checkly, Hobby and Starter include no phone call credits, so a team that needs a phone to ring moves to Team. Here calls and SMS come with Professional at $99 a month, which also covers 25 endpoints at 60 second checks.
Every number rings, nothing is metered
Type every number that should ring on the endpoint, separated by commas. Each one gets an automated call and an SMS when the check fails, and none of them counts against an allowance, so a long night does not run anything out.
Calls that repeat until the site is back
Call, SMS and email go out at 0, 5, 10, 15, 20, 30, 40, 50 and 60 minutes, then at 2, 4, 8, 24, 48 and 96 hours while the endpoint stays down. Recovery goes out by SMS and email so whoever woke up knows it is over.
Rechecks before anyone wakes up
A wrong status code opens an incident on the first check. A timeout is rechecked twice, 5 seconds apart, and a DNS timeout three times, 10 seconds apart. The rechecks are part of the plan and never billed as extra runs.
Set up in a form, not a repository
Paste the URL, set the expected status code, timeout, redirect handling and any custom headers, and add phone numbers. Nobody needs the CLI, a Terraform provider or a deploy to add a client site or a new endpoint.
An outage record with start, end and duration
Every incident is stored with its start, end and measured duration: 30 days on Starter, 90 days on Professional and no limit on Enterprise, with CSV export for SLA reports and customer credits.
Moving URL checks from Checkly in an afternoon
Step 1
List the checks that are only up or down
Export or scan your Checkly URL monitors and single request API checks whose only assertion is a status code. Browser checks, Playwright suites and multistep checks stay where they are.
Step 2
Add each URL with the people who fix it
Create the endpoint, set the status code and timeout, add headers for authenticated health routes, and enter every phone number that should ring for that endpoint.
Step 3
Run both for a week
Leave the Checkly monitor running while TrackDowntime checks the same URL every 60 seconds. Compare what each one caught and when the phones rang.
Step 4
Drop the Team plan if calls were the only reason
If you moved to Checkly Team only for phone alerts, and your browser and API runs fit the Starter allowance, move back to Starter at $29 a month, or $24 billed yearly, and keep calls here.
Does Checkly have phone call alerts?
Yes, but only on the Team and Enterprise plans. Checkly's pricing page lists phone alerts as 0 included call credits on Hobby and Starter and 200 a month on Team, with Enterprise custom. SMS alerts are 0 on Hobby, 100 a month on Starter and 200 a month on Team. Each phone call channel in Checkly holds one number, so three people means three channels.
Checkly supports calls to the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and about thirty other countries, and its escalation settings can send reminders on an interval you choose. That is a solid setup. The thing to plan for is the allowance: if an alert calls three people and you send two reminders, each incident is nine calls, which puts 200 credits at roughly 22 incidents a month, assuming one credit per call. On a bad week of flapping deploys that goes faster than it sounds. Our phone call downtime alerts have no allowance at all.
How much does Checkly cost for uptime monitoring?
Checkly Hobby is free with 10 uptime monitors at a 2 minute maximum frequency. Starter is $29 a month, or $24 a month billed yearly, with 50 uptime monitors at 1 minute and 3 users. Team is $80 a month, or $64 billed yearly, with 75 uptime monitors at 30 seconds, 22 locations, 10 users and the phone call credits. Extra uptime monitors come in blocks of 25 for $10 a month, or $8 billed yearly.
Synthetic checks are billed by run on top of that: extra API check runs are $2 per 10,000 monthly or $1.80 yearly, and each retry counts as a run. Status pages are a separate Communicate module from $12 a month. We break the whole rate card down, with sizing at 5 to 650 endpoints, in our Checkly pricing breakdown.
When Checkly is the better choice
Stay on Checkly if you need anything beyond an HTTP status check. Browser checks that log in and complete a checkout, Playwright suites promoted from CI, multistep API checks, TCP, DNS, ICMP, gRPC and heartbeat monitors, 22 check locations, private locations and status pages are all things Checkly sells and we do not. We check from a single location and we have no content match assertion yet.
Stay too if you do not need phone calls. For plain monitoring with email and Slack, Checkly Starter's 50 uptime monitors at $29 a month cost far less per monitor than anything we sell, and Hobby's free tier is generous. The case for us is specific: a team that needs several phones to ring on every outage, wants that without budgeting call credits, and would rather add endpoints in a form than in code.
What the switch costs at 25, 100 and 650 endpoints
At 25 endpoints with phone calls, Checkly Team is $80 a month or $64 yearly with 200 call credits, and TrackDowntime Professional is $99 a month or $49 yearly with unmetered calls. Yearly, we are cheaper; monthly, Checkly is, if the credits last. At 100 endpoints Checkly Team plus one block of 25 is $90 a month or $72 yearly, well under our $299 Enterprise, so Checkly wins there unless call volume is the problem.
At 650 endpoints the numbers meet. Checkly Team needs 23 extra blocks, which is $310 a month or $248 yearly, against Enterprise at $299 a month or $149 yearly with unlimited endpoints. Agencies and platform teams with hundreds of client or tenant URLs are where a flat plan pays for itself. See plans and pricing for the full limits.
Who picks TrackDowntime over Checkly
Small teams on Checkly Starter
You need phones to ring, and the only way to get calls on Checkly is Team. Keep Starter for browser checks and put phone alerting here.
Agencies with client sites
Each client URL gets its own alert numbers, and hundreds of sites fit one Enterprise plan at $149 a month billed yearly.
Operations people, not developers
Whoever owns uptime adds endpoints in a web form. No repository access, no CLI, no pull request to add a monitor.
SaaS teams with an SLA
Every incident is logged with start, end and duration, 90 days on Professional and unlimited on Enterprise, ready for the monthly uptime report.
Stores that cannot miss a night
Checkout and product pages checked every 60 seconds, with every phone on the list ringing until the store is back.
Teams that ran out of call credits
If a flapping endpoint ever burned through the month's calls, move the critical URLs to a plan where calls are not counted.
Checkly compared with TrackDowntime for uptime and phone alerts
Checkly figures come from checklyhq.com/pricing and the Checkly docs on phone call alerts and escalation policies. Prices are list, monthly first and yearly second. We kept every row where Checkly is stronger.
| Checkly | TrackDowntime | |
|---|---|---|
| Entry paid plan | Starter $29 monthly, $24 yearly, 50 uptime monitors | Starter $49 monthly, $24 yearly, 5 endpoints |
| Plan with phone calls | Team $80 monthly, $64 yearly | Professional $99 monthly, $49 yearly |
| Phone calls included | 200 call credits a month on Team | Not counted, every number on the endpoint |
| SMS included | 100 a month Starter, 200 Team | Not counted, Professional and Enterprise |
| Fastest interval | 1 minute Starter, 30 seconds Team | 60 seconds Professional and Enterprise |
| Check locations | 6 on Starter, 22 on Team | Single location |
| Browser, Playwright and multistep checks | Yes | No |
| TCP, DNS, ICMP, gRPC, heartbeat | Yes | No, HTTP and HTTPS only |
| Status pages | Yes, from $12 a month | No |
| Setup | Web app or monitoring as code | Web form |
| Outage history | 7 days raw, 30 days aggregated on Starter; 30 days and 1 year on Team | 30, 90 or unlimited days of incidents, CSV export |
| 650 endpoints | $310 monthly, $248 yearly on Team | $299 monthly, $149 yearly on Enterprise |
Checkly offers 30 percent off for startups under two years old and 50 percent off for nonprofits, and prices change. Check both vendors' current pricing pages before you decide.
Questions people ask before switching from Checkly
What is the best Checkly alternative?
It depends on why you are leaving. For Playwright and monitoring as code, Checkly's closest rivals are other synthetic platforms. For plain URL checks with phone calls to several people, a flat per endpoint monitor like TrackDowntime is the better fit: Professional covers 25 endpoints at 60 seconds with unmetered calls for $99 a month.
Does Checkly have phone call alerts?
Yes, on Team and Enterprise only. Checkly's pricing page lists 0 phone call credits on Hobby and Starter and 200 a month on Team. Each phone call channel holds one number, and calls reach the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and about thirty other countries listed in Checkly's docs.
Is Checkly free?
Checkly has a free Hobby plan with 10 uptime monitors at a 2 minute interval, 10,000 API check runs and 1,000 browser check runs a month, email, Slack and webhook alerts, and one user. It has no SMS or phone calls. Paid plans start at Starter, $29 a month or $24 billed yearly.
How much does Checkly Team cost?
Checkly Team is $80 a month, or $64 a month billed yearly. It includes 75 uptime monitors at 30 second checks from 22 locations, 100,000 API check runs, 12,000 browser check runs, 10 users, 200 SMS and 200 phone call credits a month. Extra uptime monitors are $10 per 25 monthly, $8 yearly.
Can I use TrackDowntime alongside Checkly?
Yes, and many teams should. Keep Checkly for browser checks, Playwright suites and multistep API checks, and put the URLs that need phone calls on TrackDowntime. Both check from outside your infrastructure, so nothing in your stack or CI pipeline changes when you add the second monitor.
Does TrackDowntime support monitoring as code?
No. Endpoints are added in the web panel with their status code, timeout, redirect setting, custom headers and phone numbers. There is no CLI or Terraform provider. If your team manages every monitor in its repository, Checkly fits that workflow better, and TrackDowntime fits the people who own alerting but not the codebase.
How often does TrackDowntime check compared with Checkly?
TrackDowntime checks every 60 seconds on Professional and Enterprise and every 5 minutes on Starter. Checkly uptime monitors run as often as every minute on Starter, every 30 seconds on Team and down to 1 second on Enterprise. If you need sub minute checks, Checkly Team is the better choice.
Does TrackDowntime have status pages?
No. TrackDowntime alerts your team and records every outage, but it does not publish a public status page. Checkly sells status pages as its Communicate module from $12 a month. If a customer facing status page is a requirement, pair TrackDowntime with a status page tool or stay on Checkly.
Make every phone ring without buying call credits
Add the URLs your Checkly monitors watch, attach every number that should ring, and run both for a week. The first endpoint takes about a minute.
Keep reading
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