Pingdom Alts: Skip the Bill

Pingdom good, but pricey. Free can match.

Why Alt

• Free limited to 1 site
• $15-199/mo
• Paywalls
• Budget tight
• Test first

Top Free

1. exit1.dev

• Unlimited vs 1
• 1-min checks
• No card
• SSL
• Webhooks
• API
• Terminal UI

For: Unlimited pro free.

2. UptimeRobot

• 50 sites
• 5-min
• SSL
• Headers
• API limited

For: Multi-sites basic.

3. StatusCake

• 10 sites
• 5-min
• SSL
• Speed basic
• Email/webhook
• Team limited

For: Small teams basic.

4. Freshping

• 50 sites
• 1-min
• SSL
• Email/webhook
• Clean UI

For: Simple reliable.

Compare

Free:

Feature	Pingdom Free	exit1.dev	UptimeRobot	StatusCake	Freshping
Sites	1	Unlimited	50	10	50
Interval	1 min	1 min	5 min	5 min	1 min
SSL	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅
API	Limited	Full	Limited	Limited	❌
Webhooks	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅
Email	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅
Card	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No
Speed	Basic	❌	❌	Basic	❌

Paid vs Free:

Feature	Pingdom Pro ($15)	exit1.dev + UptimeRobot (Free)
Sites	10	Unlimited + 50
Interval	1 min	1 min + 5 min
Team	5	1 + 1
Dashboards	✅	❌
API	Full	Full + Limited
Support	Email	Community
Reporting	Comprehensive	Basic
Cost	$15/mo	$0/mo

Switch

1. Export Pingdom

curl -u "email:password" \
     -H "App-Key: KEY" \
     "https://api.pingdom.com/api/3.1/checks"

2. Pick alt

3. Import to exit1.dev

const sites = [
  'https://site1.com',
  'https://site2.com'
];

sites.forEach(async (url) => {
  await fetch('https://api.exit1.dev/websites', {
    method: 'POST',
    headers: {
      'Content-Type': 'application/json',
      'Authorization': 'Bearer KEY'
    },
    body: JSON.stringify({
      url,
      name: url.replace('https://', ''),
      checkInterval: 60
    })
  });
});

4. Setup alerts

const mapping = {
  'pingdom': 'https://api.pingdom.com/api/3.1/checks',
  'exit1': 'https://api.exit1.dev/webhooks/downtime'
};

const newUrl = mapping.exit1;

Alts for Specific

Perf (Pingdom strength): Free: PageSpeed, GTmetrix, WebPageTest Paid: WebPageTest Pro $49, GTmetrix Pro $15

Uptime:

1. exit1.dev: Unlimited 1-min
2. UptimeRobot: 50 5-min
3. Freshping: 50 1-min

SSL: All include.

When Stay/Pay

Free: Budget $0-50, basic, multi-sites, testing, simple alerts.

Pingdom: Perf critical, transactions, real user, analytics, budget ok.

Reviews

Pingdom complaints: "Expensive", "Free useless", "Overkill basic", "API limited free".

Alts: "Unlimited amazing" (exit1), "50 perfect" (UptimeRobot), "Good team" (StatusCake), "Simple reliable" (Freshping).

Strategy

Phase 1: Free, basic setup, configure, test, doc.

Phase 2: Assess, use free perf, determine paid need, compare costs.

Phase 3: Add sites, advanced alerting, paid if needed, doc procedures.

Conclusion

Free often wins. Try exit1.dev.

Related: Best Service, Free vs Paid, 101, Get Started

Sources

• Wikipedia: Synthetic monitoring — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synthetic_monitoring
• web.dev: Core Web Vitals — https://web.dev/articles/vitals

Recommended Free Monitoring Resources

• Free Uptime Monitor Checklist – Step-by-step actions to configure a free uptime monitor that catches incidents fast.
• Best Free Uptime Monitoring Tools (2025) – Compare the strongest free uptime monitor platforms and when to upgrade.
• Free Website Monitoring Tools 2025 Guide – Evaluate which free website monitor fits your stack and alerting needs.
• Free Website Monitoring for Developers – See how engineering teams automate alerts, SLO tracking, and reporting with a free website monitor.