Checkly

What it is for

Checkly is a synthetic-monitoring desk: you write a Playwright check in the IDE, and you can start Hobby at $0/month (10 uptime monitors, 1,000 browser runs, 10,000 API runs). Use it when the job is Playwright checks you start at $0, not when you need a $20 chat seat.

What makes it unique: the cover is the official Checkly browser-check IDE (Homepage Check, Activated, Playwright page.goto, Run every 5 mins) from the docs browser-check-ide still — not a pricing card. The editor itself is ops of Browser checks. Playwright Check Suites are ops of this.

Key features

• Browser checks — a Playwright script you schedule (IDE still; What is synthetic monitoring). One user-flow. Suites, screenshots, and assertions sit on this. Hobby includes 1,000 runs/month. Extra Starter/Team runs print $4.00 per 1k (overage $6.50 / $6.25). The CLI is install.
• API checks — an HTTP (or multistep) probe, not a browser (pricing API Check Runs). A request chain, not Playwright. Hobby 10,000/month; extra $1.80 per 10k (overage $2.60 / $2.50).
• Uptime monitors — a protocol check (HTTPS / TCP / DNS / ICMP / …) (pricing Uptime Monitoring). Availability, not a script. Hobby 10, Starter 50, Team 75. Extra monitors in blocks of 25 at $8 (Starter/Team).
• Alerting — the channel that fires when a check fails (pricing Alerting). Email / Slack / webhooks on Hobby; SMS joins on Starter; all channels on Team. Retries sit on this.
• Private locations — a check that runs from your network (pricing Private Locations). Team and up. A probe site, not a check. Public locations (Hobby/Starter 6, Team 22) are quotas on the hosted grid.

There is no Checkly self-host control plane on the pricing page. Enterprise is custom / Contact Sales.

Who it's for

Best fit: SRE / frontend teams who will stay on Hobby at $0 (10 uptime, 1k Playwright, 10k API, 6 locations) until they need Starter at $24/month or Team at $64/month for more runs, SMS alerts, or a private location.

Pricing

Verified 2026-10-22 (Asia/Shanghai) from checklyhq.com/pricing. The page has Monthly / Annual (“Save up to 20%”). Tile figures below are the printed $0 / $24 / $64. The Plan Details table labels Starter/Team as “per month, billed annually.” A separate monthly-without-annual dollar was not cleanly printed in the static HTML — do not invent it. FAQ grandfather examples ($40 / $80) are for existing subscriptions, not today’s tiles.

• Hobby — $0/month. 10 uptime monitors, max frequency 2 min, 6 locations, 1,000 browser/Playwright runs, 10,000 API runs. Email, Slack, webhooks. No private locations.
• Starter — $24/month (details: billed annually). 50 uptime, 1 min, 6 locations, 3,000 browser, 25,000 API. SMS alerts. Extra 25 monitors $8; extra browser $4.00/1k (overage $6.50); extra API $1.80/10k (overage $2.60).
• Team — $64/month (details: billed annually). 75 uptime, 30 sec, 22 locations, 12,000 browser, 100,000 API, private locations, all alert channels. Extra 25 monitors $8; extra browser $4.00/1k (overage $6.25); extra API $1.80/10k (overage $2.50).
• Enterprise — custom / Contact Sales. 1 sec frequency, parallel scheduling. Confirm the live quote — do not invent an Enterprise dollar.

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Limitations / costs

• Hobby is 1,000 Playwright runs and 10 uptime monitors. A checkout flow every 2 minutes from 3 locations burns the 1k pack.
• Starter $24 / Team $64 are the printed tiles (annual in the details table). Overage is $6.50 (Starter) or $6.25 (Team) per 1k extra browser runs.
• No self-host control plane. Private locations still report to hosted Checkly.
• A synthetic desk, not an incident OS. For uptime + on-call + status pages in one OSS bill see OneUptime.

Alternatives

• OneUptime — uptime + incidents + on-call when you will not write Playwright checks in Checkly’s IDE.
• OpenStatus — a thinner public status + probe card when you do not need 12k browser runs.
• SigNoz — traces-first APM when the job is OpenTelemetry, not a synthetic script.

Official tutorial

Official Checkly channel video: What is synthetic monitoring? Checkly explained in 2 minutes (oEmbed author: Checkly). First-party product explainer; the docs Playwright IDE still is the cover. Other listed uploads we opened were webinars / agent recaps — do not embed those as the IDE tour.

Written path: checklyhq.com/pricing plus the browser-check-ide still.

Website

https://www.checklyhq.com

Repository

https://github.com/checkly/checkly-cli

Source

Catalog row curated for AI Tools Nav. Cover is the official Checkly Playwright check IDE from the docs still. Dollars checked on checklyhq.com/pricing (Hobby $0; Starter $24; Team $64; extra monitors $8/25; browser extra $4/1k). Tutorial oEmbed author: Checkly.

Last verified

2026-10-22 (Asia/Shanghai) editorial check.