Uptime and page speed, without the per-monitor price climb.
Pingdom is a capable synthetic monitoring product - but its per-monitor pricing scales steeply, real-user monitoring is billed as a separate product, and there is no ongoing free plan, only a trial. HostTracker has watched the web since 2004: 14 monitor types, 300+ checkpoints, a $9.90/month anchor, and a free plan you keep after the trial.
Four honest reasons
Per-monitor pricing climbs fast
Pingdom's synthetic checks are priced from around $10/month billed annually for 10 monitors up to roughly $249/month at higher tiers - the bill grows with every monitor you add. HostTracker's $9.90/month anchor and plan tiers stay predictable as your fleet grows.
Uptime and RUM are billed separately
Pingdom splits synthetic uptime checks and real-user monitoring into two priced products. HostTracker keeps one subscription; where Pingdom's RUM is a real, separately priced product, HostTracker instead measures page speed synthetically from real browsers.
No ongoing free plan
Pingdom offers a trial, not a free tier you keep afterwards. HostTracker's free plan carries no commercial-use restriction, and the separate 30-day, 100-monitor trial needs no credit card.
Growth can mean an enterprise sales process
Since the SolarWinds acquisition, moving up Pingdom's tiers can route through an enterprise sales motion. HostTracker stays self-serve with transparent, published pricing at every tier.
HostTracker vs Pingdom, feature by feature
Both products are good at what they focus on - the marks below go both ways. As of August 2026:
| HostTracker | Pingdom | |
|---|---|---|
| Monitoring | ||
| HTTP / HTTPS and keyword checks | Yes | Yes |
| Ping, port, DNS and other protocol checks | Yes | Yes |
| SSL certificate expiry and change alerts | Yes | Expiry only |
| Domain expiration (registry RDAP data) | Yes | No |
| Browser transaction checks (log in, pay) | Yes | Transaction Monitor, limited count per tier |
| Page-speed measurement in real browsers | Yes | One of Pingdom's core products |
| Database query monitoring | Yes | No |
| SNMP counters and server resources | Yes | No |
| DNS blacklist (DNSBL) checks | Yes | No |
| Google Web Risk verdicts | Yes | No |
| Real-user monitoring (RUM) | Synthetic page speed instead | Yes |
| Monitoring locations | 300+ checkpoints | ~100+ locations |
| Multi-location incident confirmation | Locations named on the incident | Confirms from multiple probe regions |
| Alerting | ||
| Email alerts | Yes | Yes |
| SMS alerts | Monthly allowance on paid plans | Included quota per tier, overage billed separately |
| Slack, Microsoft Teams, Mattermost | Yes | Slack native; no native Teams or Mattermost |
| PagerDuty incidents | Auto-resolve on recovery | Yes |
| Telegram, Discord, Viber | Yes | No |
| Pushover and Pushbullet | Yes | No |
| Signed webhooks | 15 typed events, HMAC signatures | Webhooks available |
| Status pages | ||
| Status page on every plan | Including free | Included on paid plans (no free plan) |
| Subscriber notifications | Email, Slack, Teams, webhooks | No |
| JSON / RSS exports and embeddable badges | Yes | No |
| White-label + custom domain | Enterprise plans | Custom domain yes, no white-label branding |
| Developers | ||
| REST API | v2 - 182 operations, OpenAPI 3.1 | Paid plans |
| Official SDKs | TypeScript, Python, Go, .NET | Not published |
| Command-line client | ht-cli | Not published |
| GitHub Action | Yes | Not published |
| MCP server for AI assistants | Hosted or run locally (stdio) | Not published |
| Product | ||
| Native mobile apps | Responsive web app | Discontinued (EOL 2021) |
| Commercial use of the free plan | Yes | No free plan |
| Trial | 30 days, 100 monitors, no card | Trial only, no ongoing free plan |
| Monitoring since | 2004 | Established product, now part of SolarWinds |
| Pricing model | $9.90/month flat anchor | Per-monitor, ~$10/mo up to ~$249/mo |
| Buying experience | Self-serve signup | Enterprise sales process at higher tiers |
Pingdom facts are corroborated from SolarWinds' own documentation and independent pricing coverage, August 2026 - its pricing page blocks automated fetches, so anything neither source confirms renders as a text-only cell rather than a guess. Found something out of date? Tell us and we will fix it.
What a paid plan actually costs
- All 14 check types on paid plans - transactions, database, SNMP, DNSBL included
- Monthly SMS allowance included; voice calls via the same credits
- Status page on every plan, free included
- Free plan allows commercial use; 30-day / 100-monitor trial, no card
- Synthetic monitoring from ~$10/mo for 10 monitors, billed annually, up to ~$249/mo at higher tiers
- Real-user monitoring (RUM) billed as a separate product
- SMS ships as an included credit quota per tier, with overage billed separately
- No ongoing free plan - trial only
Full plan details: HostTracker pricing. Pingdom prices are corroborated from SolarWinds' documentation and independent pricing coverage (its pricing page blocks automated fetches), August 2026.
Alerts where your team already lives
Down and Up events, repeated-failure escalations, SSL and domain warnings and blacklist verdicts - delivered to:
Plus a REST API, four official SDKs, ht-cli and an MCP server for AI assistants - see the developer platform.
Migrate in an afternoon, decide in a month
- Export from Pingdom. Pull your check list through the dashboard or its API - urls, names, intervals.
- Create them all in one command. Reshape into monitor JSON and run:
ht-cli monitors bulk-create --json @monitors.json - Run both for a month. The 30-day trial fits 100 monitors with every feature enabled - compare incident logs, response-time charts and alert latency on your own traffic before anything is cancelled. Keep the free plan afterwards either way.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes, particularly for teams whose monitor count is growing. Pingdom's synthetic checks are priced per monitor and the cost climbs quickly - from around $10/month billed annually for 10 monitors up to roughly $249/month at higher tiers - and real-user monitoring is billed separately again. HostTracker's plans start at $9.90/month with a free plan and a 30-day, 100-monitor trial, so you can see the real cost before committing.
Export your check list from the Pingdom dashboard or its API, reshape each check into HostTracker's monitor JSON, and create them all in one call with the bulk API - or one command with ht-cli: ht-cli monitors bulk-create --json @monitors.json. The 30-day trial fits 100 monitors, so most accounts run both services in parallel for a month and compare incident logs before switching over.
Yes. Pingdom does not offer an ongoing free tier - only a trial. HostTracker has both a free plan for ongoing commercial use and a separate 30-day, 100-monitor trial with no credit card required, so you can keep monitoring for free after the trial ends.
Beyond HTTP and uptime checks, HostTracker monitors full browser transactions (log in, add to cart, pay), database queries, SNMP counters, server resources, DNS blacklists (DNSBL), Google Web Risk verdicts, domain expiration through registry RDAP data, and SSL certificate expiration and changes - 14 monitor types in total. Pingdom's real-user monitoring (RUM) is a real, separately priced product that HostTracker does not replicate; HostTracker measures page speed synthetically, from real browsers, instead.
Paid HostTracker plans include a free monthly SMS credit allowance that tops up automatically, and voice-call alerts ride the same credit balance - useful when a 3 a.m. outage needs to wake someone. Pingdom includes a monthly SMS credit quota with each plan; once that quota is used up, extra messages are billed as an additional service.
Email, SMS, voice calls, Slack, Microsoft Teams, PagerDuty with automatic incident resolve, Mattermost, Pushover, Pushbullet, Telegram, Discord, Viber, browser push, and signed webhooks with 15 typed events for anything custom.
300+ checkpoints across every continent. A failed check is re-verified from several other locations before an incident opens, so a single flaky vantage point does not page anyone - and the incident record shows exactly which locations confirmed the outage.
Yes, on every plan including the free one. Status pages carry components, incident history, subscriber notifications over email, Slack, Teams and webhooks, machine-readable JSON and RSS exports, and embeddable badges; Enterprise plans add white-label branding and custom domains.
The REST API v2 exposes 182 operations, documented with OpenAPI 3.1, with official SDKs for TypeScript, Python, Go and .NET, the ht-cli command-line client, a GitHub Action, and an MCP server that lets AI assistants like Claude or Cursor run checks and manage monitors. API access is included in Business, Enterprise and the 30-day trial.
Keep exploring HostTracker's monitoring
Deeper monitoring, without the per-monitor price climb
Start the 30-day trial - 100 monitors, every check type, no credit card - and keep a commercial-use free plan afterwards.