Analytics and monitoring decision

Checkly

Build a narrow internal replacement (scheduled HTTP + Playwright checks, basic alerts, and a status page) to save costs and control data; keep paying Checkly for global locations, AI-driven root cause, private locations, overage handling, and enterprise polish.

Visit website
Subscription$24/month ✓ verified
Initial build30 hours
Monthly upkeep8 hours + $40
Evidence2/3 runs agree

Open-source builds that already do this

Every project below is open source and already does this job today. Fork one, self-host it, or take the parts you need - the build prompt further down assumes an empty file, and this is the shortcut past that. Licences differ; check the one on each card before you ship. All Checkly alternatives, with the arithmetic →

What a replacement has to do

  • Schedule and run HTTP or browser (Playwright) checks on a cadence, evaluate assertions, and send alerts on failures.

What it still won’t have

  • Global execution from 20+ managed locations
  • AI-powered root-cause analysis / agentic checks
  • Private locations run from your infra (managed by vendor)
  • Integrated billing, SLA, and enterprise support
  • Polished UI, dashboards, and built-in status pages

What remains hard

  • Brand trustWorld-class engineering and SRE teams depend on Checkly to deliver reliable digital experiences
Read the build prompt

First-year cost

Keep paying

Paying ischeaper in year one.

On cash alone, building overtakes the subscription at 2 seats.

Paid seatsseats

Money you would actually spend

Keep paying

Subscription price × seats × 12

Build it

AI build APIs + hosting

Time you would spend

What you would spend

What we assumed

The verdict above measures whether you could build it. This one is only about money.

Runnable build prompt

Not run yet
Build a minimal self-hosted synthetic monitoring service using Node.js + TypeScript, Playwright, PostgreSQL, and a small VPS (or single AWS t4g.micro). In scope: (1) HTTP check runner with scheduling (cron or worker queue), (2) Playwright-based browser check runner supporting multi-step flows, (3) results storage in Postgres and simple metrics (uptime, p95), (4) alerting via Slack and email with retry/debounce, (5) a basic status page showing current check states and recent history. Out of scope: distributed global execution from 20+ regions, enterprise billing, AI root-cause analysis, private locations, and polished dashboards. Provide structured error handling, retries, idempotency, and unit/integration tests for runners and alerting paths.
How we checked4 sources · 2/3 runs agreed · evidence score 63

How the score was reached

  • Partly verdict base52
  • An open-source build was found+5
  • 4 cited sources+3
  • Price verified on pricing page+3
  • Evidence score63

The base comes from the verdict. Everything under it is a check that either happened or did not, and each one is a fact frozen in this record rather than a judgement made at render time - so the same evidence always produces the same number.

How scoring works →

Cited sources · 4

Every page the run actually retrieved.

Integrity checks

What held up, and what did not.

✓ Price read off the page! 2 of 3 runs agreed; the verdict is the majority✓ Citations limited to fetched pages! 1 moat quoted from the page