AlertSite alternative: AlertSite pricing and competitors compared for uptime and API monitoring
Short answer: SmartBear AlertSite publishes no price list. It bills prepaid measurement credits on a quoted contract, and one URL checked every minute from three US locations uses about 65,750 credits a month. AlertPing publishes its prices: 20 websites, APIs, ports or SSL certificates at 60 seconds for $19 a month, or 100 at 30 seconds for $59, each failure confirmed from three regions. If you need recorded browser transactions, SoapUI tests or private nodes, AlertSite does that and we do not.
AlertSite facts read from smartbear.com and the AlertSite documentation
alertping ▸ check preview
simulated
▸ type a domain to watch a check and an alert play out
▸ simulation of 3 regions · FRA · IAD · SIN
▸ waiting…▌
queued
probing▌
If ever goes down, you get:
Alert fired ▸ 2 channels · 6.2 s after first failure
AlertPing app
● DOWN : HTTP timeout confirmed from 3/3 regions (FRA, IAD, SIN). Incident opened.
sms · on-call
AlertPing: DOWN. Confirmed 3/3 regions . First fail: Frankfurt.
Simulation, not a measurement of your site: this preview runs entirely in your browser and the latencies are generated from the domain you typed. Real checks on your monitors run from our Frankfurt, Virginia and Singapore regions.
the honest frame
AlertSite is an enterprise synthetic suite sold by quote
AlertSite is SmartBear's synthetic monitoring product. It runs single URL and full page checks, real browser transactions recorded with DejaClick, REST, SOAP and GraphQL API monitors, SoapUI test suites, mobile checks, and DNS, TCP, FTP, ping and email monitors, from a large public network plus private nodes inside your firewall. It is a serious product for performance and QA teams. It is also a lot of product, and a sales conversation, for a team that mainly wants to know the moment a site or an API stops answering.
Where the products overlap
HTTP and HTTPS availability, single request API checks with status and keyword assertions, TCP ports, ping, SSL, alerting to Slack and PagerDuty, and SLA reporting. A flat uptime tool replaces that part of an AlertSite contract one for one.
Where they do not
Recorded multi-step browser journeys, SoapUI and Selenium scripts, full page waterfalls, mobile network locations and private nodes. AlertPing sells none of those. If they are why you bought AlertSite, keep them there.
Why buyers compare
No public price, an annual contract, and a credit meter that multiplies by every location, every step and every retry. Teams that only need uptime and API checks often find they are paying for a performance lab.
alertsite pricing
How AlertSite pricing works: measurement credits
SmartBear's pricing page says the pricing structure is customized and offers a contact form, not a rate card. What the documentation does publish is the meter. On usage-based plans you buy measurement credits, and a measurement is one monitoring run from one location. Each run costs credits according to where it runs and what it loads.
Credits per measurement, by location
| Location type | Single URL or API | Full page |
|---|---|---|
| US and Canada | 0.5 | 1.0 |
| International | 1.0 | 2.0 |
| Mobile network locations | 2.0 | 4.0 |
Optional features that add credits
| Feature | Extra credits per run |
|---|---|
| Page Capture | 0.5 |
| User Experience | 0.5 |
| ContentView | 0.25 |
| Local retry on error | Another measurement |
Every step and every location multiplies
SmartBear's own example: a DejaClick transaction with 5 steps run from 2 locations is 10 measurements. Checking one URL from three places to confirm an outage triples the meter, and turning on local retry spends extra credits exactly when a site is failing.
Annual prepay, 20% rollover, overage in arrears
On annual contracts up to 20% of unused prepaid credits roll into the next year, and usage above the allotment is billed in arrears at your overage rate. There is no monthly minimum. Trials run 30 days with no credit card.
the real meter
Credits a month for common uptime setups
Computed from AlertSite's published credit rates on an average month of 43,833 minutes. We cannot show AlertSite dollars because SmartBear does not publish a credit price, so put the credit figure in front of your account manager and ask what it costs. AlertPing figures are list prices.
| Setup | AlertSite credits a month | AlertPing plan | AlertPing a month |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 URL every minute from 1 US location | 21,917 | Starter, 60 s, 3 regions | $19 (20 monitors) |
| 1 URL every minute from 3 US locations | 65,750 | Starter, 60 s, 3 regions | $19 (20 monitors) |
| 1 URL every minute from 3 international locations | 131,499 | Starter, 60 s, 3 regions | $19 (20 monitors) |
| 20 URLs and APIs every minute from 3 US locations | 1,314,990 | Starter, 60 s, 3 regions | $19 |
| 100 URLs and APIs every 30 seconds from 3 US locations | 13,149,900 | Team, 30 s, 3 regions | $59 |
| 1 full page load every 5 minutes from 1 US location | 8,767 | Not offered | Stay on AlertSite |
The pattern that matters is the second row. AlertPing re-checks every failure from Frankfurt, Virginia and Singapore before it pages anyone, and that confirmation is part of the $19. On a per-measurement meter, the same three-location habit costs three times the credits of a single probe. The 30-second row assumes your AlertSite measurement plan allows that interval; the documentation says available intervals depend on the plan you buy. The last row is honest in the other direction: a full page waterfall is a job we do not do at any price.
side by side
AlertPing vs AlertSite, feature by feature
Scored on availability monitoring. On browser transactions, SoapUI, mobile and private monitoring AlertSite wins every row, because we do not compete there.
| Capability | AlertPing | AlertSite |
|---|---|---|
| Published pricing | Yes: $19, $59 and $189 a month | No, quote only |
| Billing model | Flat plan, one monitor pool | Prepaid measurement credits, overage in arrears |
| Contract | Monthly or yearly, self-serve | Usually annual, through sales |
| Fastest check interval | 30 seconds from $59, 15 seconds on Enterprise | Depends on the measurement plan purchased |
| Outage confirmation | 3 regions re-check before paging, included | Multi-location modes, each location billed |
| Monitoring locations | 3 (Frankfurt, Virginia, Singapore) | 350+ listed by SmartBear |
| Websites and REST APIs | Yes | Yes, plus SOAP and GraphQL |
| TCP ports, ping, SSL | Same pool as URLs, same price | Yes, separate monitor types |
| Cron and heartbeat checks | Every plan | Not a documented monitor type |
| Real-browser transactions | Not offered | DejaClick and Selenium |
| SoapUI test suites as monitors | Not offered | Yes |
| Private nodes inside your network | Not offered | Yes |
| SMS alerts | Included on every plan | Yes, SMS recipients, plus phone and pager |
| Slack, PagerDuty, Opsgenie, webhook | Yes | Yes |
| SLA reports | Business plan | SLA Detail and SLA Summary reports |
| Status pages | 1, 5 or 20 by plan, custom domain on Business | Not listed on the product page |
| Trial | Run a live check before you buy | 30 days, no credit card |
where they win
Six things AlertSite does that we do not
These are good reasons to keep an AlertSite contract, sometimes alongside a flat uptime tool.
Recorded browser journeys
DejaClick records a login, search or checkout in a real browser and replays it on a schedule, so you know the funnel works, not only that the homepage returns 200.
SoapUI tests as monitors
If your QA team already writes SoapUI or ReadyAPI suites, AlertSite can run the same tests in production. That reuse is a real saving for a SmartBear shop.
Private nodes
A node inside your network watches intranet apps and internal APIs. We only check from the public internet, so an internal host is out of our reach.
A very large location network
SmartBear lists 350+ locations, including mobile carrier networks. Three confirming regions cannot tell you how a page performs in Dallas versus Seattle.
Full page performance data
Full page monitors load every asset and record a waterfall, which catches a slow third-party tag that never shows up in a status code.
A 30-day trial
Thirty days with full access and no card is generous. We let you run a live check before you buy and have no free plan.
who buys which
Six buyers and the honest pick for each
A SaaS team with an uptime SLA
AlertPing Team. 100 endpoints every 30 seconds, confirmed from three regions, with SMS and a status page, for $59 a month and no procurement cycle.
A bank or insurer testing a login journey
AlertSite, for the DejaClick transaction. Add flat uptime checks on the API and marketing site if the credit budget forces a slow transaction clock.
An MSP watching client sites and ports
AlertPing Business. 500 monitors at 30 seconds for $189 a month, with 20 status pages, is easier to resell than a credit pool nobody can forecast.
A QA team already on ReadyAPI
AlertSite. Running existing SoapUI suites in production is the one thing no uptime tool can match.
Intranet apps behind a firewall
AlertSite with a private node. External monitoring cannot reach a host that is not on the internet.
A team renewing only for uptime alerts
AlertPing. If the renewal quote covers mostly single URL and API monitors, a flat plan replaces it and the budget goes back to the team.
switching
How to move uptime checks off AlertSite before renewal
Because AlertSite bills credits, every monitor you move shrinks the next contract. Start 60 to 90 days before the renewal date so the new allotment is sized on real usage.
Step one
Export the monitor list
Split it into single URL, API, TCP, ping and DNS monitors in one column and DejaClick, SoapUI, Selenium and full page monitors in another. The first column is what moves.
Step two
Rebuild the simple checks
Recreate each URL, API, port and certificate with the same status code and keyword assertions, at the interval you wanted rather than the one the credits allowed.
Step three
Keep the same alert routes
Same phones, same Slack channel, same PagerDuty or Opsgenie service, so on-call sees the same pages from a new source and nothing else changes.
Step four
Resize the credit pool
Run both for one cycle, then renew AlertSite only for the browser and SoapUI work, with a credit allotment based on what those monitors actually used.
questions people ask
AlertSite alternatives, answered
What is the best AlertSite alternative?
It depends which AlertSite features you use. For recorded browser transactions, look at Uptrends, Dotcom-Monitor, Checkly and Datadog Synthetics. For websites, APIs, ports and SSL, a flat tool like AlertPing checks 100 monitors every 30 seconds for $59 a month, with published pricing and no annual contract.
How much does AlertSite cost?
SmartBear does not publish AlertSite prices. Usage-based plans sell prepaid measurement credits: 0.5 credits per single URL or API run from a US location, 1.0 internationally, double that for a full page load. One URL checked every minute from three US locations uses about 65,750 credits a month. Ask sales for the price per credit.
Does AlertSite have a free trial?
Yes. SmartBear offers a 30-day AlertSite trial with full access and no credit card. There is no permanent free plan. AlertPing has no free plan either; you can run a live check from our demo before you buy.
What are AlertSite competitors?
Synthetic suites such as Dynatrace, Datadog Synthetics, Uptrends, Dotcom-Monitor, Site24x7 and Pingdom compete on browser and transaction monitoring. Uptime-first tools such as Uptime.com, StatusCake, Better Stack and AlertPing compete on website, API and port checks at published, usually much lower prices.
Why do AlertSite credits run out?
Because every location, every transaction step and every retry is its own measurement. A 5-step DejaClick journey from 2 locations is 10 measurements per run, and local retry spends more during an incident. Faster intervals and extra locations raise usage in direct proportion.
Is AlertSite the same as SmartBear?
AlertSite is a product of SmartBear, the company behind SoapUI, ReadyAPI, Swagger and TestComplete. It is sold and supported by SmartBear, which is why it fits best in teams already using other SmartBear testing tools.
Can AlertSite produce SLA reports?
Yes, AlertSite ships SLA Detail and SLA Summary reports. AlertPing includes SLA reports on the Business plan at $189 a month. Our SLA monitoring software comparison covers the other vendors that document a named SLA report.
AlertSite vs AlertPing, which is cheaper?
For plain uptime and API checks, AlertPing is almost certainly cheaper, because 20 monitors at 60 seconds cost $19 a month with three-region confirmation included. AlertSite's price depends on your negotiated credit rate, so compare its quote against our uptime monitoring pricing table of fifteen tools.
keep reading
Related comparisons and pricing breakdowns
how we page you
Three regions have to agree
A single failed probe never wakes anybody. Frankfurt, Virginia and Singapore all re-check first, so a hiccup on one route is not a 3am phone call.
what a plan covers
SMS is in the price, not in credits
SMS, email, Slack and webhook alerts are unlimited on every plan, and each plan hosts status pages. No credit packs, no per-message fee, no per-monitor math.
how setup works
One URL, no agent to install
Paste the address, choose where alerts go, and the first check runs from all three regions. No agent, no config file, nothing to deploy on your side.
Published prices, three-region confirmation, no credit meter
Websites, APIs, ports and SSL in one monitor pool, confirmed from three regions before anyone is paged. Flat from $19 a month, with 30-second checks from $59.