compare · statuscake vs uptimerobot
StatusCake vs UptimeRobot: pricing, check speed and alerts compared
Short answer: UptimeRobot is the cheaper way to watch a lot of endpoints, with a free plan covering 50 monitors at 5-minute checks. StatusCake bundles more into one tool, adding page speed and domain expiry monitoring alongside uptime, and reaches 1-minute checks a tier earlier. Neither gives you 30-second checks until their upper plans. If check speed and confirmed, non-metered alerting are what you are actually buying, that is the gap AlertPing fills at $19 a month flat.
Last updated July 2026 · prices read from each vendor's own pricing page
alertping ▸ run check
live
▸ type a domain and run a real-feel check
▸ probes from 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.
the short version
Two budget tools that grew in different directions
Both of these turn up on every shortlist for the same reason: a genuinely useful free plan and paid tiers that cost less than the enterprise suites. Where they part company is what happens after uptime.
UptimeRobot stayed narrow and cheap. The free plan is unusually generous at 50 monitors, and the paid plans mostly buy you more monitors, faster intervals and SMS credits rather than new categories of monitoring. StatusCake went broad instead. Its paid plans bundle page speed testing and domain expiry reminders next to uptime tests, which is genuinely useful if you were about to buy three tools.
The thing neither one leads with is how long you wait to hear about an outage. On the free plans that is five minutes, which is five minutes of a broken checkout you did not know about. Faster intervals exist on both, but they sit near the top of the price list.
StatusCake
Free for 10 tests at 5-minute checks. Superior lists at $24.49 a month ($20.41 billed annually) for 100 tests and 1-minute checks. Best when you want page speed and domain expiry in the same tool.
UptimeRobot
Free for 50 monitors at 5-minute checks. Solo starts at $10 a month ($9 billed annually) for 60-second checks. Best when you are watching many endpoints and cost is the deciding factor.
AlertPing
No free plan. $19 a month flat for 20 monitors at 60-second checks, $59 for 30-second checks with three-region confirmation. SMS included on every plan, not bought as credits.
side by side
StatusCake vs UptimeRobot vs AlertPing
Figures were read from each vendor's public pricing page in July 2026 and can change, so confirm current numbers before you buy. StatusCake lists its prices in euros. Our plans are on the pricing page.
| StatusCake | UptimeRobot | AlertPing | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free plan | Yes, 10 tests, 5-minute checks | Yes, 50 monitors, 5-minute checks | No, free trial only |
| Entry paid plan | Superior, $24.49/mo ($20.41 annually), 100 tests | Solo, $10/mo ($9 annually), up to 50 monitors | Starter, $19/mo, 20 monitors |
| Fastest check on the entry plan | 1 minute | 60 seconds | 60 seconds |
| Where 30-second checks start | Business, $79.99/mo ($66.66 annually) | Enterprise, from about $82/mo ($69 annually) | Team, $59/mo |
| SMS alerts | Credit packs, 75/mo on Superior | Credit packs, 10 to 30 on lower plans | Included on every plan, not metered |
| Multi-region confirmation before alerting | Multiple test locations available | Not on the lower plans | 3 of 3 regions confirm every outage |
| Page speed monitoring | Yes, bundled | No | No |
| Domain expiry monitoring | Yes, bundled | No | No |
| SSL certificate expiry | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Cron and heartbeat checks | Yes | Yes | Yes, with grace periods |
| Pricing model | Tiered, priced in euros | Tiered, monitors and SMS credits | Flat published tiers, no add-ons |
which to pick
Honestly, it depends on what you are buying
Pick StatusCake if
- You want page speed testing and domain expiry reminders in the same subscription as uptime.
- You manage a lot of client domains and the renewal reminders alone justify the tool.
- 1-minute checks are fast enough and you would rather not pay for faster.
Pick UptimeRobot if
- Cost is the deciding factor. The free plan at 50 monitors is the most generous of the three.
- You need to watch a long list of endpoints and can live with a slower interval on most of them.
- Basic uptime and SSL checks are the whole requirement.
Pick AlertPing if
- Detection speed is the point, and you want 30-second checks without an enterprise-tier bill.
- You are tired of false alarms and want every outage confirmed from three regions first.
- You want SMS to just work rather than running out of credits mid-incident.
We will say the unflattering part plainly: if your budget is zero, neither of the free plans has a real competitor here, because we do not have one. And StatusCake's Business tier gives you more monitors per dollar at 30 seconds than our Team plan does. What we sell is faster confirmed detection at a small-team price, not the lowest number on the page.
alertping
See how fast a confirmed alert actually is
Run a live check against your own site, then compare the numbers above. 30-second checks, three-region confirmation and SMS on every plan, flat from $19 a month.
what the interval costs you
Check interval is the number that decides the comparison
Monitor counts and feature lists are easy to compare, so that is what vendors compete on. The number that actually changes your incident is how long the site can be down before anyone finds out. On average you discover an outage about half an interval after it starts, and worst case a full one.
| Check interval | Typical delay before you know | Worst case | Where you get it |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5 minutes | About 2.5 minutes | 5 minutes | Both free plans |
| 1 minute | About 30 seconds | 1 minute | StatusCake Superior, UptimeRobot Solo |
| 30 seconds | About 15 seconds | 30 seconds | StatusCake Business, UptimeRobot Enterprise, AlertPing Team |
Whether that gap matters depends entirely on what breaks. For a brochure site, five minutes is fine. For a checkout, a signup flow or an API other people build on, the difference between five minutes and thirty seconds is the difference between a handful of failed requests and a support queue. There is more on this in our guide to how often you should check uptime.
questions
StatusCake and UptimeRobot questions, answered
Is StatusCake better than UptimeRobot?
Neither is better outright, they optimize for different buyers. StatusCake is better if you want page speed and domain expiry monitoring bundled with uptime, which saves buying separate tools. UptimeRobot is better if you want the lowest cost per monitor, since its free plan covers 50 monitors against StatusCake's 10.
Which one has the better free plan?
UptimeRobot, by a wide margin on volume. Its free plan covers 50 monitors at 5-minute checks, while StatusCake's free plan covers 10 tests at the same interval. Both free tiers hold back SMS and the faster check intervals, so treat them as a way to watch low-stakes endpoints rather than production.
Does StatusCake or UptimeRobot do 30-second checks?
Both do, but only on their upper plans. StatusCake reaches 30 seconds on its Business tier, listed at $79.99 a month ($66.66 billed annually), and UptimeRobot on its Enterprise tier. On the entry paid plans of both tools you are on a 60-second or 1-minute interval, and on the free plans, five minutes.
Do either of them include SMS alerts?
Both meter SMS as credits rather than including it. StatusCake's Superior plan comes with 75 credits a month and Business with 400. UptimeRobot bundles a small allocation on paid plans, from around 10 credits on the entry tier. Run out during a long incident and texts stop until you buy more.
Can I switch without losing my monitors?
Yes. Uptime monitors are just a URL, an interval and a notification rule, so moving is mostly copying a list of endpoints. The usual advice is to run the new tool alongside the old one for a week, compare what each caught, and only then cancel. Nothing is stored inside the old tool that you cannot rebuild.
What do you lose by choosing AlertPing instead?
A free plan, page speed monitoring and domain expiry monitoring, none of which we offer. If any of those are load-bearing for you, one of the other two is the better buy and we would rather you knew now. What you gain is 30-second checks at a small-team price, three-region confirmation and SMS that is never metered.
keep reading
Related comparisons
StatusCake alternative
A closer look at StatusCake on its own, including what you give up by leaving it.
UptimeRobot alternative
Where UptimeRobot's free plan stops being enough, and what to weigh before moving off it.
Best uptime monitoring tools
The wider field compared on price, interval, SMS and free plans, including Pingdom and Better Stack.
Faster detection, without the enterprise tier
30-second checks confirmed from three regions, SMS on every plan and pricing that does not move. Flat from $19 a month.