Grafana Synthetic Monitoring vs StatusCake

Free tier available

From $24 per month (indicative, Superior)

Cheap if you already run Grafana Cloud; results are plain Prometheus metrics you already know how to use.

SSL and domain expiry monitoring included on paid plans, which prevents a genuinely common outage cause.

Included in the Grafana Cloud free tier with a monthly check allowance.

Free plan with unlimited uptime tests at 5-minute intervals.

Established

Grafana Labs · since 2021

Established

StatusCake · since 2012

• Results are Prometheus metrics, so alerting and dashboards use tools you already have.
• Same k6 scripts serve load testing and synthetic monitoring.
• Good free tier within Grafana Cloud.

• SSL and domain expiry alerts prevent an entire class of self-inflicted outage.
• Many test locations even on cheaper plans.
• Simple and reliable.

• Assumes you are in the Grafana ecosystem; standalone it makes little sense.
• Browser checks are less mature than Datadog's or Checkly's.
• Fewer probe locations than the dedicated vendors.

• No scripted browser journeys.
• Interface is functional rather than pleasant.
• Limited integration with observability platforms.

Teams already running Grafana Cloud and k6.

Small teams wanting broad availability coverage cheaply.