The Pingdom alternative with on-call and incidents
Pingdom tells you a site is down. Spectate also pages whoever is on call, runs the incident and updates your status page, from a company in the Netherlands.
Which one fits you
Pingdom: Pingdom is SolarWinds' website monitoring service, with uptime and transaction checks (synthetic monitoring) and real user monitoring sold as separate products. It includes email and SMS alerts and public status pages.
Choose Spectate when
- You want on-call schedules, escalation paths and phone calls with the monitoring.
- You want incidents with roles, a timeline, postmortems and Slack incident channels.
- You need DNS, SMTP, IMAP and POP3 checks, and a server agent.
- You want status pages with custom domains, subscribers and password protection.
Choose Pingdom when
- You need transaction checks that click through a login or checkout flow.
- You want real user monitoring of page speed from actual visitors.
- You already use other SolarWinds products and want one vendor.
- You want each monitor checked from several locations.
Spectate vs Pingdom, feature by feature
Pingdom pricing: Pingdom Synthetic Monitoring starts at €16 a month (€14.33 billed yearly) for 10 uptime checks and 1 advanced check; 50 uptime checks are €66 a month (€60.50 billed yearly). Real user monitoring is priced separately (checked October 2026, prices for EU visitors).
| Feature | Spectate | Pingdom |
|---|---|---|
| Monitoring | ||
| HTTP(S) and keyword checks | Yes | Yes |
| DNS checks | Yes | Yes |
| SMTP, IMAP and POP3 checksPingdom checks that the mail server answers with its greeting. | Yes | Partly |
| Shortest check interval | 30sTeam and Business; 60s on Starter | 1m |
| Check locations | 1 of 4 regions per monitorPick Europe, North America, Asia or Oceania per monitor; a failed check is rechecked from the same region after about 5s before the monitor goes down. | Global probe network |
| Transaction checks | No | Yes |
| Real user monitoring | No | Paid add-on |
| Server monitoring agent | Yes | No |
| Domain expiry monitoring | Yes | No |
| Failure screenshots | Yes | No |
| Alerting and on-call | ||
| On-call schedules and escalation paths | Team and Business | No |
| Phone calls | Yes | No |
| Slack app with acknowledge buttons | Yes | No |
| Incidents | ||
| Incidents with roles and postmortems | Yes | No |
| Status pages | ||
| Public status pages | Yes | Yes |
| Subscriber email notifications | Yes | No |
| Pricing | ||
| Price for 50 monitors and 5 responders | €48 a monthTeam: 50 monitors is under the 80-monitor minimum, so 80 × €0.60 = €48 a month (€480 a year). Unlimited members, so 5 or 50 responders cost the same. | €66 a monthThe 50-check tier with unlimited users; €60.50 a month billed yearly. No on-call or phone calls. |
| Per-user pricing | No | No |
| Billing currency | EUR | USD or EUR |
| Data and compliance | ||
| Headquarters | Netherlands | United States |
| Invoiced from the EU, in euros | Yes | No |
Checked in Oct 2026 from Pingdom's public pages (pingdom.com/pricing/, solarwinds.com/company/newsroom/press-releases/turnriver-completes-acquisition-of-solarwinds). Prices change: if something here is out of date, tell us at hello@spectate.net and we'll fix it.
Moving from Pingdom
Most teams run both side by side for a week. Email help@spectate.net if you'd like a hand.
- 01Start a 14-day trial; no card needed. The trial runs on Team, with 80 monitors and on-call.
- 02Recreate your Pingdom checks as Spectate monitors. There is no importer; each monitor takes a minute or two, and help@spectate.net can help with larger lists.
- 03Connect your channels (email, Slack, Microsoft Teams, Telegram, phone numbers) and set up an escalation path.
- 04Run both tools side by side for a few days, then move your status page domain with one DNS record.
Spectate and Pingdom
Is Spectate cheaper than Pingdom?
For 50 monitors, yes: Spectate Team is €48 a month with on-call, phone calls and status pages included, against €66 a month for Pingdom's 50-check tier. Pingdom includes transaction checks, which Spectate doesn't have.
Can I import my checks from Pingdom?
There is no importer. Recreating a check takes a minute or two, and help@spectate.net can help with a longer list.
Does Spectate do transaction or browser checks?
No. Spectate checks HTTP(S) with keywords, ping, TCP, DNS and mail servers, and takes a screenshot when an HTTP(S) monitor goes down. For scripted flows such as a checkout, Pingdom or another synthetic tool is the better fit.
Who owns Pingdom?
Pingdom is part of SolarWinds, a US company that was taken private by Turn/River Capital in April 2025. Spectate is built and billed from the Netherlands.
Other tools teams switch from
Try Spectate next to Pingdom.
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