The Datadog alternative for monitoring as code
Checkly runs API, browser, and heartbeat monitoring code-first, not click-first. Your checks are native Playwright, they live in the repo, and you run them locally before they ship.
Playwright-native No vendor lock-in Predictable pricing
Trusted to monitor mission-critical flows at teams like these
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“The native Playwright integration, which you can configure as code, made things much easier.”
I just personally disliked [Datadog’s] test editor for UI synthetic tests. It was horrible to work with.
Built for how modern software is actually shipped
Built on open-source technologies, with no vendor lock-in. Your monitors are flexible, reviewable, and version-controlled like the rest of your stack, not locked inside a vendor’s UI.
Monitoring as code, end to end
Your monitors live in version control. You write them in TypeScript, review them in a pull request, and ship them in CI alongside the app. Datadog stores tests in its UI. Its monitoring-as-code story stops at a Terraform provider.
Built for engineering teams
Checkly runs where engineers already work. Write monitors on your local machine, verify preview deploys in CI, and watch production from the command line. No recorder, no separate portal to keep in sync after every release.
Synthetic monitoring is all we do
Every engineer we have works on API, browser, and heartbeat monitoring. It is the product, not one tab inside an observability suite competing with logs, APM, and RUM for the roadmap.
Checkly vs. Datadog
A focused, code-first synthetic monitoring platform against a synthetic module inside a broad APM suite. Here’s where the difference shows.
Native Playwright runtime
Monitoring as code
Local run and debug
Command line interface
API monitoring
Heartbeat monitoring
Status pages
Pricing model
● Full support·— Limited·✕ Not available
Where Datadog leads: full-stack APM and trace correlation, native mobile app testing, and built-in incident management and on-call. If those matter more than code-first synthetics, Datadog fits. If synthetic monitoring is the job, Checkly is built for it.
Monitor everything, not just what fits the budget
Datadog meters every test type on its own counter, so teams dial back frequency and coverage to keep the bill down. Checkly is one predictable plan, at a fraction of the per-run rate. Run every critical flow as often as it needs.
One plan. One run pool.
Up to 3.6× cheaper per run
A separate meter for each.
Costs compound with every location and frequency bump.
“There are some tests we schedule every 10 minutes, or even every hour, because it was too expensive to run them every five minutes in Datadog.”
From your IDE to production in three commands
Write checks in TypeScript, run them in CI, deploy them to production. The same workflow as the rest of your code, with the same tools.
Code your monitoring checks
Your app code lives in the repository. Your monitoring should too. Reuse the Playwright tests you already write and turn them into always-on production monitors. No duplication, no drift.
Test and verify locally or in CI
Run checks from your local machine or on every deploy in CI. They execute on Checkly’s global infrastructure, exactly as they will in production. Datadog runs cloud-only, so this step has no local equivalent.
Deploy for 24/7 monitoring
Deploy and version your monitoring from the command line, right alongside your application deploys. One command puts it live across 20+ locations.
Need more proof? Listen to the engineers
“The Checkly CLI has enhanced our engineering team’s ability to quickly build, validate, and deploy an entire suite of checks from their local development environment.”
“We’ve been using Checkly for months and it’s been phenomenal. Super easy to set up, works flawlessly and intuitively. The team is super receptive and quick to help.”
“Checkly is a fabulous developer tool. The flexible features and developer-friendly API made the integration super easy, and their support is friendly and knowledgeable.”
“Checkly is incredible: it combines Pingdom, Ghost Inspector, and Assertible in the same app, and the insights are much more detailed.”
“A real advantage Checkly gives us is that we’re not waiting for users to report an issue, or waiting on a staff member to file a ticket. Checkly gives us real-time feedback on what is and isn’t working.”
Coming from Datadog?
See the Migrator in action. We'll show you how your Datadog Synthetics tests become version-controlled Checkly monitors, and exactly what you'll save.
We map your Datadog Synthetics tests
Show us your existing browser and API tests. We translate them into Checkly constructs and native Playwright specs that live in your repo.
You see the cost delta before you commit
We take your current run volume, locations, and frequency, and put a real number next to what the same coverage costs on Checkly.
Your first monitors go live with us
A guided session with our team to get checks running in CI and deployed to production, not a slide deck.