Synthetic Monitoring Software

Modern code-first synthetic monitoring built on Playwright.

Checkly is the leading code-first synthetic monitoring platform, built around Playwright (now the dominant browser automation framework) and a monitoring-as-code workflow via CLI, Terraform, and GitHub Actions. The product is opinionated and engineering-led, synthetic checks are versioned in Git alongside application code, reviewed in pull requests, and deployed through CI pipelines, rather than authored in a vendor-hosted point-and-click recorder. Closed a $20M Series A in 2022 (Accel, CRV, others). The trade-offs: not a full observability platform (no APM, no logs, no infrastructure monitoring), pricing scales with check runs (high-frequency global checks add up fast), and the Playwright learning curve excludes non-engineering teams used to recorder UIs.

Premium synthetic monitoring inside the Datadog observability platform.

Datadog Synthetic Monitoring is the synthetics module of the broader Datadog observability platform (NASDAQ:DDOG, public since 2019). The product covers API checks, browser checks, mobile app checks, and multistep tests, with tight integration to Datadog APM, RUM, and logs (a failed synthetic check can deep-link directly into the underlying trace). The trade-offs: premium per-run pricing on top of an already-premium platform ($5 per 10K API test runs, $12 per 1K browser test runs), best-fit narrowed to organizations already buying Datadog (standalone Datadog Synthetics rarely makes sense), and customer cost-predictability complaints are the loudest in the category.

Legacy uptime monitoring brand inside SolarWinds.

Pingdom is the recognizable Swedish-founded uptime monitoring brand acquired by SolarWinds in 2014 (now NYSE:SWI). The product covers uptime checks, transaction monitoring, page-speed checks, and public-facing status pages, with a simple no-code authoring model that has historically been the easiest on-ramp in the category. The trade-offs: the product has seen relatively limited investment since the SolarWinds acquisition compared to modern entrants, the SUNBURST supply-chain incident in December 2020 (Russian SVR backdoored SolarWinds Orion; Pingdom infrastructure was reportedly not directly impacted but the parent-company brand damage was severe) continues to weigh on enterprise procurement, and feature breadth has fallen behind Datadog Synthetics and Checkly.

SmartBear-owned synthetic monitoring for API and web.

AlertSite is the synthetic monitoring product owned by SmartBear (the same parent behind SoapUI, ReadyAPI, TestComplete, and Zephyr). The product covers API monitoring, web transaction monitoring, and SLA reporting, with a heritage in the SoapUI API testing community. The trade-offs: brand momentum has slowed (SmartBear has invested more heavily in BitBar and Zephyr), the product feels dated compared to Datadog and Checkly, and SmartBear is owned by Francisco Partners (PE) which adds the usual post-acquisition product-investment concerns.

Enterprise digital-experience monitoring with the deepest global node footprint.

Catchpoint is the enterprise digital-experience monitoring leader, founded in 2008 by former DoubleClick engineers, with the deepest global vantage-point footprint in the category (300+ nodes across backbone, broadband, wireless, and last-mile). The product covers synthetic monitoring, RUM, network-path analysis (BGP, DNS, CDN), and endpoint monitoring. Fortune 500 default for global SaaS, CDN providers, and content-delivery-sensitive organizations. The trade-offs: pricing opaque and enterprise-only, implementation requires professional services, and the platform is over-built for organizations under 500 employees.

Mid-market synthetic monitoring inside the ITRS Group portfolio.

Uptrends is the Dutch-founded synthetic monitoring product acquired by ITRS Group (UK-based capital markets and IT monitoring vendor, owned by PE firm Montagu) in 2021. The product covers uptime monitoring, web application monitoring, API monitoring, transaction monitoring, and Real User Monitoring, with a mid-market price point and a recorder-led authoring model. The trade-offs: brand visibility outside the Benelux is modest, ITRS focus is split across capital-markets monitoring (Geneos) and the Uptrends acquisition is one of several portfolio assets, and modern engineering teams gravitate to Checkly for code-first authoring.

Zoho all-in-one IT monitoring with synthetic checks bundled in.

Site24x7 is the IT monitoring suite from Zoho (large privately held Indian software vendor founded 1996, also behind Zoho CRM, Zoho One, ManageEngine), launched 2006. The product bundles synthetic monitoring (website, API, transaction, real browser) with server monitoring, network monitoring, application performance monitoring, log management, and cloud monitoring inside a single subscription. The trade-offs: best-fit narrowed to SMB and mid-market wanting one tool for everything (the product is broad rather than deep in any single area), the UI feels dated, and enterprise-grade buyers consistently prefer category-specific best-of-breed tools.

AI-driven enterprise synthetic monitoring inside the Dynatrace platform.

Dynatrace Synthetic Monitoring (NYSE:DT, public since 2019) is the synthetics module of the Dynatrace observability platform. The product covers HTTP monitors, browser monitors, and multistep tests, with tight integration to Davis AI (root-cause analysis on synthetic failures across the broader Dynatrace deployment) and OneAgent auto-instrumentation. The trade-offs: pricing opaque and enterprise-only, the product is over-built for organizations under 500 employees, and standalone Dynatrace Synthetics (without the broader platform) rarely makes commercial sense.

Cisco-owned network-path and BGP-aware synthetic monitoring.

ThousandEyes was founded in 2010 by Mohit Lad and Ricardo Oliveira (former UCLA researchers) and acquired by Cisco in May 2020 for approximately $1B. The product is the leader in network-path visibility (BGP, DNS, CDN, last-mile), with synthetic monitoring as one capability inside a broader network-intelligence platform. Post-acquisition, ThousandEyes has been integrated into Cisco AppDynamics (the broader Cisco observability fabric) and into the Cisco Catalyst Center for enterprise networking. The trade-offs: synthetic monitoring is not the primary use case (network-path visibility is), pricing opaque and enterprise-only, and Cisco-anchored procurement is the path of least resistance (non-Cisco shops sometimes find the integration friction high).

Value-tier synthetic monitoring bundled in New Relic observability.

New Relic Synthetics is the synthetic monitoring module inside the New Relic observability platform. New Relic was taken private in November 2023 by Francisco Partners and TPG Capital for approximately $6.5B, ending its public-company tenure (NYSE:NEWR since 2014). Synthetics is bundled in the platform alongside APM, infrastructure, logs, and browser monitoring, priced via the broader ingestion-based model ($0.30/GB Standard, $0.55/GB Data Plus). The trade-offs: synthetics is not the primary product (APM is), PE-driven product roadmap changes since the take-private have created customer concerns, and AI features lag Datadog Watchdog and Dynatrace Davis.