Can AI replace Checkly?
The core loop is buildable, but a dependable replacement becomes a real weekend or multi-day project. For Checkly, run scheduled API and browser checks from one independent worker. The hard boundary is global browser fleet, playwright operations, alerting, ci integration, and support, plus independent infrastructure and reliable alerting.
01What it costs
Checked Aug 14, 2026 · source: checklyhq.com.
| Plan | Monthly | Billed yearly | What you get |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hobby | Free | Free | 1 user; 10 uptime monitors; 2-minute minimum interval; 1,000 browser/Playwright runs; 10,000 API runs; 7-day raw retention |
| Starter | — | $24/mo | 3 users; 50 uptime monitors; 1-minute interval; 3,000 browser runs; 25,000 API runs; 100 SMS alerts; 7-day raw retention |
| Team | — | $64/mo | 10 users; 75 uptime monitors; 30-second interval; 12,000 browser runs; 100,000 API runs; 200 SMS + 200 phone alerts; 30-day raw retention |
| Enterprise | — | — | Custom users and monitor volumes; 1-second scheduling available; 180-day raw and 25-month aggregate retention |
Hidden costs: Starter/Team charge $8 per extra block of 25 uptime monitors; browser overages are $6.50/$6.25 per 1,000 and API overages $2.60/$2.50 per 10,000; every parallel location and retry counts, and each 30 seconds of a Playwright suite consumes 1 run
02Could AI build it for you?
The core job: Run scheduled API and browser checks from one independent worker, receive bounded error or log events, alert through one channel, and publish an honest status page.
What a working version needs:
- server outside the monitored failure domain
- PostgreSQL
- optional ClickHouse
- email or webhook destination
- public HTTPS
Editorial comparison targets the Starter plan and a small independent monitoring service DIY substitute. Recheck price before merge.
03What you'd give up
- global browser fleet, Playwright operations, alerting, CI integration, and support
- global probe network
- phone and SMS delivery
- massive retention
- advanced incident response and support
People still pay for Checkly because monitoring must continue working during the exact outage it reports, which makes independent infrastructure and alert delivery the real product. The recurring cost buys probe geography, clocks, retries, deduplication, sampling, storage, paging, notification delivery, on-call rules, and its own uptime, not just the visible interface.
04Free and cheaper alternatives
Scheduled Playwright and API checks, plus an incident system you did not ask for.
oneuptime.com →05The build prompt
Paste this into an AI coding tool (such as Claude, ChatGPT, Lovable or Replit) to build your own version.
Build a personal replacement for Checkly in an empty repository. Use Go, PostgreSQL, ClickHouse, a Next.js 15 dashboard, and Docker Compose; do not offer alternative stacks. The core loop is: run scheduled API and browser checks from one independent worker, receive bounded error or log events, alert through one channel, and publish an honest status page. Make the first run work locally with one documented command. Store all user data locally by default and make export straightforward. Put secrets in .env, ship .env.example, and never commit credentials. Implement HTTP, TCP, DNS, TLS-expiry, and heartbeat checks with explicit timeout and retry policies. Run checks from one independently hosted worker and store raw results plus incident state transitions. Send deduplicated alerts to email or one webhook destination with recovery notifications. Create services, maintenance windows, incidents, subscribers, and a public status page. Add bounded event ingestion for application errors with sampling and sensitive-field scrubbing. Provide health checks, retention settings, exports, backups, and a test-alert function. Include clear empty, loading, success, and recoverable error states. Add input validation, safe filenames, and graceful handling of unavailable APIs. Write focused tests for the core transformation and one end-to-end happy path. Create a README with setup, architecture, permissions, data location, and backup steps. Do not add accounts, billing, telemetry, analytics, or a hosted control plane. Deliberately leave out a worldwide probe network. Deliberately leave out phone, SMS, and managed on-call escalation. Deliberately leave out unbounded logs, enterprise observability, and vendor-operated incident response. Finish by running the tests and listing the exact commands used.
06Open-source starting points
- Uptime Kuma: Popular open-source uptime monitoring dashboard with many check types.
App prices, verdicts, alternatives and build prompts are adapted from Can I Vibecode It? (MIT License, © 2026 Rob Hallam). Each price shows the date it was checked and its source. Prices change; confirm on the vendor's site before you decide.
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