ScaledPapers vs Pingdom
Pingdom, owned by SolarWinds, is one of the oldest names in uptime monitoring: checks from 100+ global locations, transaction and page-speed monitoring, and real user monitoring (RUM) as a second product. Pricing is a usage slider rather than named tiers — synthetic monitoring starts around $18/month for 10 checks, and there is no free plan, only a 30-day trial.
ScaledPapers gives you the free, modern-minimal version of the same core: HTTP, DNS, and TCP checks, incidents, and a public status page, with a REST API.
At a glance
| ScaledPapers | Pingdom | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Checks + status pages | Synthetic monitoring + RUM (SolarWinds) |
| Free tier | Status pages + 5 checks + API keys, free | None — 30-day trial only |
| Entry price | Not live yet (free while in beta) | |
| Check types | HTTP/API, Website, DNS, TCP | Uptime, transaction, page speed; RUM separate |
| Check interval | 60 seconds | 1-minute recommended (docs; not on pricing page) |
| Probe regions | 5 Americas regions per check; 16-region one-shot homepage checker | 100+ locations worldwide |
| Status pages | Free: incidents, components, subscribe (email/RSS/Slack) | Public report pages included; customization on paid |
| Incident flow | Failed check → component down → incident → subscriber email | Alerts email/SMS with escalation; status pages mirror checks |
| API | api.scaledpapers.com — checks CRUD, run-now, history |
REST API + mobile apps |
Where ScaledPapers fits
You want the monitoring-and-status-page loop without a SolarWinds sales conversation. ScaledPapers is free during the pre-paid period: checks every 60 seconds, incidents that publish themselves to your status page, subscribers over email/RSS/Slack, and the Checks API. The homepage website checker — a free 16-region one-shot ping — is a quick "is it down right now?" answer with no account.
The trade-off is scale: Pingdom probes from 100+ locations and adds transaction/page-speed/RUM depth that ScaledPapers doesn't attempt. Five Americas regions per check is the current ceiling, and transaction or browser checks are not on the roadmap yet — load testing and LLM checks are.
Where Pingdom fits
Pingdom fits enterprises that need global probe coverage, transaction monitoring (multi-step checkout flows), page-speed analysis, and RUM in one SolarWinds-adjacent bill, with unlimited users on every plan. Its status reporting is SLA-oriented — shareable uptime reports and public pages backed by 13-month RUM retention.
If you only need "is my site up and what do customers see," Pingdom's slider (10 checks for ~$18/mo, no free tier) is a lot of machinery. ScaledPapers covers that case free; Pingdom covers the 100-location, multi-product case.
Notes
- Pingdom pricing (checked Sep 2026): usage-slider pricing with no named tiers — Synthetic Monitoring starts ~$18/mo ($16.50 annual) for 10 uptime checks; 50 checks ~$78/mo; RUM starts ~$18/mo for 100K pageviews. Product pages still advertise "starts at $10/mo" campaign copy. No free tier; 30-day trial.
- ScaledPapers free limits: 5 checks, 5-minute minimum interval, 1 probe region, 14 days of samples — see Account.
- Product updates are on the changelog.