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VERDICT

Should I use Checkly?

The active reliability layer for developers — monitoring as code - checklyhq.com

Depends. Buy if your engineers will maintain Playwright-based checks and want code-first synthetic monitoring cheaper than Datadog. Skip if you need no-code dashboards, self-hosting, or all-in-one observability.

Confidence

Medium. Based on 20+ public sources; verbatim user reviews limited (G2 n=33).

Ratings

  • Value for money
  • Ease of use
  • Feature depth
  • Support qualityNo support evidence in sources
  • Security posture

Pricing

From $40/month

Entry

ModelNot disclosed
Monthly feesNot disclosed
HardwareNot disclosed

Best for

  • Dev-led engineering teams
  • API-heavy products needing authenticated checks
  • Teams migrating off Datadog
  • CI/CD-integrated E2E testing

Not for

  • Non-technical teams wanting no-code dashboards
  • Anyone needing self-hosted monitoring
  • Orgs wanting metrics, logs, and traces in one tool
  • Solo hobby sites — cheap uptime pings suffice

Gotchas - check before you buy

medium

Third-party listings say $40/month entry; actual bills scale with check frequency and locations.

medium

Third-party pricing breakdowns are estimates, not official figures — confirm before budgeting.

medium

No self-hosting; your checks and monitoring data live in Checkly's cloud.

low

Code-first setup means engineers must maintain checks long-term.

Pros and cons

Pros

  • Rated 4.6/5 on G2 across 33 reviews.
  • Monitoring as code: Playwright browser checks plus API monitoring.
  • Markets as cheaper Datadog alternative; claims 30-50% savings.
  • TrueLayer reports 60% less effort on API monitoring.
  • $20M raised in 2024; launched OpenTelemetry-powered monitoring.

Cons

  • Cloud-only; users seek self-hosted options.
  • Requires writing code; competitors pitch no-code alternatives.
  • Affected by 2026 Metabase zero-day SQL injection.
  • Disclosed a security incident in 2019.
  • Small G2 review base: 33 reviews.

Sources & method

Analyzed 9/30/2026 - 14 sources - security pages and trust center; disclosed a 2019 incident; named among victims of the 2026 Metabase zero-day.

official x6review x5security x2news x1
  • Affected by Metabase CVE-2026-72898 (2026), ChecklyHQ was reported among confirmed victims of an unauthenticated Metabase SQL injection zero-day exploited in the wild; Checkly disclosed it was affected.
  • 2019 security incident, Checkly published a public post-mortem of a security incident in October 2019.

Key stats

  • Value for money: 4/5

    Rating

  • From $40/month

    Starting price

  • 14

    Sources

  • Analyzed

  • Value for money: 4/5. Claims 30-50% savings vs Datadog
  • Ease of use: 3/5. Code-first setup; needs Playwright skills
  • Feature depth: 4/5. Playwright checks, API monitoring, OTel, visual regression
  • Support quality. No support evidence in sources
  • Security posture: 3/5. Public trust center; 2019 incident; 2026 Metabase CVE
  • 4.6/5 G2 rating 33 reviews
  • $40/mo Starting price per third-party listing; verify on pricing page
  • $20M Funding 2024 round led by Balderton Capital
  • 30-50% Claimed savings vs. current monitoring spend (Checkly claim)

Pricing

Entry

From $40/month

  • Per third-party listing; verify on Checkly's pricing page
  • Usage-based: number of checks, frequency, locations

Security

security pages and trust center; disclosed a 2019 incident; named among victims of the 2026 Metabase zero-day.

  • Affected by Metabase CVE-2026-72898 (2026)ChecklyHQ was reported among confirmed victims of an unauthenticated Metabase SQL injection zero-day exploited in the wild; Checkly disclosed it was affected.⁹
  • 2019 security incidentCheckly published a public post-mortem of a security incident in October 2019.10

What users say

Developers on Reddit recommend it for API and browser monitoring while some ask for self-hosted or no-code alternatives.

“Maybe have a look at https://checklyhq.com.”
Reddit, r/devops
“Is anyone aware of self-hosted version of https...”
Reddit, r/selfhosted
“I'm a single guy trying to improve reliability and ...”
Reddit, r/sre

Companies that use it

  • LinkedIn13
  • TrueLayer12
  • Frontegg
  • Yext¹
Full analysis

Based on 20+ public sources; verbatim user reviews limited (G2 n=33).

Great fit for dev teams wanting code-first API/browser monitoring; wrong for no-code, self-hosted, or all-in-one needs.

Methodology

Based on 20+ public sources; verbatim user reviews limited (G2 n=33).

Sources

  1. Checkly — The active reliability layer for developerschecklyhq.com
    official
  2. Checkly Pricing Planschecklyhq.com
    official
  3. Switch to Checkly — save 30-50%checklyhq.com
    official
  4. Checkly on G2 — 4.6 stars, 33 reviewsg2.com
    review
  5. Checkly review, pricing and rankings — Listerlister.ai
    review
  6. Checkly Pricing Decoded — Autonomagetautonoma.com
    review
  7. Reddit: self-hosted alternative to Checklyreddit.com
    review
  8. Reddit: synthetic transaction monitoring threadreddit.com
    review
  9. Metabase SQLi exploit — ChecklyHQ among affectedcsoonline.com
    security
  10. Checkly security incident post-mortem (2019)checklyhq.com
    security
  11. Checkly security practiceschecklyhq.com
    official
  12. TrueLayer case study — 60% less effortchecklyhq.com
    official
  13. LinkedIn monitoring case studychecklyhq.com
    official
  14. Checkly raises $20M from Baldertonprweb.com
    news

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