Beacon: the Checkly alternative with a free tier
Checkly is synthetic monitoring as code — you write API and Playwright browser checks that run on a schedule from global locations to verify your endpoints and user flows work. Beacon is the complement (and, for many teams, the simpler primary tool): a drop-in SDK that measures your real production traffic — every actual request’s latency, status, endpoint, and consumer — rather than scripted synthetic runs. Checkly is stronger if you want deep browser/E2E checks authored in code; Beacon is stronger if you want to see what your live API is actually doing, on a free tier, with status pages and cron heartbeats included. Here’s the honest comparison.
100,000 requests per month on the free tier — no credit card to start.
Beacon vs Checkly: side by side
An honest feature-and-price comparison. ✓ = supported, ✗ = not available, ~ = partial or different approach. Competitor details verified from their site as of June 2026.
| Feature | Beacon | Checkly |
|---|---|---|
| Free tier | 100k req/mo (real-traffic analytics) | Hobby: 10 monitors, ~10k API + ~1k browser checks |
| Entry paid plan | Pro $29/mo | Starter ~$24/mo (annual) |
| Real production-traffic analytics (SDK) | ✓ | ✗ |
| Traffic, p50–p99 latency, error rates | yes (real traffic) | partial (synthetic check timings) |
| Per-endpoint & per-consumer breakdowns | ✓ | ✗ |
| Request-log explorer | ✓ | ✗ |
| Synthetic API checks | partial (uptime checks) | ✓ |
| Browser / Playwright E2E checks | ✗ | ✓ |
| Monitoring-as-code / CI workflow | ✗ | ✓ |
| Cron / heartbeat (dead-man's-switch) | ✓ | ~ |
| Public status pages | ✓ | ✓ |
| Alert channels | Email · Slack · PagerDuty · Discord · Teams · signed webhooks | Email · Slack · PagerDuty · Opsgenie · webhooks |
| SDK setup time | ~5 min | n/a (author checks in code) |
Which one is right for you?
Both are good tools. The honest answer depends on what you need most — here's who each one fits.
Beacon is the better fit if…
- You want to see real production traffic — actual request volume, p50–p99 latency, errors, and per-endpoint/consumer breakdowns — not just scheduled synthetic checks.
- You want a real free tier (100,000 req/mo) and cheap paid plans ($29 / $99) without metering browser/API check runs.
- You want a request-log explorer to jump from a metric spike straight to the requests behind it.
- You want public status pages and cron/heartbeat monitoring bundled in.
Stick with Checkly if…
- You want browser / Playwright end-to-end checks that exercise real user flows, not just API endpoints.
- You practice monitoring-as-code and want checks authored, versioned, and run in CI from many global locations.
- You want proactive synthetic testing that catches a broken endpoint before any real user hits it.
- Multi-location latency measurement of specific endpoints is a core requirement.
Frequently asked questions
How is Beacon different from Checkly?
Checkly runs synthetic API and Playwright browser checks on a schedule to verify your endpoints and flows work. Beacon measures your real production traffic via a drop-in SDK — every actual request’s latency, status, endpoint, and consumer. They’re complementary; if you can only run one and you want to know what your live API is doing, Beacon is the more direct answer.
Does Beacon do synthetic or browser checks?
Beacon has synthetic uptime checks and cron/heartbeat monitoring, but it does not do Playwright browser / end-to-end checks. If deep browser E2E monitoring is your priority, Checkly is the better fit there.
Is Beacon cheaper than Checkly?
Beacon has a 100,000 requests/month free tier and paid plans at $29 and $99/month, with no per-check metering. Checkly’s Hobby tier is free with limited check runs and its Starter plan is around $24/month billed annually; the right value depends on whether you need synthetic/browser checks or real-traffic analytics.
Try Beacon free
100,000 requests per month on the free tier — no credit card to start. Connect your first service in minutes.