Comparison
Script-Free Monitoring or Playwright Tests? Choose Your Approach.
Checkly is capable synthetic monitoring built on Playwright. You write browser test scripts that simulate user flows — login, checkout, form submission. Sitewatch takes a different approach: paste your URLs, and every resource on your pages is validated automatically. No scripts to write. No tests to maintain. Two tools, two philosophies.
- Zero scripts — Sitewatch auto-discovers and validates every asset
- No test maintenance — checks adapt as your pages change
- Free for 1 site. Flat pricing, no per-check billing.
The tests passed. The page is still broken.
Plain-English summary
A new script was added to the page three sprints ago and nobody wrote a test for it. It is now missing, and every scripted check still passes because none of them look at it.
Checkly
All checks passing
Sitewatch
Critical incident
01Feature comparison
Scripted synthetic monitoring vs script-free website monitoring
| Scenario | Checkly | Sitewatch |
|---|---|---|
| Setup approach | Write Playwright test scripts | Paste URLs — auto-discovery |
| Scripting required | Yes — JavaScript or TypeScript | No |
| Test maintenance | Scripts break when UI changes | Auto-adapts to page changes |
| Multi-step user flows | Yes (login, checkout, etc.) | No — resource-level validation |
| Asset validation | Only if you script it | Every linked JS, CSS, image, font |
| Confirms each file is the kind of file it claims to be | Only if you assert it | Automatic on every check |
| Deploy hooks | Yes (CLI + CI) | Yes (Vercel, Netlify, GitHub Actions) |
| Root cause diagnosis | Test failure message | Typed incidents with fix playbooks |
| Stack detection | No | 23+ platforms auto-detected |
| Status pages | Yes | Branded + password-protected |
| Monitoring as Code | Yes (Terraform, Pulumi) | No — UI-driven |
| API monitoring | Yes (API checks) | Yes |
| Protection coverage scoring | No | Yes — names the pages you are not monitoring |
| Content / keyword loss detection | Only if you script it | Yes — regression-only, up to 5 phrases per page |
| Robots.txt regression detection | No | Yes — catches an accidental Disallow: / |
| DNS (MX/CNAME) change detection | No | Yes — unique to Sitewatch |
| Sitemap URL health | No | Yes — weekly broken-URL audit |
| Target audience | Developers who write tests | Agencies and dev teams |
| Starting price | ~$30/mo (scales with checks) | Free (1 site) / $19/mo Pro ($190/yr annual) |
Setup approach
- Checkly:
- Write Playwright test scripts
- Sitewatch:
- Paste URLs — auto-discovery
Scripting required
- Checkly:
- Yes — JavaScript or TypeScript
- Sitewatch:
- No
Test maintenance
- Checkly:
- Scripts break when UI changes
- Sitewatch:
- Auto-adapts to page changes
Multi-step user flows
- Checkly:
- Yes (login, checkout, etc.)
- Sitewatch:
- No — resource-level validation
Asset validation
- Checkly:
- Only if you script it
- Sitewatch:
- Every linked JS, CSS, image, font
Confirms each file is the kind of file it claims to be
- Checkly:
- Only if you assert it
- Sitewatch:
- Automatic on every check
Deploy hooks
- Checkly:
- Yes (CLI + CI)
- Sitewatch:
- Yes (Vercel, Netlify, GitHub Actions)
Root cause diagnosis
- Checkly:
- Test failure message
- Sitewatch:
- Typed incidents with fix playbooks
Stack detection
- Checkly:
- No
- Sitewatch:
- 23+ platforms auto-detected
Status pages
- Checkly:
- Yes
- Sitewatch:
- Branded + password-protected
Monitoring as Code
- Checkly:
- Yes (Terraform, Pulumi)
- Sitewatch:
- No — UI-driven
API monitoring
- Checkly:
- Yes (API checks)
- Sitewatch:
- Yes
Protection coverage scoring
- Checkly:
- No
- Sitewatch:
- Yes — names the pages you are not monitoring
Content / keyword loss detection
- Checkly:
- Only if you script it
- Sitewatch:
- Yes — regression-only, up to 5 phrases per page
Robots.txt regression detection
- Checkly:
- No
- Sitewatch:
- Yes — catches an accidental Disallow: /
DNS (MX/CNAME) change detection
- Checkly:
- No
- Sitewatch:
- Yes — unique to Sitewatch
Sitemap URL health
- Checkly:
- No
- Sitewatch:
- Yes — weekly broken-URL audit
Target audience
- Checkly:
- Developers who write tests
- Sitewatch:
- Agencies and dev teams
Starting price
- Checkly:
- ~$30/mo (scales with checks)
- Sitewatch:
- Free (1 site) / $19/mo Pro ($190/yr annual)
02The scripting blind spot
Failures you'd have to explicitly script for — or miss entirely
New asset not covered by tests
CriticalYour team adds a new script dependency. Nobody updates the Playwright tests. The script 404s after the next deploy. Your tests pass because they never checked it.
Stylesheet arrives as the wrong kind of file
CriticalA CDN misconfiguration serves your stylesheet as text/html. Browsers block it. Unless someone wrote an assertion for that exact stylesheet, this goes undetected.
Image CDN failure
ModerateYour image optimization service fails. Hero images and product photos disappear. Playwright tests that don't check every image resource won't catch it.
Test maintenance burden
ModerateA design change moves a button. A form field gets renamed. Your test fails — not because the site is broken, but because the test is stale. Maintenance overhead grows with every test.
03Two shapes of coverage
A script checks what you told it. A page check reads what is there.
Scripted coverage is exactly as wide as the scripts.
Checkly verifies the journeys you described — and does it properly. The gap opens when the page gains something nobody wrote a step for. A widget added three sprints ago is not in any test, so when it breaks every check still passes.
Reading the page needs nobody to remember.
Sitewatch does not know or care what your journeys are. It opens the page, finds everything it depends on, and checks each one — including whatever was added last week without a test.
04An honest answer
Which should you actually choose?
Checkly is a genuinely capable tool and it reaches places we deliberately do not. This is not a case of one being better.
If you need…
Recommendation
Sitewatch probably isn't for you if…
- You need to verify a multi-step journey completes — that is scripted synthetic monitoring, and Checkly is the right tool.
- You have developers who are happy to write and maintain Playwright scripts, and that coverage is what you are buying.
- You want your monitoring defined as code and reviewed in pull requests.
- Your critical paths are API contracts rather than rendered pages.
Website monitoring without the scripting overhead
Free plan. 1 site. No Playwright required.
05Common misconceptions
What the comparison gets wrong.
Myth — Sitewatch is a cheaper Checkly.
Reality — It is a different approach, not a discount version. Checkly verifies journeys you describe; Sitewatch verifies everything the page actually loads. Neither is a subset of the other.
Myth — Scripted tests already cover the page.
Reality — They cover what the script looks at. The classic failure is a resource added after the tests were written — it breaks, and every test still passes.
Myth — You should only run one of them.
Reality — The strongest setup is often both: Checkly proves checkout completes, Sitewatch catches the missing file that makes the checkout page load without a payment form.
Myth — Checkly is better at flows.
Reality — Yes. If what you need is a scripted multi-step journey, we do not do that, and we are not going to pretend a resource check is the same thing.
Comparison FAQ
Only if your monitoring needs don't require scripted user flows. Checkly lets you simulate multi-step interactions (login, fill form, click checkout). Sitewatch validates every resource on a page without scripts. If you need both flow verification and asset validation, run them together.
For teams that need website monitoring without scripting, yes. If your monitoring today is "paste URLs and tell me if something breaks," Sitewatch is built for that. If your monitoring requires custom Playwright scripts for complex user flows, Checkly is the better fit.
No. Checkly supports Terraform and Pulumi for infrastructure-as-code workflows. Sitewatch is UI-driven — you configure monitoring through the dashboard. For developer-led teams that want everything in code, Checkly has the edge. For teams that want fast setup without code, Sitewatch is simpler.
Checkly pricing starts around $30/month and scales with check volume. More checks and more locations mean higher costs. Sitewatch is flat: free for 1 site, $9/month for 25 sites, $19/month for 100 sites. Annual billing saves 2 months ($90/yr Starter, $190/yr Pro). No per-check billing, no usage surprises.
Sitewatch validates the resources that power those flows — scripts, stylesheets, and dependencies. It does not simulate user interactions like clicking buttons or filling forms. If the Stripe.js bundle 404s, Sitewatch catches it. If you need to verify the full checkout flow completes, use Checkly or a similar scripted tool.
07Explore more
Live monitoring
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Real sites we check every few minutes for the failures uptime tools miss — the pages that stay “up” while something quietly breaks.