Comparison
Sitewatch vs Oh Dear
Oh Dear is a solid uptime and SSL monitor — and it has mixed content detection. But it doesn't monitor security headers, doesn't track when a deployment removes a header that was previously present, and doesn't catch the failures that leave a page loading but broken — missing scripts, files served as the wrong kind of file, or an expired domain. Sitewatch covers all of it — and is the only monitoring tool with security header regression alerts.
- Security header monitoring + regression alerts — unique to Sitewatch, no other tool tracks header disappearance
- Domain expiry monitoring — Sitewatch watches registrations. Oh Dear does not.
- Catches the broken-page failures Oh Dear misses — missing scripts, files of the wrong kind
A security header disappeared in the last deploy.
Plain-English summary
The page loads and every asset resolves. A protective header that was present last week is now gone — a silent regression no availability check will ever surface.
Oh Dear
All checks passed
Sitewatch
Critical incident
01Feature comparison
What each tool monitors
| Scenario | Oh Dear | Sitewatch |
|---|---|---|
| HTTP uptime monitoring | Yes | Yes |
| SSL certificate expiry | Yes — 30-day warning | Yes — 30-day warning |
| SSL chain validation | Yes | Yes |
| TLS protocol checks | Yes | Yes |
| Domain expiry monitoring | No | Yes — automatic via RDAP |
| JS/CSS bundle validation | No | Yes — every linked asset |
| Confirms each file is the kind of file it claims to be | No | Yes |
| Asset fingerprinting | No | Yes — hash-based change detection |
| Deploy hook triggers | No | Yes — Vercel, Netlify, GitHub Actions |
| Root cause diagnosis | Basic | Automatic classification + fix playbooks |
| Broken link monitoring | Yes | Yes |
| Cron job monitoring | Yes | No |
| Scheduled task alerts | Yes | No |
| Mixed content detection | Yes | Yes |
| Security header monitoring | No | Yes — 5 headers on every check |
| Security header regression alerts | No | Yes — unique to Sitewatch |
| Page weight monitoring | No | Yes — alerts at 5MB total / 2MB per asset |
| Third-party dependency health | No | Yes — per-domain outage detection |
| Performance baseline regression | Basic — absolute threshold only | Yes — rolling p95 per site, unique to Sitewatch |
| Protection coverage scoring | No | Yes — names the pages you are not monitoring |
| Content / keyword loss detection | No | 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 |
| Free plan | No | Yes — 1 site |
HTTP uptime monitoring
- Oh Dear:
- Yes
- Sitewatch:
- Yes
SSL certificate expiry
- Oh Dear:
- Yes — 30-day warning
- Sitewatch:
- Yes — 30-day warning
SSL chain validation
- Oh Dear:
- Yes
- Sitewatch:
- Yes
TLS protocol checks
- Oh Dear:
- Yes
- Sitewatch:
- Yes
Domain expiry monitoring
- Oh Dear:
- No
- Sitewatch:
- Yes — automatic via RDAP
JS/CSS bundle validation
- Oh Dear:
- No
- Sitewatch:
- Yes — every linked asset
Confirms each file is the kind of file it claims to be
- Oh Dear:
- No
- Sitewatch:
- Yes
Asset fingerprinting
- Oh Dear:
- No
- Sitewatch:
- Yes — hash-based change detection
Deploy hook triggers
- Oh Dear:
- No
- Sitewatch:
- Yes — Vercel, Netlify, GitHub Actions
Root cause diagnosis
- Oh Dear:
- Basic
- Sitewatch:
- Automatic classification + fix playbooks
Broken link monitoring
- Oh Dear:
- Yes
- Sitewatch:
- Yes
Cron job monitoring
- Oh Dear:
- Yes
- Sitewatch:
- No
Scheduled task alerts
- Oh Dear:
- Yes
- Sitewatch:
- No
Mixed content detection
- Oh Dear:
- Yes
- Sitewatch:
- Yes
Security header monitoring
- Oh Dear:
- No
- Sitewatch:
- Yes — 5 headers on every check
Security header regression alerts
- Oh Dear:
- No
- Sitewatch:
- Yes — unique to Sitewatch
Page weight monitoring
- Oh Dear:
- No
- Sitewatch:
- Yes — alerts at 5MB total / 2MB per asset
Third-party dependency health
- Oh Dear:
- No
- Sitewatch:
- Yes — per-domain outage detection
Performance baseline regression
- Oh Dear:
- Basic — absolute threshold only
- Sitewatch:
- Yes — rolling p95 per site, unique to Sitewatch
Protection coverage scoring
- Oh Dear:
- No
- Sitewatch:
- Yes — names the pages you are not monitoring
Content / keyword loss detection
- Oh Dear:
- No
- Sitewatch:
- Yes — regression-only, up to 5 phrases per page
Robots.txt regression detection
- Oh Dear:
- No
- Sitewatch:
- Yes — catches an accidental Disallow: /
DNS (MX/CNAME) change detection
- Oh Dear:
- No
- Sitewatch:
- Yes — unique to Sitewatch
Sitemap URL health
- Oh Dear:
- No
- Sitewatch:
- Yes — weekly broken-URL audit
Free plan
- Oh Dear:
- No
- Sitewatch:
- Yes — 1 site
02The blind spots
Real failures Oh Dear won't catch
Broken JS bundle after deploy
CriticalYour deploy changes the main script filename. The old cached copy expires. Oh Dear sees a healthy answer. Your checkout form doesn't render.
Expired client domain
CriticalOh Dear watches SSL. It doesn't watch domain registrations. A client domain lapses — site disappears, email stops, DNS stops. Oh Dear never fires an alert.
Stylesheet arrives as the wrong kind of file
CriticalA CSS file returns text/html. The page loads completely unstyled. Oh Dear sees a healthy answer — it isn't checking whether what came back is the right kind of file.
CDN serving wrong asset type
ModerateYour CDN edge returns an error page for a JS bundle but with a 200 status. Oh Dear sees a healthy answer. Sitewatch catches it by checking what actually came back for every file.
03Where Sitewatch matches Oh Dear
SSL monitoring depth — now at full parity
Certificate expiry monitoring
30-day warning, critical at 14 days, critical incident on expiry. Same coverage as Oh Dear.
Certificate chain validation
Broken intermediate certificates caught automatically. Same depth as Oh Dear.
TLS protocol and cipher checks
Deprecated TLS 1.0/1.1 and weak ciphers flagged. Matches Oh Dear's configuration scanning.
04The one Oh Dear misses
A header that quietly disappeared is worse than one you never set.
Nobody goes looking for protection that used to be there.
Oh Dear checks a great deal — uptime, certificates, broken links, mixed content. What no availability check surfaces is a protective header that was present last month and vanished in a deploy. Nothing breaks, nothing errors, and nobody notices, because the only evidence is the difference from last week.
05An honest answer
Which should you actually choose?
Oh Dear is the closest thing we have to a real peer — it checks far more than a ping, and on several rows the honest answer is "either".
If you need…
Recommendation
Sitewatch probably isn't for you if…
- You need cron and scheduled-task monitoring, which Oh Dear does and we do not.
- You are a Laravel shop and the first-party package is worth more to you than header regression alerts.
- You already have coverage you trust and the extra detection rules are not worth a migration.
- You have already tuned Oh Dear around your stack and the switching cost outweighs the extra rules.
Security headers. Regression alerts. Domain expiry. Broken pages covered.
If you're evaluating Oh Dear, here's why agencies are switching to Sitewatch. Free plan available. No credit card required.
06Common misconceptions
What the comparison gets wrong.
Myth — Oh Dear is just another ping tool.
Reality — It is not, and we will not claim it is. Oh Dear checks broken links, mixed content and certificates properly. The difference is narrower here than on any other comparison page.
Myth — Security headers are a nice-to-have.
Reality — The regression is the risk. A header that was protecting you last month and silently vanished in a deploy is worse than one you never set, because nobody is looking for it.
Myth — Switching means losing the checks you already rely on.
Reality — It does not. Uptime, certificates, broken links and mixed content are all covered here too — the migration is additive on those rows.
Myth — Oh Dear is a good product.
Reality — Yes. If the rows above where we win do not matter to you, staying put is a perfectly reasonable decision.
Comparison FAQ
For most agency use cases, yes. Sitewatch covers everything Oh Dear does on SSL and uptime, adds domain expiry monitoring, and covers the broken-page failures Oh Dear was never designed to catch. The one area where Oh Dear has no Sitewatch equivalent is cron job and scheduled task monitoring — if that's a core use case, you'd need to evaluate both.
Yes. Sitewatch monitors SSL certificate expiry (30-day warning, critical at 14 days), validates the full certificate chain, detects deprecated TLS 1.0 and 1.1 protocols, and flags weak cipher suites — RC4, 3DES, export-grade, and NULL ciphers. This matches Oh Dear's SSL depth.
Oh Dear does not monitor domain registration expiry. Sitewatch does — automatically via RDAP for every monitored site. 30-day early warning, critical at 7 days. No WHOIS tools, no API keys, no configuration.
Oh Dear charges per site with no free plan. Sitewatch offers a free plan for 1 site, Starter at $9/mo for 25 sites, and Pro at $19/mo for 100 sites. Flat pricing with no per-seat fees.
08Explore more
Live monitoring
Sitewatch is watching these sites right now
Real sites we check every few minutes for the failures uptime tools miss — the pages that stay “up” while something quietly breaks.