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 up-but-broken failures like broken JS bundles, MIME mismatches, or domain expiry. 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.
- Up-but-broken detection — broken assets, MIME errors, JS bundle failures Oh Dear misses
Feature comparison
What each tool monitors
| Feature | 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 |
| MIME type verification | 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 |
| Free plan | No | Yes — 1 site |
HTTP uptime monitoring
SSL certificate expiry
SSL chain validation
TLS protocol checks
Domain expiry monitoring
JS/CSS bundle validation
MIME type verification
Asset fingerprinting
Deploy hook triggers
Root cause diagnosis
Broken link monitoring
Cron job monitoring
Scheduled task alerts
Mixed content detection
Security header monitoring
Security header regression alerts
Free plan
The blind spots
Real failures Oh Dear won't catch
Broken JS bundle after deploy
CriticalYour deploy changes the JS bundle hash. Old cache expires. Oh Dear sees a 200 response. 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.
MIME mismatch on stylesheet
CriticalA CSS file returns text/html. The page loads completely unstyled. Oh Dear sees a 200 OK — it's not checking whether the response content is correct.
CDN serving wrong asset type
ModerateYour CDN edge returns an error page for a JS bundle but with a 200 status. Oh Dear sees the 200. Sitewatch catches it by validating the MIME type and content of every asset.
Where 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.
Where Sitewatch goes further
Four things Oh Dear can't do
Security header regression alerts
Oh Dear has no security header monitoring. SiteWatch monitors 5 critical headers on every check and — uniquely — alerts you when a deployment removes a header that was previously present. No other monitoring tool does this.
Domain expiry monitoring
SiteWatch automatically tracks domain registration expiry via RDAP for every monitored site. Oh Dear does not monitor domains. Add a site once — domain monitoring starts immediately.
Up-but-broken detection
Oh Dear checks if your site is up. SiteWatch checks if it works. Broken JS bundles, MIME mismatches, missing stylesheets, and asset failures are invisible to uptime tools — including Oh Dear.
Deploy verification
SiteWatch integrates with Vercel, Netlify, and GitHub Actions to trigger an automatic check after every deploy. Every ship gets a pass/fail verdict with a before/after diff.
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 "up-but-broken" category that Oh Dear was never designed for. 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.
Security headers. Regression alerts. Domain expiry. Up-but-broken covered.
If you're evaluating Oh Dear, here's why agencies are switching to SiteWatch. Free plan available. No credit card required.