Did your uptime monitoring bill just jump 300%? You're not alone.
In July 2025, one of the most popular monitoring services raised prices from $8/month to $34/month — a 425% increase. Thousands of developers started asking: "Am I paying too much for something this simple?"
Here are 5 signs your uptime monitor is overpriced, and what you can do about it.
1. You're Paying $30+/Month for Basic HTTP Checks
Let's be real: uptime monitoring is not complex technology. A service pings your URL, checks the response code, and alerts you if something's wrong.
Yes, there's infrastructure involved. Yes, you want reliability. But $30-40/month for HTTP checks? That's enterprise pricing for a commodity service.
What it should cost: $8-15/month for a solid paid tier with 1-minute checks and SMS alerts.
2. You're Locked Into Annual Billing for a "Discount"
Classic SaaS trick: show a high monthly price, then offer 20-40% off if you pay annually.
The problem? You're now committed for 12 months. If the service degrades, raises prices again, or you find something better — too bad.
What to look for: Services that offer fair monthly pricing without punishing you for flexibility.
3. SMS Alerts Cost Extra
This one drives me crazy. You're paying for a monitoring service. The entire point is to alert you when something breaks. But SMS costs extra?
"But SMS costs us money!" Sure, fractions of a cent per message. If you're charging $30/month, SMS should be table stakes.
What to look for: SMS alerts included in the base price, not a per-message add-on.
4. You're Paying Per Team Member
Another pricing trick: charge per seat. Suddenly your $15/month plan becomes $60/month because you have 4 people who need access.
Uptime monitoring isn't a collaboration tool. It's infrastructure. Everyone on the team should be able to see if the site is down.
What to look for: Unlimited team members, or at least generous seat limits on base plans.
5. The Free Tier Disappeared (Or Got Gutted)
Many services hook you with a free tier, then slowly remove features or add restrictions until it's unusable.
- Check intervals go from 1 minute to 5 minutes to 15 minutes
- Monitor limits drop from 50 to 10 to 5
- Integrations get paywalled
- "Free" now requires a credit card
If the free tier you signed up for no longer exists, that's a red flag about how the company treats customers.
What $9/Month Should Actually Get You
Here's a reasonable baseline for a paid monitoring plan:
| Feature | Should Be Included |
|---|---|
| Monitors | Unlimited (or 50+) |
| Check interval | 1 minute |
| SMS alerts | ✅ Yes |
| Email alerts | ✅ Yes |
| Slack/Discord | ✅ Yes |
| Status pages | ✅ Yes |
| Team members | Unlimited |
| Annual lock-in required | ❌ No |
If you're paying more than $15/month and not getting all of this, you're overpaying.
The Alternative
I'm biased — I work on OwlPulse — but we built it specifically because of the 2025 price hikes.
- $9/month for unlimited monitors
- 1-minute checks
- SMS included (not an add-on)
- No annual commitment required
- Free tier with 5 monitors, no credit card
TL;DR
If you're experiencing any of these, it's time to shop around:
- Paying $30+/month for basic checks
- Forced into annual billing
- SMS alerts cost extra
- Per-seat pricing
- Gutted free tier
Uptime monitoring is a commodity. Don't let legacy pricing convince you otherwise.
What are you currently paying for monitoring? Curious to hear if others are seeing the same price creep.
Top comments (0)