Which one is cheaper?

Grafana Cloud is the cheaper option, starting at $19/mo vs $24/mo for Checkly.

Can I use either one for free?

Both offer free plans, so you can try each without paying. Start with whichever fits your workflow better and upgrade when you hit the limits.

Different approach here. Checkly uses hybrid pricing, while Grafana Cloud goes with usage-based. That changes the math depending on your team size and usage.

Which one is a better deal?

Depends on what you need. Checkly: Checkly sits in the mid-market sweet spot — cheaper than Datadog Synthetics or New Relic's monitoring suite, but more developer-focused and purpose-built than generic uptime tools like Pingdom. They're clearly going after DevOps-native teams who want code-driven monitoring (Playwright, Terraform) without paying enterprise APM prices. Grafana Cloud: Grafana positions itself as the accessible middle ground between DIY self-hosted Grafana (cheap but painful) and Datadog or New Relic (powerful but eye-watering). They're going after cost-conscious engineering teams who want managed infrastructure without the sticker shock of the legacy APM players.

Checkly vs Grafana Cloud Pricing (2026)

How do these two stack up on price? Here's what each one costs, what you get, and where the value sits.

	Checkly	Grafana Cloud
Starts at	$24/mo	$19/mo
Number of plans	4	3
Free plan
Free trial		—
Pricing model	hybrid	usage-based

Checkly

Official page

Hobby

$0/mo

Uptime Monitors
Maximum Frequency
Locations
Retries
Browser/Playwright Checks
API Checks
Round Robin
Email, Slack, Webhooks for Alerting
Protocol Support
Scheduling
Public Locations
Single Retry
Browser Checks
Playwright Check Suites
Browser Check / Playwright Check Suite Runs
API & Multistep Checks
API Check Runs
Automatic Retries
SSL Monitoring
Email Alerts
Slack Alerts
Webhook Alerts
SMS Alerts
Phone Alerts
Dashboards
Invocations
Automated RCA
Users
Raw data retention
Aggregated data retention
Checkly CLI
Terraform provider
Pulumi Provider
SOC 2 Type II Compliant
Multi-Factor Auth

Starter

$24/mo

Uptime Monitors
Maximum Frequency
Locations
Retries
Browser/Playwright Checks
API Checks
Agentic Checks
Round Robin
Email, Slack, SMS, Webhooks for Alerting
Protocol Support
Additional Monitors (25)
Scheduling
Public Locations
Single Retry
Browser Checks
Playwright Check Suites
Browser Check / Playwright Check Suite Runs
Additional Browser Check / Playwright Check Suite Runs
Browser Check / Playwright Check Suite Overages (1k)
API & Multistep Checks
API Check Runs
Additional API Check Runs
API Check Overages (10k)
Automatic Retries
SSL Monitoring
Additional Agentic Checks
Agentic Check Regions
Agentic Check Frequency
Email Alerts
Slack Alerts
Webhook Alerts
SMS Alerts
Phone Alerts
Custom Domain
Dashboards
Invocations
Automated RCA
Users
Raw data retention
Aggregated data retention
Checkly CLI
Terraform provider
Pulumi Provider
SOC 2 Type II Compliant
Multi-Factor Auth

Team

Popular

$64/mo

Uptime Monitors
Maximum Frequency
Locations
Retries
Browser/Playwright Checks
API Checks
Agentic Checks
Round Robin
Private Locations
All Alerting Channels
Protocol Support
Additional Monitors (25)
Scheduling
Public Locations
Single Retry
Automatic Retries
Browser Checks
Playwright Check Suites
Browser Check / Playwright Check Suite Runs
Additional Browser Check / Playwright Check Suite Runs
Browser Check / Playwright Check Suite Overages (1k)
API & Multistep Checks
API Check Runs
Additional API Check Runs
API Check Overages (10k)
Automatic Retries
SSL Monitoring
10 Second Frequency
Visual Regression Testing
Additional Agentic Checks
Agentic Check Regions
Agentic Check Frequency
Email Alerts
Slack Alerts
Webhook Alerts
Incident.io, Rootly & more
SMS Alerts
Phone Alerts
Maintenance Windows
Custom Domain
Custom CSS
Password Protection
Incident Management
Maintenance Windows
Dashboards
Invocations
Automated RCA
Users
Raw data retention
Aggregated data retention
Checkly CLI
Terraform provider
Pulumi Provider
Prometheus Endpoint
SOC 2 Type II Compliant
Multi-Factor Auth

Enterprise

Custom

Uptime Monitors
Maximum Frequency
Locations
Retries
Agentic Checks
RR & Parallel Scheduling
Private Locations
All Alerting Channels
Protocol Support
Additional Monitors (25)
Scheduling
Public Locations
Single Retry
Automatic Retries
Browser Checks
Playwright Check Suites
Browser Check / Playwright Check Suite Runs
Additional Browser Check / Playwright Check Suite Runs
Browser Check / Playwright Check Suite Overages (1k)
API & Multistep Checks
API Check Runs
Additional API Check Runs
API Check Overages (10k)
Automatic Retries
SSL Monitoring
10 Second Frequency
Visual Regression Testing
Additional Agentic Checks
Agentic Check Regions
Agentic Check Frequency
Email Alerts
Slack Alerts
Webhook Alerts
Incident.io, Rootly & more
SMS Alerts
Phone Alerts
Maintenance Windows
Custom Domain
Custom CSS
Password Protection
White Labeled
Incident Management
Maintenance Windows
Dashboards
Invocations
Automated RCA
Users
Raw data retention
Aggregated data retention
Checkly CLI
Terraform provider
Pulumi Provider
Prometheus Endpoint
Premium Support
Onboarding Support
Dedicated Customer Success Engineer
24x7 Phone Escalation
Contracts & Invoicing
Security Review
SOC 2 Type II Compliant
Multi-Factor Auth
SAML/SSO
99.9% Uptime SLA
Client Certificates
Service API Keys

Grafana Cloud

Official page

Free

$0/mo

All Grafana Cloud services, with limited usage
Community support
14 days retention for metrics, logs, traces, profiles, & k6 performance tests

Pro

$19/mo

Pay as you go above the Free tier
8X5 email support
13 months retention for metrics; 30 days retention for logs, traces, profiles, & k6 performance tests

Enterprise

Custom

Premium support
Custom retention
Deployment flexibility (Public Cloud, Federal Cloud, or Bring Your Own Cloud)

Checkly vs Grafana Cloud FAQ

Which one is cheaper?: Grafana Cloud is the cheaper option, starting at $19/mo vs $24/mo for Checkly.
Can I use either one for free?: Both offer free plans, so you can try each without paying. Start with whichever fits your workflow better and upgrade when you hit the limits.
How do they charge?: Different approach here. Checkly uses hybrid pricing, while Grafana Cloud goes with usage-based. That changes the math depending on your team size and usage.
Which one is a better deal?: Depends on what you need. Checkly: Checkly sits in the mid-market sweet spot — cheaper than Datadog Synthetics or New Relic's monitoring suite, but more developer-focused and purpose-built than generic uptime tools like Pingdom. They're clearly going after DevOps-native teams who want code-driven monitoring (Playwright, Terraform) without paying enterprise APM prices. Grafana Cloud: Grafana positions itself as the accessible middle ground between DIY self-hosted Grafana (cheap but painful) and Datadog or New Relic (powerful but eye-watering). They're going after cost-conscious engineering teams who want managed infrastructure without the sticker shock of the legacy APM players.

Still deciding? See the best Checkly alternatives or the best Grafana Cloud alternatives, ranked with verified pricing.

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