API checks plus certificates and uptime

The New Relic Synthetics alternative that is not part of an APM bill

New Relic Synthetics runs scripted API and browser checks from many locations, inside a full observability platform with APM, logs and infrastructure monitoring. The synthetics are good; they arrive attached to everything else.

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From $5 a month · No check quotas · Set up in under a minute

On this page
  1. Quick verdict
  2. Why people switch
  3. New Relic Synthetics vs MonitoringDaddy
  4. What New Relic Synthetics does better
  5. What you get
  6. Switch or stay
  7. Pricing
  8. Migration, step by step
  9. How we compared
  10. FAQ

Is MonitoringDaddy a real New Relic Synthetics alternative?

For the website and API monitoring slice, yes, at a fraction of the cost and with page-change detection included. New Relic is the right choice if you use its APM, tracing or logs — nothing here replaces any of that.

The trigger

Why people look for a New Relic Synthetics alternative

Usage-based billing

New Relic charges on data ingested and users. Synthetics are a small part of a bill that grows with everything else.

You may only want the checks

Adopting an observability platform to monitor five endpoints is disproportionate.

No content change detection

It checks whether things respond correctly, not whether page wording changed.

Side by side

New Relic Synthetics vs MonitoringDaddy

Green marks the stronger option on that row. Third-party pricing and limits change without notice — treat the New Relic Synthetics column as a starting point and confirm current figures on their site before you decide.

Feature New Relic Synthetics MonitoringDaddy
Scripted API and browser checks Yes — full scripting Status, keyword conditions, custom headers, methods and basic auth
Multi-location execution Yes One origin
APM, tracing and logs Yes No
Uptime monitoring Yes Yes, with incidents
SSL and domain expiry Partial Yes — attached to any monitor, no extra allowance
Website change detection No Yes, with word-level diffs and images
Cron / heartbeat monitoring Verify current scope Yes — up to 100 on Pro
Pricing model Data ingest and users Fixed slots, nothing metered
Entry paid price Free tier then usage-based — verify $5/mo for 25 of each monitor type
Fair comparison

What New Relic Synthetics does better

Every comparison page on the internet claims the author's product wins on everything. Here is where it does not.

  • Scripted synthetics with full JavaScript, well beyond keyword checks.
  • Multi-location execution and detailed performance data.
  • APM, distributed tracing and logs in the same platform.

If any of those are load-bearing for your team, staying put is the correct decision and this page has done its job. Monitoring you actually trust beats monitoring that is marginally cheaper.

The product

What you actually get with MonitoringDaddy

Six monitor types and one dashboard. No add-on products, no separate SKUs for the features you assumed were included.

Uptime monitoring

HTTP checks from external infrastructure, as often as every 60 seconds, with downtime and recovery alerts. See the uptime setup guide.

SSL certificate expiry

A dedicated monitor type with configurable advance warnings, so a certificate never lapses because nobody owned the renewal. See SSL expiry monitoring.

Domain expiry

Registration expiry tracked as its own monitor, warning you months ahead. The outage nobody has a runbook for. See domain expiration monitoring.

Content change detection

Alert when a phrase appears or disappears on a page — defacement, stock changes, silent policy edits. See website change detection.

Price monitoring

Watch a competitor or supplier price string and get told the moment it moves. See the price monitoring guide.

Hosted status pages

Public status pages included on every plan, hosted independently of your infrastructure so they stay up when you do not. See hosted status pages.

Alerts from any of these can be routed to email, Slack, Microsoft Teams, Discord, Telegram, Flock or a generic webhook, and a single monitor can carry several channels at once. Everything is available through the REST API on paid plans, so monitors can be created and torn down programmatically rather than clicked through a form.

The decision

Who should switch — and who should stay

Switch if…

  • Your need is website and API availability rather than observability.
  • Usage-based billing is unpredictable for what you use.
  • You need page-change monitoring or more heartbeats.

Stay on New Relic Synthetics if…

  • You use APM, tracing or logs — keep it, we have none of that.
  • Scripted browser checks are part of your coverage.
Pricing

What MonitoringDaddy costs

Flat monthly tiers. No per-seat charges, no credit top-ups, no usage meters — the number below is the whole bill. There is no free plan; every tier can be cancelled at any time.

PlanMonitorsFastest intervalAlert channelsAPIPrice
Starter25Every 5 minutesEmail + webhook & chatYes$5/mo
Basic10Every 10 minutesEmail + webhook & chatYes$8/mo
Growth50Every 5 minutesEmail + webhook & chatYes$19/mo
Pro100Every 60 secondsEmail + webhook & chatYes$34/mo

Annual billing is cheaper on every paid tier. The pricing page is the authoritative list.

Migration, step by step

Moving from New Relic Synthetics without a gap in coverage

There is no automated importer — monitors are re-created by hand, or scripted through the API. Budget about a minute per monitor. These are the real screens.

1. List what you actually monitor

Export or write down every active check in New Relic Synthetics: the URL, how often it runs, what counts as a failure and who gets alerted. Most teams find checks nobody needs any more — this is the moment to drop them.

2. Re-create the important ones first

Open Monitors → API → New API monitor. Under Request, set the method, headers and authentication you used in New Relic Synthetics, and use a text check on the response body. There is no request-body field, so point it at a GET health endpoint.

API monitor form with text check, method, headers and authenticationMethod, headers, authentication and a text check.

Then click + under Alert channels and add the same destinations your team watches today — email, Slack, Microsoft Teams, Discord, Flock, Telegram or a webhook.

Alert channel options: Email, Webhook, Slack, Microsoft Teams, Discord, Flock and TelegramAlert channels available on every monitor.

3. Run both tools in parallel for a week

The overview charts response time and lists each check's status code.

API monitor overview with response time chart and recent checksResponse times and status codes per check.

4. Point your status page and cancel

Move any public status page across, confirm a full week of clean overlap, then cancel New Relic Synthetics. Keep the export from step 1 — it is the easiest way to prove nothing was left behind.

Start monitoring Read the setup guide
Methodology

How this comparison was put together

This page is written by the team that builds MonitoringDaddy, so treat it as an informed argument rather than a neutral audit. What we can promise is that the claims about our own product are checked against what the software actually does, and the rows where New Relic Synthetics is stronger are marked as such rather than quietly omitted.

Details about New Relic Synthetics come from their public pricing and documentation at the time of writing. Monitoring vendors change plan limits and prices frequently and without announcement, so every third-party figure here carries a "verify on their site" caveat and you should take it seriously before making a decision on cost.

One thing worth stating plainly, because most comparison pages fudge it: MonitoringDaddy checks run from our own infrastructure, which is external to yours, but from a single origin rather than a global probe network. That is enough to catch outages and content changes independently of your stack. It is not enough to tell you a site is down in Frankfurt but up in Ohio. If regional verification is a hard requirement, a larger platform will serve you better and we would rather you knew that now.

Found something out of date or wrong? Tell us and we will correct it.

See it

What an alert actually looks like

Every recorded change is compared word by word and kept with a before-and-after image. This is the real output, shown with worked example data.

competitor.com/pricing Watching: Pricing table
− Pro plan — $49 per month
+ Pro plan — $39 per month
+ Save 20% with annual billing

Price fell from $49 to $39, and an annual discount was added.

2 words added · 1 removed · 4.1% of the watched region

retailer.com/product/… Watching: Availability
− Out of stock
+ In stock — ships tomorrow
+ Add to basket

The item is available again and the basket button returned.

6 words added · 3 removed · 12.5% of the watched region

supplier.com/subprocessors Watching: Subprocessor list
~ Data is processed in the EUthe EU and the United States
+ Added: Northwind Analytics Inc. (United States)

A new subprocessor was added in another jurisdiction.

9 words added · 2 removed · 1.8% of the watched region

Worked example — not live data. Start monitoring
Alerts

Where we can reach you

The free plan sends to one email address. Every paid plan adds the chat and webhook channels below, with 2 to 10 destinations depending on the plan. However many alerts you receive, the price does not change — nothing here is metered or charged per alert.

Email Before and after images inline
Browser push On a phone or desktop lock screen
RSS feed Every recorded change, as a feed
SlackPaid Through an incoming webhook
Microsoft TeamsPaid Through an incoming webhook
DiscordPaid Through an incoming webhook
TelegramPaid Straight to a chat or channel
FlockPaid Through an incoming webhook
WebhooksPaid Post to anything you run yourself

There are no voice calls and no SMS. If a phone call at 3am is a hard requirement, say so before you subscribe — we would rather tell you now than refund you later.

FAQ

New Relic Synthetics alternative: your questions answered

Can this replace New Relic?

Only the synthetic monitoring part. APM, tracing, logs and infrastructure metrics are outside what we do entirely.

Do you script checks?

No. Configuration is method, headers, auth and keyword conditions — no JavaScript.

How does pricing compare?

Fixed $5/month for 25 monitors, 25 watched pages and 25 heartbeats, with nothing metered, against usage-based billing.

Do you check from multiple regions?

No, one origin.

What do you add?

Page-change detection with diffs and images, and heartbeats with their own allowance.

Can both run together?

Yes, and it is a common split for teams with real infrastructure plus a set of marketing sites.

Keep reading

Compare other monitoring tools

Last updated August 4, 2026 · Written by Amit Gupta, founder of MonitoringDaddy

AG
Written by

Amit Gupta

Amit Gupta is the founder of MonitoringDaddy , a website and infrastructure monitoring platform built by TotosLocal One Private Limited. He writes about uptime, change detection, SSL and domain monitoring, and helps teams keep their websites fast, secure and online.

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Set up a monitor on your most important URL and run it alongside New Relic Synthetics for a week. Plans from $5 a month, cancel any time.

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