What is Oh Dear best at?

Developer-friendly website monitoring with an unusually broad check catalog: uptime, SSL, broken links, mixed content, DNS, domain expiry, scheduled tasks and more, with API access and SSO on every plan. It is a favorite in the Laravel and PHP world. Pulsetic plays a different game: uptime monitoring and status pages at a flat price that starts free.

How much does Oh Dear actually cost?

It is priced per monitor tier, in dollars: $17 per month covers 2 websites or servers, $55 covers 10, $109 covers 25, $165 covers 50 and $439 covers 200. Prices are quoted excluding VAT. Pulsetic is flat: $9 per month for 10 monitors, $19 on Team, $49 for 300 monitors.

Does Oh Dear have a free plan?

No. There is a 10-day free trial with no credit card, and a 30-day money-back guarantee, but no permanent free tier: after the trial the cheapest plan is $17 per month for 2 monitors. Pulsetic's free plan includes 10 monitors with status pages and custom domains, and stays free for commercial use.

Does Oh Dear send SMS and phone call alerts?

SMS only if you bring your own provider: you create a Vonage account, supply its API credentials to Oh Dear and pay Vonage per message. Native phone call alerts are not offered; the closest the official website lists is a third-party bridge that turns Oh Dear webhooks into ClickSend voice calls, using your own ClickSend account. Pulsetic includes SMS and voice-call alerts with credits on paid plans, no third-party account required.

Can I remove Oh Dear branding from my status page?

Not fully. Hosted Oh Dear status pages keep a powered-by-Oh Dear footer, with no removal option documented, and status page styling is limited to preset colors, themes and logo positions, with custom CSS not documented. On Pulsetic, paid plans from $9 add colors, layouts and CSS, and the Team plan at $19 removes Pulsetic branding entirely.

How fast does Oh Dear check my website?

Every minute, on every plan, with a second location confirming downtime before the alert fires, which is solid. There is no 30-second option, though. Pulsetic checks as often as every 30 seconds on the Team plan, from up to 15 locations, with the same multi-location confirmation before alerting.

Does Oh Dear have an API and MCP server?

Yes, and they are genuinely good: a documented REST API with an OpenAPI spec and full access on all plans, plus an official hosted MCP server. There is no native n8n node, though. Pulsetic covers all three: a REST API with an OpenAPI spec, an MCP server and an n8n integration, included from the $9 Solo plan.

When should I switch from Oh Dear to Pulsetic?

The usual triggers: you want a free plan rather than a trial deadline; the per-monitor ladder outgrew your budget; you want SMS and phone call alerts without managing a Vonage account; or you need a fully white-labeled status page, which starts on the $19 Team plan. Pulsetic covers uptime, SSL, ports, domains and cron monitoring with status pages included, at a flat price that starts at zero. SMS and phone call alerts start on the $9 Solo plan.

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Pulsetic vs Oh Dear: the breakdown

Credit where due: Oh Dear is a developer favorite with deep roots in the Laravel community, and its check catalog goes far beyond uptime: broken links, mixed content, DNS, scheduled tasks and more.

The friction is the price ladder. There’s no free plan, just a 10-day trial, the $17 entry plan covers only 2 monitors, and SMS alerts require bringing your own Vonage account.

That’s why people searching for an Oh Dear alternative land on Pulsetic: a real free plan, flat pricing, and SMS and voice credits included from $9.

Let’s compare the two.

A free plan, not a 10-day timer

Oh Dear’s trial runs out in 10 days, and the cheapest way to stay is $17 a month for 2 monitors. Pulsetic’s free plan covers 10 monitors with status pages and custom domains, free for commercial use, with no time limit.
Alerts with batteries included

On Oh Dear, SMS means creating your own Vonage account, pasting in API keys and paying per message, and native phone call alerts aren’t offered, only a third-party webhook-to-voice bridge. Pulsetic includes SMS and voice-call credits on paid plans from $9.
White labeling that exists

Oh Dear’s hosted status pages keep a powered-by-Oh Dear footer, with no removal option in its docs, and styling stops at preset colors and themes. On Pulsetic, colors, layout and CSS start at $9, and branding removal comes with Team.

“Pulsetic is easy-to-use and simple to get started. Pulsetic includes every alert channel that I want, and advanced settings that give me greater confidence in the uptime. I can require that a response include certain text and respond within a certain timeframe in order for a site to be considered online. This gives me assurance that we would be notified if there were major performance issues or a bad deployment that made the site unusable.”
Christopher Morbitzer

CEO at NorthBuilt

Pricing: Pulsetic vs Oh Dear

Free plans

Oh Dear doesn’t have one: after the 10-day trial, the meter starts at $17 a month. Pulsetic’s free plan includes 10 monitors, status pages and custom domains, free for commercial use too.
The per-monitor ladder

Two monitors cost $17 a month on Oh Dear, 50 cost $165 and 200 cost $439, roughly $2.20 to $8.50 per monitor. Pulsetic’s alternative to Oh Dear is flat: $9 covers 10 monitors and $49 covers 300, with extras at $0.20.
Checks and teams

Oh Dear checks every minute on every plan, with no faster option. Pulsetic’s Team plan at $19/month checks every 30 seconds from 15 regions, with role-based access and 100 SMS and voice-call credits included.

Feature comparison

Oh Dear

Free plan / trial

Free Plan

10 days

Price (USD/mo)

$9

$17 (2 monitors)

Monitoring

Check time

30 sec (Team plan)

1 min

Real User Monitoring (RUM)

✕

Choice of regional data centers

Choose primary location (16 listed)

SSL monitoring

Keyword monitoring

Ping / ICMP monitoring

Port monitoring

TCP monitoring

Domain monitoring

Cron / heartbeat monitoring

5 tasks/monitor

Custom HTTP requests

Customized responses

Downtime screenshots

Team plan and up

✕

Chart annotations

✕

API

Solo plan and up

Built-in AI assistant (chat)

Solo plan and up

✕

MCP server

Solo plan and up

n8n integration

Solo plan and up

✕

Cloudflare IP allowlisting

Manual

Monitoring data retention

3 mo to 5 yr by plan

Varies by check

Status Pages

Incident updates

Solo plan and up

Status updates for subscribers via email

Solo plan and up

Maintenance windows

Solo plan and up

Status badges

Solo plan and up

Customized domain

Customized colors

Solo plan and up

Customized logo

Solo plan and up

Remove branding

Team plan and up

✕

Customized status page layout

Solo plan and up

Presets only

CSS customization

Solo plan and up

✕

Custom email sender & templates

Solo plan and up

✕

AI writing assistant

Solo plan and up

✕

Page translations

Password-protected status page

Solo plan and up

SSO-protected status page

Organization plan

✕

Notifications

Email alerts

SMS alerts

Solo plan and up

Via your own Vonage

Phone call alerts

Solo plan and up

✕

WhatsApp alerts

Solo plan and up

✕

Slack alerts

Solo plan and up

MS teams alerts

Solo plan and up

Discord alerts

Solo plan and up

Telegram alerts

Solo plan and up

Mattermost alerts

Solo plan and up

✕

Webhooks alerts

Zapier alerts

Solo plan and up

✕

Twilio alerts

Solo plan and up

✕

Datadog integration

Solo plan and up

✕

Integration with SIGNL4

Solo plan and up

✕

Analytics

See response times

Response time by location

Custom date range reports

✕

Scheduled email reports

Monthly only

Web Analytics & RUM

Cookieless tracking

n/a

Core Web Vitals (field data)

n/a

Load time percentiles (p50/p75/p95)

n/a

JS error tracking

n/a

Realtime visitors

n/a

Traffic breakdowns (pages, geo, devices)

n/a

Goals / custom events

✕

n/a

Analytics data retention

3 mo to 5 yr by plan

n/a

Self-hostable

✕

Security

Two-factor authentication

Single Sign-On (SAML)

Organization plan

Role-based access

Team plan and up

Support

Chat

✕

Human Support

Email, weekdays

AI Support

✕

Helpdesk Articles

Email Support

Comparison based on publicly available information as of September 2026. Features and pricing change frequently, so please verify current details on each provider’s website.

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And there’s more in Pulsetic’s free plan…

See where your website is loading slowly

We’ll check your website’s response times from different locations around the world, so you know if there’s an issue in a particular region.
Alerts wherever you want them

When your website fails a check and a second location confirms it, Pulsetic alerts you by email or webhook. Slack, Telegram, SMS, WhatsApp and voice-call alerts start on the $9 Solo plan.
Never let your SSL expire again

We’ll let you know when it’s time to update your SSL certificate, so you can renew it before customers see error messages.

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Frequently asked questions

What is Oh Dear best at?

Developer-friendly website monitoring with an unusually broad check catalog: uptime, SSL, broken links, mixed content, DNS, domain expiry, scheduled tasks and more, with API access and SSO on every plan. It is a favorite in the Laravel and PHP world. Pulsetic plays a different game: uptime monitoring and status pages at a flat price that starts free.
How much does Oh Dear actually cost?

It is priced per monitor tier, in dollars: $17 per month covers 2 websites or servers, $55 covers 10, $109 covers 25, $165 covers 50 and $439 covers 200. Prices are quoted excluding VAT. Pulsetic is flat: $9 per month for 10 monitors, $19 on Team, $49 for 300 monitors.
Does Oh Dear have a free plan?

No. There is a 10-day free trial with no credit card, and a 30-day money-back guarantee, but no permanent free tier: after the trial the cheapest plan is $17 per month for 2 monitors. Pulsetic's free plan includes 10 monitors with status pages and custom domains, and stays free for commercial use.
Does Oh Dear send SMS and phone call alerts?

SMS only if you bring your own provider: you create a Vonage account, supply its API credentials to Oh Dear and pay Vonage per message. Native phone call alerts are not offered; the closest the official website lists is a third-party bridge that turns Oh Dear webhooks into ClickSend voice calls, using your own ClickSend account. Pulsetic includes SMS and voice-call alerts with credits on paid plans, no third-party account required.
Can I remove Oh Dear branding from my status page?

Not fully. Hosted Oh Dear status pages keep a powered-by-Oh Dear footer, with no removal option documented, and status page styling is limited to preset colors, themes and logo positions, with custom CSS not documented. On Pulsetic, paid plans from $9 add colors, layouts and CSS, and the Team plan at $19 removes Pulsetic branding entirely.
How fast does Oh Dear check my website?

Every minute, on every plan, with a second location confirming downtime before the alert fires, which is solid. There is no 30-second option, though. Pulsetic checks as often as every 30 seconds on the Team plan, from up to 15 locations, with the same multi-location confirmation before alerting.
Does Oh Dear have an API and MCP server?

Yes, and they are genuinely good: a documented REST API with an OpenAPI spec and full access on all plans, plus an official hosted MCP server. There is no native n8n node, though. Pulsetic covers all three: a REST API with an OpenAPI spec, an MCP server and an n8n integration, included from the $9 Solo plan.
When should I switch from Oh Dear to Pulsetic?

The usual triggers: you want a free plan rather than a trial deadline; the per-monitor ladder outgrew your budget; you want SMS and phone call alerts without managing a Vonage account; or you need a fully white-labeled status page, which starts on the $19 Team plan. Pulsetic covers uptime, SSL, ports, domains and cron monitoring with status pages included, at a flat price that starts at zero. SMS and phone call alerts start on the $9 Solo plan.