CronAlert vs UptimeRobot: Feature Comparison and Pricing

Q: Is UptimeRobot still free?

Yes — UptimeRobot's free plan remains the best-known in the category: 50 monitors at a 5-minute interval, including HTTP, ping, port, and keyword checks, one status page, and 3-month retention. It is genuinely generous on monitor count and check types. Its limits show at the edges: the 5-minute interval, email-centric alerting, and the features that moved to paid tiers (SSL and DNS monitoring, custom-domain status pages, richer integrations, faster intervals). CronAlert's free plan is smaller on count (25 monitors) but checks at 3 minutes and includes SSL monitoring plus Slack, Discord, webhook, and push alerts for free.

Q: How much does UptimeRobot cost?

As of August 2026: Free ($0, 50 monitors, 5-minute interval), Solo at $12/mo billed annually or $13 month-to-month (10 monitors, 60-second interval), Team at $33/mo annually or $38 monthly (100 monitors, 30-second interval, 5 seats), and Scale at $69/mo annually or $82 monthly (200 monitors, 15-second interval), plus custom Enterprise pricing. CronAlert's flat plans are $0 (25 monitors), $5/mo Pro (100 monitors, 1-minute interval), $20/mo Team (500 monitors), and $50/mo Business (unlimited).

Q: What is a cheaper alternative to UptimeRobot's paid plans?

CronAlert Pro is $5/mo for 100 monitors at a 1-minute interval with keyword monitoring, heartbeat/cron monitoring, maintenance windows, three status pages, every alert channel, and a full read-write API. The comparable UptimeRobot tier for 100 monitors is Team at $33–38/mo — roughly 7x the price — though it includes 30-second checks, SMS/voice credits, and multiple seats, which CronAlert prices into its $20/mo Team tier instead. If your requirement is 100 HTTP/SSL monitors at 1-minute checks, the price gap is severalfold.

Q: Does CronAlert have ping and port monitoring like UptimeRobot?

No. UptimeRobot covers ICMP ping, TCP port, and UDP checks; CronAlert deliberately focuses on HTTP/HTTPS checks, SSL certificate monitoring, keyword and content assertions, and heartbeat monitoring for scheduled jobs. If you need to watch a bare TCP service that speaks no HTTP, UptimeRobot covers ground CronAlert does not. Most modern services expose an HTTP health endpoint, which is where CronAlert's content assertions do more than a port check can.

Q: How do I migrate from UptimeRobot to CronAlert?

CronAlert has a built-in UptimeRobot importer: export your monitors via UptimeRobot's API or dashboard, and the import tool at Settings → Import recreates them with names, URLs, and intervals mapped to your plan. The full walkthrough — including how to run both services in parallel during the switch — is in CronAlert's migration guide. Most fleets import in a few minutes.

UptimeRobot is where most people start with uptime monitoring — it has been the category's default free tool for over a decade, and its free plan is still the most generous headline number around: 50 monitors, HTTP/ping/port/keyword checks included, at $0 forever. Any honest comparison starts there: if UptimeRobot's free plan fits your needs today, it is a fine place to be, and plenty of CronAlert users started exactly there.

The comparison gets interesting at two seams: what happens within the free tier (interval speed, alert channels, SSL), and what happens the day you outgrow it — because UptimeRobot's paid ladder starts at $12–13/mo for just 10 fast monitors, while CronAlert's starts at $5/mo for 100. Pricing below was verified in August 2026 — both products evolve, so check their site before committing. If you're already decided and just want the switch, our step-by-step migration guide covers CronAlert's built-in UptimeRobot importer.

Feature comparison at a glance

UptimeRobot

Free plan: 50 monitors at 5-minute intervals — HTTP, ping, TCP port, UDP, and keyword checks — 1 status page, 3-month retention
Paid plans add 60/30/15-second intervals, SSL and DNS monitoring, custom-domain and white-label status pages, and longer retention (12–24 months)
Native SMS and voice-call alerting with per-plan credit bundles; email plus richer third-party integrations on paid tiers
Multi-seat access from Solo (3 seats) up; notify-only seats on Team
Cron/heartbeat monitoring and maintenance windows on paid plans
Mobile apps, a mature API, and the largest community/brand recognition in the space
Pricing: Free $0; Solo $12/mo annual ($13 monthly, 10 monitors); Team $33/mo annual ($38 monthly, 100 monitors); Scale $69/mo annual ($82 monthly, 200 monitors); Enterprise custom

CronAlert

Free plan: 25 monitors at a 3-minute interval with SSL certificate monitoring, a status page, and email/Slack/Discord/webhook/push alerts included
Keyword, string, and regex matching plus SHA-256 content-hash change detection from Pro
Heartbeat / cron job monitoring on every paid plan, from $5/mo
Multi-region checks across five Cloudflare edge regions with quorum logic (Team and Business)
Alerts via email, Slack, Discord, Microsoft Teams, Telegram, PagerDuty, Opsgenie, Splunk On-Call, webhooks, and PWA push
REST API on every plan (read-only on free, full read-write from Pro), plus MCP integrations for AI assistants
Status pages included in every plan; custom domains on paid tiers
Flat pricing: Free $0 (25 monitors), Pro $5/mo (100 monitors, 1-min), Team $20/mo (500), Business $50/mo (unlimited)

Where UptimeRobot leans

First, the free plan's breadth. Fifty monitors is double CronAlert's free count, and the free tier includes check types CronAlert doesn't offer at any price — ICMP ping, TCP port, and UDP checks — plus keyword matching, which on CronAlert starts at Pro. If you're monitoring a fleet of game servers, mail servers, or anything that doesn't speak HTTP, UptimeRobot's free tier covers real ground.

Second, native SMS and voice alerting. Paid plans bundle SMS/voice credits, and for teams without an on-call tool a phone call is still the loudest pager there is. CronAlert reaches phones through PWA push and through PagerDuty/Opsgenie escalation, but has no native SMS.

Third, sub-minute intervals and brand maturity. Team checks every 30 seconds and Scale every 15; CronAlert's floor is 1 minute on all paid plans. And UptimeRobot's decade-plus of ubiquity means integrations, tutorials, and muscle memory everywhere — switching costs are real, which is why our migration guide exists.

Where CronAlert pulls ahead

The first answer is the paid-tier math. UptimeRobot's Solo plan is $12–13/mo for ten monitors — outgrow the free tier by one fast monitor and you're paying more than twice CronAlert Pro's $5/mo, which includes a hundred monitors at 1-minute intervals. At the 100-monitor mark the comparison is CronAlert Pro at $5 versus UptimeRobot Team at $33–38: roughly 7× — the gap funds a lot of SMS credits. Even CronAlert's Team tier ($20/mo, 500 monitors, 10 seats, multi-region) undercuts UptimeRobot's 100-monitor tier.

Second, a faster free interval with real alert channels. CronAlert's free plan checks every 3 minutes to UptimeRobot's 5, includes SSL certificate monitoring (paid on UptimeRobot), and sends alerts to Slack, Discord, webhooks, and push — not just email — for free. Fewer monitors, but each one watched more closely and heard in more places.

Third, heartbeats and content checks at the $5 tier. Heartbeat monitoring for cron jobs, backups, and workers, keyword and regex assertions, SHA-256 content-hash change detection, maintenance windows, and the full read-write API all arrive together at Pro. UptimeRobot spreads the equivalents across its tiers.

Fourth, fewer false positives by design. CronAlert runs on Cloudflare's edge with consecutive-check verification, and Team/Business plans add multi-region quorum — a single vantage point's network blip doesn't page you. UptimeRobot's single-location checks are a known source of 3 AM false alarms; we wrote a whole post on UptimeRobot false positives and how to stop them.

Finally, API-first and AI-assistant-ready. Every CronAlert plan includes the REST API, and CronAlert ships an MCP server so Claude Code, Cursor, or Windsurf can create and manage monitors conversationally.

When to pick each

Pick UptimeRobot if: the free tier's 50 monitors and ping/port/UDP checks cover your whole need, you require native SMS/voice alerting, or you want 15–30-second intervals and are happy paying Team/Scale prices for them. It is the category's incumbent for good reasons.

Pick CronAlert if: you're monitoring HTTP services, want SSL monitoring and Slack/Discord/push alerts without paying, and — above all — you can see the day you'll outgrow a free tier. The paid step is $5 instead of $12–38, and it includes the heartbeats and content assertions that catch what a status-code check misses.

Pricing side by side

UptimeRobot (verified August 2026; annual billing, month-to-month slightly higher):

Free — $0/mo: 50 monitors, 5-minute interval, HTTP/ping/port/UDP/keyword checks, 1 status page, 3-month retention, email-centric alerting.
Solo — $12/mo ($13 month-to-month): 10 monitors, 60-second interval, SSL & DNS monitoring, 3 status pages with custom domain, 3 seats, small SMS/voice bundle, 12-month retention.
Team — $33/mo ($38 month-to-month): 100 monitors, 30-second interval, white-label status pages, 5 seats + notify-only seats, 30 SMS/voice credits, 24-month retention.
Scale — $69/mo ($82 month-to-month): 200 monitors, 15-second interval, unlimited status pages, larger credit bundles. Enterprise: custom.

CronAlert uses flat monthly plans:

Free — $0/mo: 25 monitors, 3-minute interval, 1 status page, email/Slack/Discord/webhook/push alerts, basic (read-only) API, SSL monitoring, 7-day retention.
Pro — $5/mo ($4/mo annual): 100 monitors, 1-minute interval, 3 status pages, all alert channels including Teams/Telegram/PagerDuty, keyword monitoring, heartbeats, maintenance windows, full API, 30-day retention.
Team — $20/mo ($16/mo annual): 500 monitors, 1-minute interval, unlimited status pages, 10 members, multi-region checks, 90-day retention.
Business — $50/mo ($40/mo annual): unlimited monitors, status pages, and members, multi-region checks, SSO/SAML, audit logs, 1-year retention.

How to decide

Ask two questions. First: do you need non-HTTP checks? Ping, raw TCP ports, UDP — if yes, UptimeRobot's free tier does things CronAlert doesn't, full stop. Second: what does your paid step look like? Count the monitors you'd need at a 1-minute interval and price both ladders — for HTTP fleets the answer is usually $5 versus $33+, and the leftover budget question answers itself. Our buyer's guide has the fuller checklist, and the free-tools roundup compares the whole $0 field.

Then run the real test: both free plans can watch the same endpoints simultaneously. Trigger a genuine failure and compare detection time, false-alarm rate, and which alert actually reached you before any money changes hands.

Frequently asked questions

Is UptimeRobot still free?

Yes — 50 monitors at 5-minute intervals with HTTP/ping/port/keyword checks and one status page. The catches are the interval, email-centric free alerting, and SSL/DNS monitoring living on paid tiers. CronAlert's free plan is 25 monitors at 3 minutes with SSL and Slack/Discord/webhook/push alerts included.

How much does UptimeRobot cost?

As of August 2026: Solo $12/mo annual ($13 monthly) for 10 monitors, Team $33/mo annual ($38 monthly) for 100, Scale $69/mo annual ($82 monthly) for 200, plus custom Enterprise. CronAlert: $0, $5, $20, $50 flat.

What is a cheaper alternative to UptimeRobot's paid plans?

CronAlert Pro — $5/mo for 100 monitors at 1-minute intervals with keyword checks, heartbeats, and the full API. UptimeRobot's 100-monitor tier is $33–38/mo, though it adds 30-second checks, SMS credits, and seats.

Does CronAlert have ping and port monitoring like UptimeRobot?

No — CronAlert is HTTP/HTTPS, SSL, content assertions, and heartbeats only. If you need to watch non-HTTP services, that's a genuine UptimeRobot advantage.

How do I migrate from UptimeRobot to CronAlert?

Use the built-in importer (Settings → Import) — it recreates your monitors automatically. The migration guide walks through it, including running both services in parallel during the cutover.

Outgrowing the free tier? Do the math first

If you're on UptimeRobot free and the next step is a paid plan, price the step: $12–13/mo buys 10 fast monitors there, while $5/mo buys 100 here — with heartbeats, keyword assertions, and a full API in the same tier. Point CronAlert's free plan at the same endpoints today (the importer makes it a five-minute job), watch them side by side, and let the alerts decide. Create a free CronAlert account — no card required.