StatusCake has been around since 2012 and, according to its own site, serves over 220,000 customers. It offers uptime, page speed, SSL, domain and server monitoring, and it has a permanent free plan. If you are looking for an alternative, you may want different limits, a status page on the free plan, or just a second service for redundancy. This page compares it with SiteDownCheck, a new and small free service.
Facts about StatusCake are from its own website as read in October 2026 and may change, so check their pricing page. Our own facts come from our pricing page.
What each free plan covers
At the time of writing, StatusCake's free plan listed 10 uptime monitors with 5-minute test intervals, plus 1 page speed monitor, 1 domain monitor and 1 SSL monitor, with alerts delivered through integrations. Its paid tiers (Superior, Business, Enterprise) add more monitors, faster intervals and more, and its site mentions a 7-day trial of paid features.
SiteDownCheck's free plan is 3 monitors at 5-minute intervals. SSL expiry, domain expiry, DNS change and certificate change alerts are not separate monitors for us; they are checks attached to the monitors you already have.
Side-by-side
| StatusCake | SiteDownCheck | |
|---|---|---|
| Free uptime monitors | 10 at time of writing | 3 |
| Free check interval | 5 minutes | 5 minutes |
| Free page speed monitor | 1 at time of writing | None scheduled; free one-off speed test tool |
| Free SSL monitor | 1 at time of writing | SSL expiry warnings on each monitor |
| Free domain monitor | 1 at time of writing | Domain expiry warnings on each monitor |
| Test locations | Their site cites tests from 30 countries; custom location choice is not on the free plan | One default location on the free plan |
| Faster intervals | Paid tiers (check their pricing page) | Not yet; Pro is coming soon, no date or price |
| Server monitoring | Yes, on paid tiers per their pricing page | Not offered |
| Free status page | Check their pricing page; we did not see it listed on the pricing table | Included, with 30-day history |
| Keyword / JSON checks | Check their docs | Included |
| Heartbeat monitors | Check their docs | Included, counts in your 3 |
| Maturity | Established since 2012 | New and small |
Where StatusCake is stronger
- More free uptime monitors. Ten versus three is a meaningful gap for anyone with several small sites.
- Breadth of monitor types. It lists uptime, page speed, SSL, domain and server monitoring as products. Server monitoring in particular is not something we offer.
- Locations. Their site cites testing from 30 countries. We check from a single default location on the free plan, so geographic comparisons are not something we can do yet.
- Paid depth that exists today. Faster intervals and many more monitors are on sale now. Our Pro plan has not launched.
- Track record. More than a decade in the market, with team features, reporting and a long list of integrations.
Where SiteDownCheck fits better
- A status page without extra steps. Ours is part of the free plan, including a 30-day history and badges for your README. If a public page matters to you, confirm on StatusCake's current pricing page whether it is included in the tier you want.
- Expiry warnings tied to every monitor. Instead of spending a dedicated SSL monitor and a dedicated domain monitor, each of our monitors can warn at 30, 14, 7 and 1 days before a certificate or domain expires.
- Content-aware checks. Keyword and JSON rules catch the case where the server answers 200 with a broken page or a failing health payload.
- Confirmed failures only. We re-check before alerting, so one bad packet does not wake you. See how to reduce false alerts.
- Free diagnostic tools. The DNS checker, SSL checker and root-cause finder are free without an account.
Who should choose what
Choose StatusCake if you have up to ten or so sites to watch for free, you want a page speed monitor, you plan to grow into paid tiers with faster checks, or you want server monitoring next to uptime.
Choose SiteDownCheck if you have a few critical URLs and want free alerts, SSL and domain warnings, and a status page without managing separate monitor types.
Because both free plans use 5-minute intervals, they pair well: run the same URL on both and compare incident timestamps for a while. Different probe networks give a useful sanity check when a monitor reports an outage you cannot reproduce. If you want to understand what an interval costs you in detection time, read how often to monitor a website.
Limits we want you to know about
We are a new service. One default location, 5-minute minimum interval, no server monitoring and no SMS today. Pro is planned with 1-minute checks, 50 monitors, SMS and phone alerts, custom-domain status pages and multi-region checks, but there is no price or date, and the free plan remains when it launches.
Next steps
- Add a free monitor for your most important site.
- Turn on domain expiry watch so a missed renewal never takes you down.
- Learn how to renew and automate SSL.
- Check your site speed with a free one-off test.
- Publish a status page.
FAQ
Does SiteDownCheck offer page speed monitoring like StatusCake?
Not as a scheduled monitor. You can run a free one-off speed test and set a response-time alert on an uptime monitor.
Is 3 monitors enough?
For a single business site, a shop and an API, often yes. If you manage many client sites, a larger free plan elsewhere fits better.
Can I run both services at once?
Yes. Running two independent monitors from different networks is a good way to separate real outages from probe-side network problems.
Do you have server monitoring?
No. We check from the outside only: HTTP, content, SSL, DNS and heartbeat pings. We do not install agents on your servers.
Try SiteDownCheck free
3 monitors, 5-minute checks, email and webhook alerts and a public status page. No credit card.
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