Executive Snapshot
Pingdom remains popular for uptime monitoring, but incidents quickly spill into Slack threads, spreadsheets, and manual status updates. Upstat consolidates those tasks in one platform.
The upgrade: faster resolution, clear ownership, automated communications, and predictable pricing.
Not a one-to-one swap
Upstat layers full incident operations on top of monitoring—automations, runbooks, dashboards, and status pages—so teams graduate from "alert only" to "incident resolved."
| Capability | Upstat | Pingdom |
|---|---|---|
| Product scope | Incident operations platform—monitoring, incidents, automations, runbooks, dashboards, status pages. | Uptime monitoring and page performance alerts; coordination handled elsewhere. |
| Incident Response | Kanban/list views, incident timelines, assignments, and automations keep responders aligned. | Alerts go to email/SMS/integrations; teams manage response manually in chat and docs. |
| Automations & Runbooks | No-code workflows and runbooks included. | No incident automations—requires external tooling or scripts. |
| Entity Intelligence | Dashboards show ownership, dependencies, and history per service. | Monitor-oriented dashboards without service context or ownership. |
| Status Communication | Built-in status pages update with incidents automatically. | Public status pages available but limited to uptime data; teams still handle messaging manually. |
| Pricing Model | $29/$49 per-user with all modules. | Pricing per check/location; additional tools needed for incident workflow. |
Product scope
Upstat
Incident operations platform—monitoring, incidents, automations, runbooks, dashboards, status pages.
Pingdom
Uptime monitoring and page performance alerts; coordination handled elsewhere.
Incident Response
Upstat
Kanban/list views, incident timelines, assignments, and automations keep responders aligned.
Pingdom
Alerts go to email/SMS/integrations; teams manage response manually in chat and docs.
Automations & Runbooks
Upstat
No-code workflows and runbooks included.
Pingdom
No incident automations—requires external tooling or scripts.
Entity Intelligence
Upstat
Dashboards show ownership, dependencies, and history per service.
Pingdom
Monitor-oriented dashboards without service context or ownership.
Status Communication
Upstat
Built-in status pages update with incidents automatically.
Pingdom
Public status pages available but limited to uptime data; teams still handle messaging manually.
Pricing Model
Upstat
$29/$49 per-user with all modules.
Pingdom
Pricing per check/location; additional tools needed for incident workflow.
Upstat creates the incident, assigns roles, captures decisions, and automates follow-ups the moment a monitor fails.
Status pages and stakeholder notifications stay in sync with incidents—no more copying uptime charts into customer emails.
Entity dashboards show ownership and dependencies so responders know exactly who to pull into the incident.
Upstat helps monitoring-first teams adopt full incident coordination without losing uptime coverage. Follow this checklist to keep things calm.
Migration checklist
Keep monitors running while you layer on automations, runbooks, and communications. Retire old tooling once your team feels confident.
Monitoring-only tools are inexpensive, but the hidden cost is engineer time and customer churn when incidents rely on manual follow-up. Upstat replaces those hidden costs with automation.
Share this scenario with finance to show why it's time to graduate from monitoring-only operations.
Monitoring-only coordination scenario
A 10-person engineering team handles eight major incidents a year. Each incident requires 25 minutes of manual coordination after the Pingdom alert, plus ad-hoc customer messaging.
~$1,200/year in monitoring fees + ~$3,200 in coordination time.
Automations reduce coordination time by 60%, protecting ~$1,920/year in engineer time while eliminating ~$1,200 in monitoring fees.
Tool costs
$1,200 → $0
Pingdom subscription + add-on tools vs. Upstat all-in-one platform.
Tool savings: $1,200/year
Coordination time
$3,200 → $1,280
40% faster MTTR from unified monitoring and incident workflows.
Time saved: $1,920/year
Total annual savings
$3,120
Tool consolidation ($1,200) + reduced coordination time ($1,920).
* Adjust engineer rates, incident volume, and team size to match your organization before sharing with finance.
Teams using Pingdom for monitoring ask how Upstat fits into their workflow.
Recreate your critical monitors in Upstat, then run both systems in parallel to verify coverage. Once you're confident in Upstat's monitoring and incident response capabilities, decommission Pingdom to eliminate the redundant subscription.
Pingdom focuses on detection. Upstat adds the incident workspace—automations, runbooks, status updates, and collaboration—so teams resolve faster and keep stakeholders informed.
Launch Upstat, migrate your monitors, and coordinate incidents from one platform.