WatchFor vs StatusCake
An honest, fact-based look at how the two services compare on plans, page speed monitoring, team seats and check types.
StatusCake is a long-standing UK monitoring service with a broad probe network and a mature page-speed product. WatchFor competes on value density: more monitors and team members at a lower entry price, a wider catalog of check types, and full-featured status pages from the free plan up. Here's a factual side-by-side — both tools are capable, so the right pick depends on what you monitor.
| Feature | WatchFor | StatusCake |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan | 15 monitors · 3 full-featured status pages | 10 monitors · single login |
| Free plan check interval | 3 minutes (HTTP) | 5 minutes |
| Entry paid plan (billed yearly) | €6/mo — 50 monitors, 1-min checks, 25 team members | €16.66/mo (Superior) — 100 monitors, 1-min checks, 2 team members |
| Top plan | €39/mo — 250 monitors, 30-second checks | €58.33/mo (Business) — 300 monitors, 30-second checks |
| Page speed monitoring | Lighthouse Core Web Vitals — 15 pages (Pro), 30 (Business) | 15 page speed tests (Superior), 30 (Business) |
| Team members | 3 on Free · 25 from €7/mo — no per-seat fees | 2 on Superior · 10 on Business |
| Monitor types | 24 — incl. heartbeat/cron, MCP servers, MTR, WebSocket, NTP, blacklist, email policy | Uptime, page speed, SSL, domain and server monitoring |
| Server monitoring (agent-based) | 3 (Superior) / 10 (Business) | |
| Monitoring locations | 20 locations across 7 world regions | 30+ locations |
| Location control | Pick exact cities per monitor; rotating or parallel checks | Custom locations on paid plans |
| API-style HTTP checks (headers, auth, assertions) | All plans, including Free | Uptime checks with basic options |
| Alert channels | Email, Slack, Discord, webhooks — more rolling out | Email, SMS and integrations incl. Slack |
| Incident notes & team collaboration | From €7/mo |
Comparison based on publicly available information about StatusCake plans and features as of July 2026; details may change — always check statuscake.com for current terms. Spotted an inaccuracy? Tell us at [email protected] and we'll fix it.
Key Differences
Entry price vs what's inside
StatusCake's Superior plan (€16.66/mo yearly) includes 100 uptime monitors but only 2 team members. WatchFor's Starter is €6/mo with 50 monitors, 25 team members, 25 status pages and incident collaboration — a different balance: fewer monitors, far more of everything a team shares.
Check type breadth vs probe count
StatusCake checks from 30+ locations — more than WatchFor's 20 — and adds agent-based server monitoring. WatchFor counters with 24 external check types StatusCake doesn't offer, including MTR network path, WebSocket, NTP, SMTP, DNS blacklists, data-breach watch and email SPF/DKIM/DMARC policy.
Page speed: same counts, deeper audit
Both products cap page-speed tests per plan (WatchFor 10/30, StatusCake 15/30). WatchFor's are full Lighthouse audits with Core Web Vitals scores and history, at a lower plan price for the 30-page tier (€39 vs €58.33).
Exact-city checks, rotating or parallel
WatchFor lets each monitor target exact cities and choose rotating (one location per check) or parallel (all at once) strategies — with parallel confirmation separating real outages from single-path blips before an alert fires.
Why Choose WatchFor?
- €6/mo entry plan with 25 team members — no per-seat pricing
- 3 full-featured status pages on the free plan
- 24 external check types incl. heartbeat/cron, MCP servers, MTR, SMTP, WebSocket
- Full Lighthouse Core Web Vitals audits, not just load timings
- Exact-city location picking with rotating or parallel checks
- Incident notes & team collaboration from the first paid plan
Try Them Side by Side
Point WatchFor at the same endpoints you monitor today — the free plan takes minutes to set up, and you can compare the two side by side before deciding anything.
Which one is right for you?
Choose StatusCake if agent-based server monitoring in the same product matters to you, or if you specifically want its 30+ probe locations. Choose WatchFor if your monitoring is a team activity — seats, status pages and incident collaboration are included from €6/mo rather than metered — or if you need checks beyond uptime and page speed: mail servers, network paths, blacklists, breach exposure and email deliverability policy.
Both have free plans, so the cheapest way to decide is to run your real monitors on each for a week and compare the alerts you get. Migrating between them takes minutes in either direction.