Checkly vs CloudKnife
Checkly and CloudKnife are both uptime & monitoring tools. Checkly is aimed at developers, while CloudKnife is aimed at developers and small businesses. Both have a free plan.
Synthetic monitoring as code with Playwright
Azure FinOps tool that finds waste and applies approved fixes
| Pricing | Freemium · $24 | Freemium |
| Starting price | $24/mo | Not published |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | 14 days |
| Built for | Developers | Developers, Small businesses, Enterprise |
| Platforms | web | web |
| Country | DE · 2018 | BE |
| Rating | — | — |
Choose Checkly if
Engineering teams using Playwright.
- Tests and monitoring unified
- Developer-first workflow
- Playwright native
Look elsewhere if: Non-technical uptime monitoring (Better Stack).
Choose CloudKnife if
Azure-centric companies, especially in Europe, that want cost recommendations with evidence and help executing them.
- Every recommendation shows its reasoning and data
- Changes start as proposals you approve, automation is opt-in
- Free plan for Azure spend up to €5k a month
Look elsewhere if: Teams running mostly on AWS or Google Cloud, or wanting cost data inside an existing observability stack (Datadog).
Checkly vs CloudKnife pricing
Checkly
- Hobby$010 uptime monitors; 10k API, 1k browser runs/mo
- Starter$24/moBilled annually; 50 monitors; 25k API, 3k browser runs
- Team$64/moBilled annually; 75 monitors; 100k API, 12k browser runs
- EnterpriseCustomCustom monitors, 1-sec frequency
CloudKnife
- Free€0Up to €5k cloud spend, 3 Azure subscriptions, 2 users
- Standard€100/mo1% of spend (shown at €10k), up to €50k; 10 subs, 10 users
- Full€400/mo4% of spend (shown at €10k), up to €50k, all recs, 100 subs/users
- EnterpriseCustomTailored contract, billing and limits; onboarding with the team
Checkly · Key features
- Playwright browser checks
- API checks with assertions
- Monitoring as code via CLI
- CI/CD integration
- Global and private locations
- OpenTelemetry traces
Cons
- Requires coding
- Run-based pricing
- Not a full observability suite
CloudKnife · Key features
- Workload-aware rightsizing across VM families, not just smaller sizes
- Scheduling that shuts down resources on nights and weekends
- Detection of orphaned disks, old snapshots and unused commitments
- Commitment simulation for reservations and savings plans before buying
- Cost allocation by application, team or customer
- Spend alerts delivered with their root cause
Cons
- Supports only Azure today; AWS and Google Cloud are not yet available
- Price grows with your cloud spend (1% or 4%)
- Standard plan gives only an optimisation preview
Checkly vs CloudKnife: FAQ
Do Checkly and CloudKnife have a free plan?
Yes, both Checkly and CloudKnife have a free plan; paid plans add more usage and features.
Which is better for small businesses, Checkly or CloudKnife?
CloudKnife lists small businesses as a core audience, while Checkly is aimed more at developers.