Pulsy vs Oh Dear
The open-source alternative for uptime, TLS, and status pages
Oh Dear is a well-built closed-source monitor that goes wider than uptime — broken links, mixed content, scheduled-task pings, DNS history. Pulsy is narrower and open source: HTTP checks, TLS expiry, incidents, and status pages, free forever when you self-host. Which is right depends on whether you want the extra site-health checks or the source code.
Where Pulsy differs from Oh Dear
- Open source (AGPL-3.0) — self-host free forever, with the data on your own infrastructure.
- Flat Cloud plans, or no bill at all self-hosted, rather than per-site pricing.
- Every notification channel and status-page capability on every plan.
- Localized dashboard in five languages with full right-to-left support.
Oh Dear vs Pulsy, side by side
| Feature | Pulsy (self-hosted) | Pulsy Cloud | Oh Dear |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free forever — you run it (AGPL-3.0) | Free tier, paid plans from $12/mo | Paid plans, priced per site |
| Source code | Open source, AGPL-3.0 | The same AGPL-3.0 code, managed for you | Proprietary |
| Where your data lives | Your own infrastructure | Hosted by Pulsy, exportable any time | Hosted by Oh Dear |
| Broken-link / mixed-content scanning | Not included | Not included | Included |
| Pricing model | No bill, no site limit | Flat plans | Priced per site |
| TLS expiry monitoring | Built in | Built in, every plan | Built in, with certificate-health checks |
| Status pages | Included, custom domains | Included, custom domains | Included, custom domains |
| Dashboard | Localized (5 languages, RTL) | Localized (5 languages, RTL) | English-first |
Switching from Oh Dear is painless
Re-create your uptime and certificate checks in Pulsy against the same URLs, connect your channels, and publish a status page. If you rely on Oh Dear's broken-link or mixed-content scanning, keep it — Pulsy has no equivalent and is not attempting one.
Frequently asked questions
- Is there an open-source Oh Dear alternative?
- For uptime, TLS expiry, incidents, and status pages, yes — Pulsy is AGPL-3.0 and free to self-host. Oh Dear's site-health scanning (broken links, mixed content) has no Pulsy equivalent.
- Does Pulsy scan for broken links?
- No. Pulsy checks whether an endpoint responds correctly and how fast; it does not crawl your site.
- Does Pulsy charge per site?
- No. Self-hosted has no limit and no bill. Pulsy Cloud plans set a monitor count, not a per-site price.
- Can I run it in Europe for GDPR reasons?
- Self-hosted, you choose the host and the jurisdiction entirely — which is usually the cleanest answer to that question.
Compare Pulsy with other monitors
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