Better Stack is a broad observability platform. Cron monitoring is one small feature — and it gets expensive fast. DeadManCheck is purpose-built for job monitoring and costs a fraction of the price.
| Feature | DeadManCheck | Better Stack |
|---|---|---|
| 100 cron monitors | $12/mo | ~$180/mo extra |
| Free heartbeats | 5 monitors | 10 heartbeats |
| Output assertions | Yes | No |
| Duration anomaly detection | Yes (rolling avg) | No |
| Open source / self-hostable | Yes | No |
| On-call scheduling | No | Yes ($34/mo+) |
| Status pages | No | Yes (paid) |
Better Stack's free tier includes 10 heartbeats (cron monitors). After that: $20/month per additional 10 heartbeats.
To reach 100 cron monitors: 10 free + 9 packs × $20 = $180/month just for heartbeats. Add the Responder plan for SMS alerts ($34/mo) and you're at $214/month.
DeadManCheck: 100 monitors with Slack, Discord, Telegram, and email alerts for $12/month.
Better Stack pricing verified April 2026 from betterstack.com/pricing.
Better Stack's heartbeat monitoring is one feature in a large platform. DeadManCheck's entire product is job monitoring. Every feature — output assertions, duration tracking, rolling average anomaly detection — exists because of that focus.
Better Stack heartbeats only check "did it ping?" DeadManCheck checks whether the job actually did something. Include a count with your ping:
Configure the assertion: alert if count is 0. Your ETL job that runs but processes nothing gets caught. Better Stack lets it through.
Better Stack's heartbeat pricing punishes growth. The more jobs you monitor, the more the per-10-heartbeat cost compounds. DeadManCheck's flat-rate plans mean your monitoring bill doesn't explode when you add monitors.
Free for 5 monitors. $12/mo for 100.