DNS Check vs Visual Sentinel
DNS Check
dnscheck.coVisual Sentinel
visualsentinel.comSide by side
| Figure | DNS Check | Visual Sentinel |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | $8/mo | $4.50/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | Yes |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| iOS | — | Yes |
| Android | — | Yes |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 6 | 15 |
| Spec score · DNS Monitoring Software | 8.4 (#8) | 8.5 (#7) |
| API | The REST API returns JSON, supports monitoring individual records and record groups, and uses API keys; all accounts can use it. | The public REST API uses scoped organization keys and exposes monitors, incidents, status pages, maintenance windows, reports, notification channels and servers. |
| Company | DNS Check says it was created in 2015 by Matt Rideout and the site is operated by Wind Serve, LLC. | Visual Sentinel is built and operated by Acefina LLC and was founded by Rai Ansar. |
| Integrations | Listed integrations include Basecamp, Jira Service Management, Nagios, OpsGenie, PagerDuty, Pingdom, Slack, and Splunk On-Call. | The pricing comparison lists Google Analytics 4, Google Search Console, Cloudflare import and proxy bypass, and server-to-site correlation. |
| Intended users | The maker describes DNS Check as useful for monitoring DNS infrastructure and sharing DNS update requests with customers. | The maker describes the product as serving small teams, agencies, and site owners. |
| Monitoring | It monitors DNS records and name servers for changes and lookup failures, with notifications when something changes. | The service offers uptime, screenshot-based visual comparison, SSL, DNS, performance, content, API, endpoint, and server monitoring. |
| Purpose | DNS Check monitors, shares, and troubleshoots DNS records. | Visual Sentinel monitors websites and servers and detects visual page changes that ordinary uptime checks may miss. |
| Support | The contact page invites feature requests and provides a contact form, phone number, email, and postal address. | The company says human support replies typically within 24 hours by email. |
Plans
DNS Check
- BasicFree
- Professional$8 a month
- Enterprise$60 a month
- Enterprise x2$90 a month
- Enterprise x3$120 a month
- CustomPriced on request
Visual Sentinel
- Solo$6 a month
- Solo$54 a year
- Starter$12 a month
- Starter$108 a year
- Business$39 a month
- Business$351 a year
- FreeFree
- Agency$149 a month
- Agency$1,341 a year
- FreeFree
In their own words
DNS Check
DNS Check monitors DNS records and name servers for changes, lookup failures and troubleshooting issues. Automated checks run every five minutes on all plans, with one-click rechecks, record history and shareable read-only reports. The checker compares entered records with DNS responses and can flag unresponsive name servers, missing or duplicate records and invalid SPF records. Fourteen record types are supported, including A, AAAA, ALIAS, CAA, CNAME, HTTPS, MX, NS, PTR, SOA, SPF, SRV, SVCB and TXT. Notifications can use email, PagerDuty and Slack on all plans, with listed integrations including Basecamp, Jira Service Management, Nagios, OpsGenie, Pingdom and Splunk On-Call. The REST API returns JSON, uses API keys and is available to every account for individual records or groups. Basic is free for 10 records and seven days of history. Professional costs $8 a month, or $80 yearly, for 100 records and 90 days. Higher plans cover up to 3,000 records; more requires a quote.
Visual Sentinel
Visual Sentinel monitors websites and servers, including page changes that ordinary uptime checks may miss. Its monitoring covers uptime, screenshot-based visual comparison, SSL, DNS, performance, content, APIs, endpoints, and servers. For visual checks, it captures a page in a browser and compares the screenshot with a prior baseline. Users can exclude changing page elements with CSS selectors and set the amount of change needed to flag a capture. Failed uptime checks are repeated; a site is marked down only if it fails from all selected regions. Alerts can go to email, Slack, Discord, WhatsApp, Telegram, Microsoft Teams, PagerDuty, OpsGenie, webhooks, Prometheus, and browser push. The REST API manages monitors, incidents, status pages, maintenance windows, reports, and notification channels; API access is listed for Business and Agency. The Free plan costs nothing and includes three monitors, 10-minute checks, and one status page. Solo costs $6 a month. Visual Sentinel is built and operated by Acefina LLC and is intended for small teams, agencies, and site owners.