Metric Tower vs Visual Sentinel
Metric Tower
metrictower.comVisual Sentinel
visualsentinel.comSide by side
| Figure | Metric Tower | Visual Sentinel |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | $4.50/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | Yes | Yes |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| iOS | — | Yes |
| Android | — | Yes |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | — |
| Plans published | 1 | 15 |
| Spec score · DNS Monitoring Software | 7.6 (#25) | 8.5 (#7) |
| Monitoring | Infrastructure monitoring covers nine monitor types, including uptime, DNS, SSL, certificate-transparency logs, cron jobs, ports, blocklists, CSP, and dead-man workflows. | The service offers uptime, screenshot-based visual comparison, SSL, DNS, performance, content, API, endpoint, and server monitoring. |
| Self-hosting | The product is deployed via Docker Compose today, while a Kubernetes deployment reference is on the roadmap and enterprise teams can discuss early-access self-hosted builds. | The security page describes Visual Sentinel as a continuously deployed service rather than a downloadable, versioned product. |
Plans
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
Metric Tower
Metric Tower has no write-up on Specifiction yet; its figures are above.
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.