# API Monitoring Tools Compared (2026)

API Monitoring Tools Compared (2026)

APIs need synthetic checks, alerting, and good traces. Here’s how Checkly, Postman Monitoring, and Uptrends compare—pricing, scripting, and integrations.

Quick Picks

• Best dev-first scripting + browser checks: Checkly
• Best for teams already using Postman: Postman Monitoring
• Best for multi-location uptime focus: Uptrends

Pricing Snapshot (2026)

What to Look For

• HTTP checks, assertions, and auth handling (OAuth, keys).
• Headless/browser checks for critical flows.
• Alerting to Slack/PagerDuty/email with noise controls.
• Metrics: uptime, latency percentiles, error budgets.
• Version control for checks and Terraform/CDK support.

Tool Notes

Checkly

• Playwright-based browser checks + API monitors in code.
• Great CI/CD integration and dashboards.
• Usage pricing means tuning frequency matters.

Postman Monitoring

• Run existing collections as monitors; good assertions.
• Nice if your team already lives in Postman.
• Less browser monitoring depth; focus on API workflows.

Uptrends

• Global probe network; SLA and uptime reports.
• Good for status pages and multi-step transactions.
• UI-led setup vs code-first.

Setup Checklist (30 Minutes)

• List critical endpoints and auth requirements.
• Create monitors with assertions and alert routing.
• Add browser checks for key user flows.
• Define error budgets and alert on burn rate.

Final Recommendation

Choose Checkly for code-first synthetic monitoring, Postman Monitoring if your team already uses collections, and Uptrends for global uptime reporting. Keep checks in version control and tune frequencies to control cost.