BoxWatch vs Pulsetic
Pulsetic is an agentless uptime monitoring service that runs HTTP, TCP, SSL, ping, keyword, and cron heartbeat checks from up to 15 cloud locations worldwide. BoxWatch is a Linux server monitoring SaaS that installs a lightweight agent on each host and tracks CPU, memory, disk, processes, and network alongside uptime checks. The two tools overlap on synthetic uptime checks, cron heartbeat monitoring, status pages, and alerting, but they approach infrastructure visibility from opposite directions.
Quick verdict
Choose Pulsetic if your primary need is external uptime visibility: checking whether URLs, APIs, or ports are reachable from multiple global vantage points, with public status pages and incident communication baked in. Choose BoxWatch if you need to know what is happening inside the server (CPU spikes, memory leaks, disk filling up, zombie processes) and want uptime checks that can also reach internal or private endpoints because they run from your own agents. The two tools are genuinely complementary rather than direct substitutes for teams that care about both layers.
Pricing
| Plan | Pulsetic | BoxWatch |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 (10 monitors, 5-min interval, 3 regions) | $0 (5 servers, 20 cron checks, 10 processes/server) |
| Entry paid | $9/mo Solo (10+ monitors, 60-sec interval, 5 regions) | $13/mo Pro (25 servers, 100 uptime checks) |
| Mid tier | $19/mo Team (50+ monitors, 30-sec, 15 regions, 2 teammates) | $29/mo Team (100 servers) |
| Upper tier | $49/mo Organization (300+ monitors, SSO, RBAC, API) | $79/mo Scale (unlimited servers) |
| Add-ons | $0.20/monitor/mo, $8/teammate/mo, $0.10/SMS alert | None; pricing is flat per plan |
| Pricing model | Flat tiers (monitors are addons) | Flat per plan, not per host |
Feature comparison
When Pulsetic is the better choice
- You need external uptime checks from multiple global regions to catch regional outages your own servers cannot see.
- You want polished public status pages with subscriber notifications, incident management, and custom branding without building your own.
- Your stack is polyglot or cloud-native and you do not have Linux servers to instrument, or you already have host metrics covered elsewhere and only need URL and API monitoring.
When BoxWatch is the better choice
- You need host-level metrics (CPU, memory, disk, load, network) alongside uptime monitoring, without stitching together two separate tools.
- You want uptime checks that can reach internal or private endpoints because checks run from your own agents, not cloud probes.
- You monitor many Linux servers and prefer predictable flat pricing that does not scale with the number of monitors or team seats.
- You need disk-full forecasting, process monitoring, or per-server comparison views in the same dashboard as your uptime data.
FAQ
Does Pulsetic install an agent on my servers?
No. Pulsetic is entirely agentless. It sends HTTP, TCP, ping, and other requests from its own cloud infrastructure to your public endpoints. This means it cannot observe internal server metrics like CPU usage, memory, or disk space, but it also means there is nothing to install or maintain on your hosts.
Can Pulsetic monitor services behind a firewall?
Only partially. Pulsetic's heartbeat (cron) monitoring works for private services because those services push a signal outward to Pulsetic's URL, so the firewall direction is not a problem. For inbound checks (HTTP, TCP, ping), Pulsetic's probes must be able to reach your endpoint from the public internet. BoxWatch synthetic checks run from your own agents and can reach any endpoint the agent host can reach, including internal addresses.
Is Pulsetic's API available on all plans?
No. API, MCP, and n8n access are listed as Organization plan features ($49/mo) on the pricing page. Lower tiers do not include API access according to the current pricing documentation.