Off the Selenium treadmillOnto native Playwright
Pingdom's transaction monitoring runs Selenium — a legacy engine that Playwright has overtaken in capability, reliability, and community momentum. Yorker runs native Playwright with OTel-native telemetry, filmstrip screenshots, and private locations included.
Last verified 2026-04-11
# Pingdom transaction — Selenium IDE
# Recorded via browser extension, XML-based
command: open
target: /login
command: type
target: id=email
value: [email protected]
# Yorker browser check — native Playwright
// @step: Log in
await page.goto('/login');
await page.fill('#email', process.env.TEST_USER);
await page.click('button[type=submit]');
Why teams are leaving Pingdom
Pingdom transaction monitoring is built on Selenium WebDriver — the dominant browser automation engine of the 2010s. Playwright is the modern standard: faster, more reliable, better async support, broader adoption. The ecosystem, tooling, and community are now firmly behind Playwright.
Pingdom check results are visible in the Pingdom dashboard or via their proprietary API. There is no OTLP export — synthetic results never join your broader observability stack. Yorker emits OTLP from every run so synthetic spans show up alongside your application traces.
Pingdom's uptime monitoring is available on entry-level plans; transaction (browser) monitoring is a higher-tier feature with additional cost. Yorker includes browser checks in the base platform plan at $29.99/month.
Pingdom runs checks from their managed probe locations only — there is no option to run a check against an internal endpoint behind your firewall. Yorker private location agents are included in the platform plan with outbound-only connectivity.
Pingdom checks are created and managed via the UI or a proprietary API. There is no YAML or Terraform workflow for check definitions. Yorker is built around Monitoring as Code from day one — checks live in your repo, deploy with your CI pipeline.
Pingdom is one product inside the SolarWinds platform, which means account management, billing, and support go through SolarWinds's enterprise process. Yorker is a focused product with transparent self-serve pricing and sign-up — no enterprise sales cycle required.
Feature-by-feature comparison
Pingdom's public pricing page was not accessible at verification time — specific tier prices are approximate, sourced from third-party aggregators. Transaction monitoring is available on Pingdom's higher plans; the Starter tier covers uptime checks only. Contact Pingdom/SolarWinds for definitive pricing.
| Capability | Yorker Platform · $29.99/mo | Pingdom Starter ~$14/mo (uptime only) | Pingdom Advanced Contact sales |
|---|---|---|---|
HTTP / uptime checks Verify URL availability and response time. | Included | Included | Included |
Browser / transaction checks End-to-end user journey testing. | Playwright (code-first) | Not included | Selenium (script-based) |
Check interval Minimum frequency between runs. | 30s minimum | 1-minute minimum | 1-minute minimum |
Private locations Run checks from behind your firewall. | Included | Not supported | Not supported |
OpenTelemetry export OTLP metrics to any backend. | Included — OTel-native | Not supported | Not supported |
W3C trace propagation traceparent injected into check requests. | Always on | Not supported | Not supported |
Monitoring as Code Check definitions in source control. | YAML (CLI) | Not supported | API only |
Screenshot filmstrip Per-step visual evidence on every run. | Included | Not included | Error screenshots |
Hosted check locations Global probe regions. | 14 regions | Multiple regions | Multiple regions |
Features verified April 11, 2026 from Pingdom product pages and public documentation. Specific tier prices for Pingdom are approximate (~$14/mo Starter) — verify at pingdom.com/pricing before making a purchasing decision. Yorker platform plan $29.99/mo with full pricing at /pricing. Spot something that's changed? Email [email protected].
Moving from Pingdom
We'll do most of the work. Point the importer at your existing check definitions and it emits Yorker YAML with the 80% that translates cleanly, flagging everything it can't auto-convert with inline comments you can review.
yorker import --from pingdom ./pingdom-export.jsonExport your Pingdom check list via the Pingdom API and point the importer at the JSON. Uptime checks translate automatically to Yorker YAML. Transaction checks (Selenium scripts) are flagged as TODOs with the test intent documented — each needs a Playwright rewrite, which the importer scaffolds with a starter template.
What to watch for
- Selenium → Playwright rewrite
Pingdom transaction monitoring uses Selenium IDE scripts (or a proprietary web recorder). Yorker runs native Playwright — a newer, more capable engine. The importer cannot auto-convert Selenium scripts to Playwright; each script needs a rewrite. The good news: Playwright scripts are shorter and more readable. Most Pingdom transaction scripts convert in under an hour.
- Uptime check history stays in Pingdom
Historical uptime and response-time data from Pingdom cannot be migrated to Yorker — there is no API that exports raw result history. New baseline data starts accruing from your first Yorker run. If your SLA reporting depends on historical continuity, plan for a parallel-run period.
- Alert contacts and integrations
Pingdom alert contacts (email, SMS, PagerDuty) map to Yorker alert rules. The importer emits alert rule templates with your endpoints pre-filled, but Pingdom-specific integrations (Pingdom Status Pages, Pingdom reports) have no Yorker equivalent and need a replacement strategy.
What you keep
Your monitored URLs and check frequencies carry over to Yorker YAML without changes.
Your alert contacts (email, PagerDuty, Slack) pre-fill in the generated Yorker alert rules.
Your transaction test intent — the flows you tested with Selenium become the basis for Playwright scripts, even if the syntax changes.
Your team's domain knowledge about what to monitor — that doesn't live in a config file.
Where Pingdom is strongest
No tool is the right answer for every team. Here's where Pingdom genuinely leads today — if your use case matches, start there.
Pingdom has been a household name in web uptime monitoring since 2007. If your team has historical uptime data in Pingdom or your organization's compliance reports reference Pingdom-generated availability SLAs, there is real switching cost in that institutional history. Yorker is new; Pingdom's track record is not.
Pingdom's uptime monitoring UI is optimized for people who check a dashboard periodically rather than engineers who want to dig into telemetry. If your primary stakeholder is a product manager who reads a weekly availability report, Pingdom's UX makes that simple and the report is polished. Yorker is built for engineers.
Many organizations already have SolarWinds contracts that bundle Pingdom. If Pingdom is effectively free inside an existing contract, the economics of switching need to account for that. Yorker is a separate purchase.
Frequently asked
Why switch from Pingdom to Yorker?
Three reasons come up most often: Pingdom uses Selenium for transaction checks (a legacy engine Playwright has effectively superseded), Pingdom has no OTel export (synthetic results stay siloed), and Pingdom's transaction monitoring is gated to higher-priced plans while Yorker includes browser checks in the base plan.
Can I reuse my Pingdom transaction scripts?
Pingdom transaction scripts use Selenium IDE format or a proprietary recorder output, which cannot be directly converted to Playwright. The Yorker importer flags each Pingdom transaction script as a TODO with the equivalent test intent documented, so you know what each rewrite should achieve. Most Pingdom scripts are short enough that a Playwright rewrite takes 30–60 minutes per script.
Does Yorker replace Pingdom's status pages?
Yorker does not currently include a built-in public status page. If you rely on Pingdom's status page for customer communication, you would need a separate status page solution (Better Stack Status Pages, Statuspage.io, etc.) alongside Yorker. That is a genuine gap to factor into your evaluation.
What about uptime monitoring history and SLA reports?
Historical uptime data stays in Pingdom — there is no migration path for raw result history. For SLA continuity, plan a parallel-run period where both tools monitor the same endpoints, then cut over with documented baseline data from Yorker going forward.
Is Yorker appropriate for non-technical teams?
Yorker is built for engineers and SREs — monitoring as code, OTel telemetry, Playwright scripting. Pingdom's simpler UI and polished reports are a better fit if your primary users are non-technical stakeholders. Yorker has a web UI for check management but it is designed with a developer workflow in mind.
Does Yorker support OpenTelemetry — Pingdom doesn't?
Correct. Yorker is OTel-native — every check emits OTLP metrics, traces, and logs to your chosen backend. Pingdom has no OTel integration: results are visible only in the Pingdom dashboard or via their proprietary API. If your team is standardizing on OTel, Yorker fits that stack and Pingdom doesn't.
Related Reading
Native Playwright checks with filmstrip screenshots — the modern alternative to Selenium transaction monitoring.
How Yorker's OTel-native emission brings synthetic checks into your observability stack.
Full pricing — publicly visible, no sales call, no enterprise process.
Ready to move to native Playwright?
Start free — no credit card — and migrate your first Pingdom uptime check to Yorker in minutes. Browser checks with OTel telemetry and private locations included.