LastPing vs Dead Man's Snitch: free unlimited cron monitoring with CI/CD built in
Dead Man's Snitch is a focused, reliable cron monitor. Its free tier is one snitch, failure detail (error notices) requires the $49/mo plan, and there is no CI/CD pipeline monitoring. LastPing is free for individuals with no monitor cap, failure detail included rather than paywalled, and first-class CI/CD pipeline monitoring for GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, and Jenkins.
On this page
The honest verdict, up front
Dead Man's Snitch does one thing and does it well: it alerts you when a cron job stops checking in. If your needs are exactly that (a handful of cron monitors with solid Slack integration and a team that knows the product), it is a fine choice with a solid track record.
LastPing is the better pick when you want unlimited monitors, need CI/CD pipelines covered alongside cron jobs, or don't want to pay $49/mo just to know why a job failed. LastPing is free with no monitor cap, attaches failure detail to every incident at no extra cost, and treats GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, and Jenkins pipelines as first-class monitors: one signed webhook, zero YAML changes, catches runs that fail, hang, or never start.
The free-tier math
The comparison most people are actually here for.
Dead Man's Snitch: as of 2026
- 1 snitch on the free plan
- Paid plans from ~$5/mo
- Error notices (failure detail) require the $49/mo tier
- Heartbeat / cron monitoring only: no CI/CD pipelines
LastPing: free for individuals
- No monitor cap: heartbeat, HTTP, and CI/CD all included
- Failure detail included: deep link + failing-step log excerpt
- CI/CD pipeline monitoring: one signed webhook, zero YAML
- Free for individuals: no card, no trial clock
Feature by feature
Only rows we can stand behind. Where Dead Man's Snitch wins, the table says so.
| Capability | LastPing | Dead Man's Snitch |
|---|---|---|
| Free tier monitor cap | ✓ No cap: unlimited monitors free | ✗ 1 snitch on the free plan |
| Cron / heartbeat monitoring | ✓ Curl a ping URL; cron or simple-interval schedules, grace windows, time zones | ✓ Focused and reliable: the core product |
| CI/CD pipeline monitoring | ✓ Included free: one signed webhook (GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, Jenkins), zero YAML | ✗ Heartbeat-only by design |
| CI/CD failure-reason detail | ✓ Deep link to the run + optional failing-step log excerpt on the incident, free | ✗ Not applicable: no CI/CD monitoring |
| Failure detail / error notices | ✓ Failure detail attached to every incident: included free | ✗ Error notices require the $49/mo plan (as of 2026) |
| Agent-first MCP server | ✓ MCP server: AI agents can create, query, and silence monitors | ✗ |
| HTTP / uptime probing | ✓ Status code, latency, keyword checks | ✗ Heartbeat-only by design |
| Alert channels | ◐ Nine destinations: email, Slack, Discord, Telegram, signed webhook, ntfy, Pushover, Microsoft Teams, Google Chat. No SMS or phone. | ✓ Email, Slack, webhooks; richer Slack snitch embeds |
| Teams & multi-user | ✗ Single-user today (top roadmap item) | ✓ Team features on paid plans |
| Public status pages | ✓ Public status pages + embeddable badges | ✗ |
| Track record | ◐ New: built in public, monitors itself with itself | ✓ Long-established product |
Dead Man's Snitch's plans and features are theirs to define and change: check deadmanssnitch.com for current details. This table reflects our understanding at the time of writing.
Migrating is one URL change
Both tools use the same mechanism: your job curls a unique ping URL when it finishes. Switching does not require a rewrite.
# before — end of your cron job
curl https://nosnch.in/<token>
# after — same one-liner, different URL
curl -fsS https://ping.lastping.dev/<id>
Create a monitor in LastPing, copy the ping URL, and drop it in wherever
you previously called the Snitch URL. Both tools signal failure the same
way: append
/fail
to the URL or send a non-200 response. Your account email is attached as
an alert destination automatically: nothing else to configure.
Questions people ask
Front-loaded answers: the most important fact first.
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Is there a free alternative to Dead Man's Snitch?
Yes. LastPing is a Dead Man's Snitch alternative that is free for individuals, with no monitor cap. It covers cron/heartbeat monitoring and CI/CD pipeline monitoring (GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, Jenkins via one signed webhook), all fully hosted. Failure detail is included, not a paid add-on.
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How does Dead Man's Snitch's free tier compare to LastPing?
Dead Man's Snitch offers 1 snitch on its free plan, with paid plans starting around $5/mo. Error notices (the failure detail feature) require the $49/mo tier as of 2026. LastPing has no monitor cap, is free for individuals, and includes failure detail (CI failure-reason with a failing-step log excerpt) instead of gating it behind a plan.
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When is Dead Man's Snitch the better choice?
If you need team collaboration features, Slack-native alerting with rich snitch status embeds, or a product with a long track record in the cron-monitoring space, Dead Man's Snitch is a solid pick. LastPing is single-user today and a newer product.
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Does LastPing include failure detail like Dead Man's Snitch's error notices?
Yes, and it's free. LastPing attaches CI/CD failure detail (a deep link to the exact run and an optional failing-step log excerpt) directly to the incident at no extra cost. Dead Man's Snitch requires its $49/mo plan for comparable error notice functionality.
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Can LastPing monitor GitHub Actions workflows, not just cron jobs?
Yes. LastPing monitors CI/CD pipelines as first-class monitors: one HMAC-signed webhook registered in your repository catches runs that fail, hang, or never start, with zero YAML changes. Dead Man's Snitch is heartbeat-only; covering GitHub Actions would require adding a curl step to every workflow. GitHub Actions guide →
Unlimited monitors. Failure detail included. CI/CD built in.
One curl for cron jobs, one signed webhook for CI pipelines. No monitor cap, no failure-detail paywall. Free for individuals.