Indie dev builds $9/month uptime monitor in a day, finally freeing zero-revenue side projects from Pingdom and Datadog's $50 vampire bills

A developer, frustrated with expensive uptime monitoring services, built a $9/month alternative, OwlPulse, in just one day. The creator, seeking a simple solution for side projects earning no revenue, was dissatisfied with existing services like Pingdom and Datadog due to their high costs and complexity. Using FastAPI, SQLite, and APScheduler, OwlPulse offers basic uptime monitoring, checking if a site is up and sending notifications if it goes down. The service has a free tier with three monitors and five-minute checks, as well as a pro plan with unlimited monitors, one-minute checks, and webhooks for $9/month. With a REST API and webhook callbacks, OwlPulse provides flexibility for integration into various platforms. The solution, comprising approximately 500 lines of Python code, is now live at owlpulse.org, offering a cost-effective alternative for indie developers and small projects, highlighting the potential for simple, affordable solutions in the monitoring industry.