SitePing vs Watchful
Watchful manages WordPress and Joomla sites for $1.83 per site a month. SitePing also covers Drupal and PrestaShop, checks every site from inside every 15 minutes and makes its own encrypted backups.
What it costs each month
Watchful has one plan, Premium, at the same price for every site. SitePing lowers the price per site as the number of sites grows.
| 10 sites | 50 sites | 100 sites | |
|---|---|---|---|
| WatchfulPremium, $1.83 per site a month | $18.30 | $91.50 | $183.00 |
| SitePing EssentialsAgent in every site, security checks, updates, uptime from several regions | $22.50 | $91.25 | $166.25 |
| SitePing ProEssentials plus backups and updates with rollback; backup storage from $4.90 a month for 50 GB | $33.75 | $133.75 | $246.25 |
Watchful: prices read on the official price list on 18 October 2026. The line under the name says which plan, how it is billed and whether VAT is included; where it says nothing, billing is monthly and VAT is excluded. SitePing: list prices before VAT, monthly billing, the same amount in euro and US dollars; annual billing is 20% less. Other currencies are not converted.
SitePing and Watchful, feature by feature
| SitePing | Watchful | |
|---|---|---|
| Supported CMS | ||
| WordPress | Yes5.0 and later | Yes |
| Joomla | Yes3.9 to 6 | Yes |
| Drupal | Yes7 to 11 | No |
| PrestaShop | Yes1.7.6 to 9 | No |
| Checks from outside | ||
| Uptime monitoring | YesEvery 1 to 60 minutes; Free every 5 | YesPremium |
| Outages confirmed from other locations | Yes | Not stated |
| SSL certificate expiry | Yes | YesPremium |
| Domain expiry | Yes | Not stated |
| DNS record changes | Yes | Not stated |
| Blacklist checks | Yes | Yes |
| Public status pages | YesOne on Free, three on Essentials, more on Pro | Not stated |
| Security inside the site | ||
| Plugin or agent inside the site | Yes | Yes |
| Known vulnerabilities in plugins and extensions | YesEvery sync, every 15 minutes | PartlyOne of the scanner audits |
| Malware scan of the site files | YesSignatures on code files, PHP in uploads | PartlyScanner audits on request, an early-warning scan once a day |
| Core files compared with the official release | YesOn all four CMS | YesCore Integrity audit |
| SEO spam and cloaking | YesSitemap spam on every plan; Googlebot comparison in Complete | Not stated |
| Security fixes for end-of-life CMS versions | YesJoomla 3.10 and PrestaShop 1.7.8; in Complete or $2.90 per site | Not stated |
| Maintenance | ||
| Updates from the dashboard | Yes | YesScheduled updates; bulk updates only where a backup is recent |
| Automatic rollback of a failed update | PartlyWordPress plugins and themes, database included | Not stated |
| Backups and restore | YesPro and Complete, encrypted and incremental | PartlyScheduled backups to local or cloud storage |
| Backups encrypted with your own key | Yes | Not stated |
| One-click admin login | Yes | Not stated |
| Client reports with your logo | YesMonthly PDF, Pro and Complete | YesWhite-label reports |
| Protection and services | ||
| Firewall that blocks attacks | NoIt detects and alerts; it does not block traffic | Not stated |
| Malware cleanup by their team | Paid extraPer site, WordPress and Joomla | Not stated |
What Watchful does comes from its website, read on 18 October 2026. "Not stated" means we did not find it there: it may still exist. If something has changed, tell us and we will correct the page.
Where Watchful is the better choice
- One flat price of $1.83 per site. With 10 sites or fewer it costs less than SitePing Essentials.
- Central management of commercial extension licences, which SitePing does not have.
- Updates scheduled for business hours, and bulk updates limited to sites that have a recent backup.
What SitePing does differently
- Drupal and PrestaShop in the same dashboard as WordPress and Joomla, with the same agent and the same checks.
- An alert when a new administrator appears, a core file changes or a PHP file shows up in the uploads folder.
- Outages confirmed from other regions before the critical alert.
- Active Shield: security fixes for Joomla 3.10.12, which no longer gets official ones.
- Updates of WordPress plugins and themes that roll back on their own, database included, if the site breaks.
Try SitePing next to what you use today: the 30-day trial needs no credit card.
Start free trialFrequently asked questions
Can I try SitePing without removing Watchful?
Yes. Install the SitePing plugin on the sites you want to try during the 30-day trial and compare the alerts you get from both.
Does SitePing support Joomla 3?
Yes: Joomla 3.9 and 3.10 with PHP 7.1 and later, plus Joomla 4.4, 5 and 6. On Joomla 3.10.12 Active Shield adds security fixes Joomla no longer publishes.
Which one costs less?
It depends on the number of sites. Watchful charges $1.83 for every site. SitePing Essentials charges more for the first 5 sites and less for each bracket after that. The table on this page shows both at 10, 50 and 100 sites.
Other comparisons
- SitePing vs WP UmbrellaWP Umbrella covers WordPress only. SitePing runs the same checks on Joomla, Drupal and PrestaShop.
- SitePing vs ManageWPManageWP is free with paid add-ons, for WordPress only. SitePing covers four CMS with security checks included.
- SitePing vs WP RemoteWP Remote is WordPress only, with a firewall and visual tests. SitePing covers four CMS.
- SitePing vs CMS CommanderCMS Commander is a cheap WordPress dashboard with no security checks on its pages. SitePing is built around them.
- SitePing vs HTProtectHTProtect is a low-cost Joomla dashboard. SitePing adds WordPress, Drupal, PrestaShop and checks from outside.
- SitePing vs LemwatchLemwatch watches sites from outside. SitePing does that for free up to 50 sites and adds an agent inside the CMS.
See what SitePing finds on your sites.
Connect a few client sites during the trial and compare the alerts with the tool you have now.
- Every Complete feature except backups
- Up to 10 sites
- No credit card needed to start
- At the end you choose a plan or move to Free, and nothing is charged
Already have an account? Log in. Prefer to look at one site first? Free read-only audit.