DebugBear vs PageVitals (2026): which should you pick?
As of Oct 23, 2026, PageVitals grades higher than DebugBear: 2.4 against 2.2 out of 4.0.
Checked Oct 23, 2026 · graded Oct 23, 2026 by ToolGPA
PageVitals grades higher on value for money. They get the same grade on the free plan, features, ease of use and platforms.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
DebugBear
Page speed and Core Web Vitals monitoring with lab tests and RUM
PageVitals
Page speed monitoring with Lighthouse tests, RUM and CrUX data
Which one is for you
Pick DebugBear if
- Fits if you need lab, real-user and CrUX speed data for a site in one account
- Works for developers who want slow-page fixes as prompts for Claude Code or Cursor
Look elsewhere if
- Pricey if you have one small site, at $99 a month on yearly billing with no free plan
- Tight if you run several sites, as Startup covers 1 project and Team at $249 has 5
- Watch out: extra real-user page views, tests and projects are added for an extra monthly fee
- Not for you if you need SSO or invoice payment, which are Enterprise only at a custom price
Pick PageVitals if
- Fits if you run a couple of small sites and want lab, RUM and CrUX data on one plan
- Works for agencies tracking Core Web Vitals for several client websites
Look elsewhere if
- Skip it if you want a free plan, as there's only a 14-day trial and the pricing page says no refunds
- Pricey if you need the API, webhooks, CI/CD or tests behind a login, which start at Growth, $39 a month billed yearly
- Watch out: when the month's tests run out, testing stops until the next cycle, and unused tests don't roll over
- Tight if you test a lot, as 5,000 extra synthetic tests are a $50 a month add-on
How we grade them
| 2.2GPADebugBearFair | 2.4GPAPageVitalsFair | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | CStartup is $99 a month billed yearly ($1,188 a year) for 4,000 lab tests, 100,000 real-user page views and 1 project, in this category's dearer quarter. Team is $249 and Corporate / Agency $699. | BStarter is $12 a month billed yearly ($15 monthly), inside this category's cheapest quarter. That's 2 websites, 1,000 synthetic tests and 50,000 RUM pageviews a month. The REST API, webhooks and CI/CD need Growth at $39. |
| Free plan and trial | CNo free plan, but the 14-day trial needs no card. After it, plans start at $99 a month on yearly billing. | CNo free plan, but a 14-day trial with all features and 300 tests, and no card needed. The pricing page says it gives no refunds, so the trial is the only way to try it. |
| Features | CLighthouse lab tests including logged-in pages and user flows, real user Core Web Vitals with INP attribution, CrUX tracking against competitors, waterfalls, speed experiments, alerts and uptime checks. It does speed monitoring fully, but that's a smaller job. | CLighthouse and waterfall tests from 11 regions, RUM through a script, CrUX history with competitor comparison, multi-step tests and budgets with alerts. It covers speed monitoring fully, but that's a smaller job than technical SEO, with no crawling or indexing checks. |
| Ease of use | CNo rating on record. You set up projects, pages and test schedules, then read waterfalls across three kinds of data. | CNo rating on record. RUM needs a script added through GTM, WordPress, Shopify, Wix or Magento, and the tests, multi-step flows and budgets all have to be set up. |
| Platforms and integrations | BWeb, with an API, Slack, Microsoft Teams, GitHub, Looker Studio, Netlify, Vercel and CircleCI. No desktop or phone app. | BWeb only, with alerts by email, Slack, Teams or webhook, plus Search Console, GitHub Actions, Zapier, a CLI and a JavaScript SDK. The REST API and CI/CD start at Growth. |
| Best for | speed and Core Web Vitals monitoring | speed monitoring with lab, RUM and CrUX data |
The GPA is the average of the five grades: an A is 4 points, an F is none. The full reasons are on each tool's page: DebugBear and PageVitals. How we grade
Price against what you get
DebugBear starts at $99 a month and scores 2.3 out of 4 on features, ease of use and platforms. PageVitals starts at $12 a month and scores 2.3.
They score the same, and PageVitals starts $87 a month lower. Of the other technical SEO tools on the chart, 7 score higher than DebugBear for less, and 5 score higher than PageVitals for less.
Features, ease of use and platforms, averaged
What paid plans start at, a month (each step along is roughly double) →
- The best score at each price
- Has a free plan
- No free plan
Where they differ
- DebugBear also covers dashboards.
- PageVitals also covers reports.
At a glance
| DebugBear | PageVitals | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free trial | Free trial |
| Starts at | $99 per month, billed yearly ($1,188 a year) | $12 per month, billed annually ($15 billed monthly) |
| Free plan | None | None |
| Free trial | 14-day free trial, no credit card required | 14-day free trial with all features and 300 tests, no credit card needed |
| Web | ||
| Made by | DebugBear Ltd | PageVitals ApS |
| Price read from | debugbear.com | pagevitals.com |
| Checked | Oct 23, 2026 | Oct 23, 2026 |
Worth knowing
DebugBear
- There is no free plan; after the 14-day trial, plans start at $99 a month on yearly billing.
- Startup covers 1 project and 10 users; more projects need Team (5) or Corporate / Agency (100).
- Extra RUM page views, synthetic tests and projects can be added to a plan for an extra monthly fee.
- Single sign-on, invoice payment and custom data retention come only with the custom-priced Enterprise plan.
PageVitals
- There is no free plan, and the pricing page says it gives no refunds; the 14-day trial is offered instead.
- The REST API, webhooks, CI/CD integration and tests behind a login start at Growth, $39 a month billed annually.
- When the monthly test allowance runs out, testing stops until the next billing cycle; unused tests do not roll over.
- Extra tests are add-ons: 5,000 synthetic tests for $50 a month, 100,000 field tests for $10 a month.
Key features
DebugBear
- Synthetic monitoring
- Scheduled and on-demand Lighthouse lab tests from test locations around the world, including pages behind a login and multi-step user flows.
- Real user monitoring
- Measures Core Web Vitals for real visitors and shows which page elements and scripts cause slow interactions that hurt INP.
- Google CrUX data
- Tracks Chrome User Experience Report data over time and compares your site's real-visitor speed with competitors.
- Waterfalls and recommendations
- Request waterfalls tied to CPU and rendering activity, automatic fix suggestions, and ready-made prompts for coding agents such as Claude Code or Cursor.
- Page speed experiments
- Try an optimization on a test run to see its effect before deploying the change to the live site.
- Alerts, comparisons and exports
- Automatic alerts on regressions, before-and-after comparisons, chart annotations, video exports and PDF or CSV reports. Data is kept for 24 months.
PageVitals
- Scheduled Lighthouse tests
- Synthetic tests on desktop and mobile from 11 regions, with Lighthouse and network waterfall reports. One page tested daily uses about 60 tests a month.
- Real-user monitoring
- A script collects LCP, INP, CLS and TTFB from real visits, filterable by device, location and network. Installs through GTM, WordPress, Shopify, Wix or Magento.
- CrUX reports
- Chrome UX Report data for the whole site and for single pages, with 6 months of weekly history and competitor comparison.
- Multi-step tests
- Scripted tests that follow a user flow across several steps, from 5 on Starter to 100 on Pro.
- Performance budgets and alerts
- Budgets on 25+ lab and field metrics, with defaults based on Google's recommendations, and alerts by email, Slack, Teams or webhook.
- Developer workflow
- A GitHub Action, CLI, JavaScript SDK, REST API and a Zapier connection. The API and CI/CD integration start at the Growth plan.
Plans
DebugBear
Startup$99
per month, billed yearly ($1,188 a year)
4,000 synthetic tests (about 125 pages tested daily), 100,000 RUM page views, 10 uptime monitors, 1 project and 10 users.
Team$249
per month, billed yearly ($2,988 a year)
10,000 synthetic tests (about 320 pages daily), 500,000 RUM page views, 50 uptime monitors, 5 projects and 50 users.
Corporate / Agency$699
per month, billed yearly ($8,388 a year)
50,000 synthetic tests (about 1,600 pages daily), 2 million RUM page views, 100 monitors, 100 projects and unlimited users.
EnterpriseCustom
Custom quotes with invoice payment, single sign-on, security forms, custom contracts and data retention, training and Slack support.
PageVitals
Starter$12
per month, billed annually ($15 billed monthly)
2 websites, 1,000 synthetic tests and 50,000 RUM pageviews a month, 5 multi-step tests and 6 months of data.
Growth$39
per month, billed annually ($49 billed monthly)
Up to 10 websites, 5,000 synthetic tests and 250,000 RUM pageviews, plus the REST API, webhooks, CI/CD and tests behind a login.
Pro$79
per month, billed annually ($99 billed monthly)
Up to 25 websites, 10,000 synthetic tests, 2 million RUM pageviews, 24 months of data, priority support and SSO.
Ways to pay less
DebugBear
- Annual discount
Save 20% with yearly billing
DebugBear's pricing page marks yearly billing as a 20% saving over paying month to month.
PageVitals
- Annual discount
About 20% off with annual billing
PageVitals' pricing page shows Starter at $12 a month billed annually against $15 billed monthly, and Pro at $79 against $99.
- Nonprofit
Nonprofit and charity discount
The pricing FAQ says non-profit and charity organizations can get a discount on annual plans by contacting the sales team.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, DebugBear or PageVitals?
As of Oct 23, 2026, PageVitals is cheaper to start with: $12 a month, against $99 a month for DebugBear. DebugBear starts at $99 per month, billed yearly ($1,188 a year), and PageVitals starts at $12 per month, billed annually ($15 billed monthly).
Which has a free plan, DebugBear or PageVitals?
As of Oct 23, 2026, neither DebugBear nor PageVitals has a free plan. Both have a free trial.
More comparisons
How this page was made
- The verdict at the top follows a fixed rule. When both tools are in the same category and either is in our top three for it, the verdict follows that ranking: the higher-placed tool is our pick. The top three weigh who each tool suits as well as its grades, so a pick can go against the GPA. Otherwise the page does not pick one and says which grades higher: the higher GPA first; on a tie, the one with a free plan, then the one that starts cheaper in dollars a month, counted the same way for both; if they are still level, what the choice depends on.
- The grades are our own, from each tool’s review or report card. The GPA is their average.
- Prices, plans and platforms come from each tool’s listing. The table above says where each price was read and when.
- The differences and the answers to the questions are worked out from those listings.