DebugBear vs WebPageTest (2026): which should you pick?
As of Oct 23, 2026, WebPageTest grades higher than DebugBear: 2.6 against 2.2 out of 4.0.
Checked Oct 23, 2026 · graded Oct 23, 2026 by ToolGPA
DebugBear grades higher on platforms. WebPageTest grades higher on value for money, the free plan and ease of use. They get the same grade on features.
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
WebPageTest
Page speed tests from real browsers in locations around the world
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 WebPageTest if
- Fits if you need to see how a page loads in a given browser from a given city
- Works for checking a fix's effect side by side before you change the site, on Pro
Look elsewhere if
- Watch out: every page load counts as a run, so 5 runs with repeat views use 10 of your 150
- Tight if you stay on Starter, with 3 runs per test and no scheduled tests, alerts, API or Experiments
- Not for you if you want to try Pro first, as there's no free trial
- Too light for bigger teams, as a Pro account holds up to 5 members
How we grade them
| 2.2GPADebugBearFair | 2.6GPAWebPageTestGood | |
|---|---|---|
| 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. | BPro is $180 a year for 1,000 test runs a month, $15 a month, inside this category's cheaper quarter, and it holds up to 5 users. Monthly billing is $18.75; 5,000 runs are $840 a year. |
| 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. | BThe free Starter plan gives 150 test runs a month, 30 locations, Lighthouse, filmstrip, video, Opportunities, 3-step scripts and 60 days of history. Enough for one person testing now and then, though repeat views double the count. |
| 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. | CReal-browser tests over connections from 3G to fiber, Lighthouse, filmstrips and Opportunities, with scheduled tests, alerts, Smartboards and Experiments on Pro. It does lab speed testing fully, but that's a smaller job, with no real user data on record. |
| Ease of use | CNo rating on record. You set up projects, pages and test schedules, then read waterfalls across three kinds of data. | BNo rating on record. A test is a page address, a location and a browser, with nothing to install or connect first. |
| Platforms and integrations | BWeb, with an API, Slack, Microsoft Teams, GitHub, Looker Studio, Netlify, Vercel and CircleCI. No desktop or phone app. | CWeb only, with no integrations on record; the API comes only with Pro. No desktop or phone app. |
| Best for | speed and Core Web Vitals monitoring | real-browser page speed tests worldwide |
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 WebPageTest. 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. WebPageTest starts at $15 a month when paid by the year and scores 2.3.
They score the same, and WebPageTest starts $84 a month lower. Of the other technical SEO tools on the chart, 7 score higher than DebugBear for less, and 5 score higher than WebPageTest 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
At a glance
| DebugBear | WebPageTest | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free trial | Free plan |
| Starts at | $99 per month, billed yearly ($1,188 a year) | $180 per year for 1,000 test runs a month ($18.75 billed monthly) |
| Free plan | None | Starter plan: 150 test runs a month (up to 3 per test), 30 test locations, Lighthouse, filmstrip and video, Opportunities, 3-step scripts and 60 days of history. |
| Free trial | 14-day free trial, no credit card required | None listed |
| Web | ||
| Made by | DebugBear Ltd | LogicMonitor |
| Price read from | debugbear.com | logicmonitor.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.
WebPageTest
- Every page load counts as a test run: 5 runs with first and repeat views use 10 of the monthly allowance.
- Starter allows 150 runs a month and 3 runs per test; scheduled tests, alerts, the API and Experiments need Pro.
- There is no free trial of Pro, and a Pro account holds up to 5 team members.
- The webpagetest.org site answered with a bot check; prices were read on LogicMonitor's WebPageTest pricing page.
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.
WebPageTest
- Real-browser tests
- Test in Chrome (stable, beta and canary), Firefox (stable, beta and ESR), Edge and Brave, on desktop or mobile, over connection speeds from 3G to fiber.
- Global test locations
- Starter runs tests from 30 locations across six continents; Pro adds more, including many more US cities.
- Lighthouse, filmstrip and video
- Each test can include a Lighthouse run, a filmstrip and a video of the page loading, on every plan.
- Opportunities
- Recommendations grouped under quickness, usability and resilience, with tips on what to fix. Available to all users.
- Experiments
- Pro runs a proposed optimization side by side with a control test in a sandbox, so its effect shows without changing the site's code.
- Scheduled tests and alerts
- Pro schedules tests, sends custom alerts, builds Smartboards dashboards and keeps 13 months of history, with API, private and bulk testing.
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.
WebPageTest
Starter$0
150 test runs a month, up to 3 runs per test, 30 locations, Lighthouse, Opportunities and 60 days of test history.
Pro 1,000 runs$180
per year for 1,000 test runs a month ($18.75 billed monthly)
Scheduled tests, alerts, Smartboards, API access, Experiments, private and bulk tests, more locations, 13 months of history and up to 5 users.
Pro 5,000 runs$840
per year for 5,000 test runs a month ($87.50 billed monthly)
The same Pro features with a larger monthly allowance of test runs.
Pro 10,000 runs$1,620
per year for 10,000 test runs a month ($168.75 billed monthly)
The same Pro features with 10,000 test runs a month.
Pro 20,000 runs$3,000
per year for 20,000 test runs a month ($312.50 billed monthly)
The largest listed Pro allowance, with 20,000 test runs a month.
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.
WebPageTest
- Annual discount
Save 20% with annual billing
Pro with 1,000 runs a month is $180 a year billed annually, against $18.75 a month billed monthly; the pricing page lists a 20% saving.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, DebugBear or WebPageTest?
As of Oct 23, 2026, WebPageTest is cheaper to start with: $15 a month when paid by the year, against $99 a month for DebugBear. DebugBear starts at $99 per month, billed yearly ($1,188 a year), and WebPageTest starts at $180 per year for 1,000 test runs a month ($18.75 billed monthly).
Which has a free plan, DebugBear or WebPageTest?
As of Oct 23, 2026, only WebPageTest has a free plan. DebugBear does not, though it has 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.