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Add your site
Point NorthDuty at a base URL and it begins rendered health checks right away.
NorthDuty vs Ghost Inspector
Ghost Inspector is a capable automated browser-testing tool for building and running recorded UI and visual tests. If you are comparing alternatives, the question is whether you want a QA test suite to author and maintain, or continuous production monitoring with less setup.
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Continuous health checks and low-setup journeys — no test suite to maintain.
NorthDuty vs Ghost Inspector
Both can exercise UI in a real browser; the difference is monitoring-first simplicity versus a scripted test suite.
| Criteria | NorthDuty | Ghost Inspector |
|---|---|---|
| Primary purpose | Continuous website monitoring of production pages and journeys | Automated browser and visual testing you author and maintain |
| Setup effort | Low — add a URL, accept AI-suggested journeys, or describe one in plain text | Higher — record and maintain test steps and assertions |
| Uptime & page health | Built in — uptime, SSL, DNS, blank-page and error detection on every check | Focused on test execution rather than uptime and page-health monitoring |
| Best for | Teams that want production monitoring with minimal upkeep | QA teams that want detailed scripted E2E and visual tests |
Where scripted browser testing fits best
Ghost Inspector is strong for QA teams that want to record, script, and maintain detailed end-to-end and visual tests, often wired into a CI pipeline. That control is valuable when you are validating specific behaviors before release.
The trade-off is setup and maintenance: recorded tests need to be authored, kept in step with UI changes, and curated over time. For teams whose main goal is simply knowing whether production pages and key flows still work, that can be more machinery than they need.
Why monitoring-first with low setup matters
Many teams do not want to build and maintain a test suite — they want to be told when a live page breaks or a journey stops completing. The goal is continuous coverage of production with minimal upkeep, not a growing library of scripts.
NorthDuty is monitoring-first: it runs rendered health checks continuously, and it suggests 2–5 user journeys automatically or lets you describe one in plain text — no recording or code required. It watches production on a schedule and alerts you when something changes.
How NorthDuty monitors without a test suite
NorthDuty gives you journey and page-health coverage without authoring scripts.
2
Accept suggested journeys
NorthDuty proposes 2–5 key journeys to enable in one click, or you describe your own in plain text.
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Review failed steps
Each journey run keeps a step timeline with screenshots, so a failure shows exactly where the flow broke.
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Get alerted on change
When a page or journey breaks, you are notified with the reason — no test maintenance required.
Explore Related NorthDuty Pages
Review the product pages and supporting content that explain the monitoring depth behind the comparison.
Feature
User Journey Monitoring
NorthDuty runs your checkout, signup, login and form flows in a real browser on a schedule and reports the exact step that failed, with a screenshot.
Explore User Journey MonitoringFeature
Synthetic Monitoring
Use real-browser checks and multi-step user journeys to surface website failures before customers report them.
Explore Synthetic MonitoringArticle
Why Websites Break Without Going Offline
Learn why websites can break without going fully offline and how website health monitoring helps detect silent failures.
Read Why Websites Break Without Going OfflineArticle
What Is User Journey Monitoring?
User journey monitoring runs checkout, signup, login and forms in a real browser on a schedule and alerts on the step that fails. How it works, how often.
Read What Is User Journey Monitoring?Pricing
Pricing
NorthDuty plans are sized by how many checkout, signup and login journeys you monitor: Free, $29 Starter, $79 Pro, $199 Business. 7-day trial, no card.
Compare pricing plansFrequently Asked Questions
Answers to common buying questions for teams comparing monitoring options.
What is a good Ghost Inspector alternative?
If you want continuous production monitoring rather than a scripted test suite to maintain, NorthDuty is a strong alternative — it runs rendered health checks and plain-text or AI-suggested journeys with minimal setup.
Does NorthDuty do visual regression like Ghost Inspector?
No. NorthDuty does not run pixel-level visual regression tests. It focuses on whether customers can complete checkout, signup, login, and forms (journeys) and whether the site is up and healthy. If pixel-level visual testing is your main need, Ghost Inspector is the better fit.
Do I have to write or record tests in NorthDuty?
No. NorthDuty suggests journeys automatically and lets you describe others in plain text, so there is no recording or code to author and maintain.
Start monitoring your website with NorthDuty today.
Choose NorthDuty when you want continuous website monitoring with rendered health checks and low-setup user journeys instead of a scripted test suite to maintain.
7 days with Pro features and limits, no credit card — then keep one daily journey on the free plan.