Pakyas vs Dead Man's Snitch

Both Pakyas and Dead Man's Snitch are hosted "dead man's switch" monitors that catch cron jobs and scheduled tasks when they silently fail to run. This page lays out where they differ — the signal model, the vocabulary each uses to describe a job's state, CLI tooling, alert handling, pricing, and integrations — so you can pick the one that fits your stack.

Pakyas vs Dead Man's Snitch at a glance

Feature-by-feature comparison of Pakyas and Dead Man's Snitch
Dimension Pakyas Dead Man's Snitch
Signal model Execution-signal based: a job proves it ran by sending a ping to a unique URL (https://ping.pakyas.com/{public_id}). Supports distinct start, success, and fail signals plus exit codes (/start, /fail, /{exit_code}), so Pakyas can measure run duration and distinguish a job that started-but-failed from one that never ran. Pings are accepted at a global edge via a Cloudflare Worker. Heartbeat / check-in based: each Snitch is a unique URL (nosnch.in/{token}) you curl after a job completes. A missed check-in within the interval triggers an alert. Supports both fixed-window 'Heartbeat Alerts' and self-adjusting 'Smart Alerts.' A check-in can carry an exit status (curl -d s=$?) so a non-zero exit is reported as an error, but there is no separate job-start signal — so run duration cannot be measured the way a start+finish pair allows.
State vocabulary Job-accurate states surfaced in the UI: Waiting for first ping, On Schedule, Late, Missing, Overrunning, Error, and Paused — deliberately avoiding server-style 'up/down' language. Five documented statuses: 'pending' (new, no check-in yet), 'healthy' (checked in on time), 'failed' (missed its check-in — shown in the UI as a missed/blue state), 'errored' (the job checked in reporting a non-zero exit), and 'paused'. Note 'failed' covers what Pakyas splits into Late and Missing.
CLI tooling First-class command-line interface (pakyas-cli) that wraps a command, signals start/success/fail automatically, and reports duration and exit code without hand-writing curl pipelines. You can curl the Snitch URL directly, but DMS also ships an official CLI wrapper, 'Field Agent' (the `dms` binary), that runs your command, checks in automatically, and reports exit status, run time, and command output. Cross-platform (Linux, macOS, Windows, BSD).
Alert deduplication / flap handling Built-in flap dampening and alert throttling so a job that repeatedly recovers and fails does not generate a storm of duplicate notifications. Sends one notification per failed period and repeats every period until the Snitch is paused or checks in again, plus a recovery notice when it resumes. No documented consecutive-failure threshold or flap dampening; escalation is delegated to integrations like PagerDuty and Opsgenie rather than a built-in policy.
Pricing Four tiers: Free ($0/mo, up to 10 checks), Developer ($9/mo), Pro ($29/mo), and Business ($99/mo). Four tiers: 'The Lone Snitch' (free — 1 Snitch), 'Little Birdy' ($5/mo — 3 Snitches), 'Private Eye' ($19/mo — 100 Snitches), and 'Surveillance Van' ($49/mo — 300 Snitches). Paid plans include unlimited team members; third-party integrations require Private Eye or higher.
Open-source / self-hosted Hosted SaaS only — no open-source or self-hostable edition. Neither Pakyas nor Dead Man's Snitch can be self-hosted. Hosted SaaS only; Dead Man's Snitch is a proprietary service with no open-source or self-hostable edition.
Integrations Delivers alerts via Email, Slack, Discord, Telegram, Webhooks, and SMS. Email by default, plus seven integrations — Slack, PagerDuty, Opsgenie, Microsoft Teams, VictorOps, ilert, and webhooks — and mobile push notifications. No native SMS, Discord, or Telegram. Integrations require a paid plan (Private Eye or higher).

When to pick Dead Man's Snitch

  • You want a mature, battle-tested service with a long track record and minimal moving parts — Dead Man's Snitch is deliberately 'dead simple.'
  • Your alerting already routes through PagerDuty, and you value its established PagerDuty integration path.
  • Your jobs only need a single completion check-in, and you don't need a separate start signal or run-duration tracking.
  • Self-adjusting 'Smart Alerts' that learn a job's cadence and alert sooner are a feature you specifically want.
  • You want a mobile app for managing monitors on the go — Dead Man's Snitch offers native iOS and Android apps (Pakyas does not).

When to pick Pakyas

  • You want richer signals than a single check-in: separate start/success/fail events, exit codes, and automatic run-duration tracking.
  • You want the UI to speak in job-accurate states (On Schedule, Late, Missing, Overrunning, Error, Paused) rather than collapsing missed and late runs into a single 'failed' state.
  • You want your alert channels available on the free tier — Dead Man's Snitch limits its free and entry plans to email and reserves integrations like Slack for higher-priced tiers.
  • Noisy, flapping jobs are a concern and you want built-in flap dampening and alert throttling out of the box — DMS documents no consecutive-failure threshold.
  • You want native delivery to Discord and Telegram (in addition to Email, Slack, Webhooks, and SMS) without bolting on a third-party router.
  • A generous free tier (up to 10 checks) and straightforward $9/$29/$99 paid tiers fit your budget.

The honest tradeoffs

Dead Man's Snitch's strength is simplicity and longevity: one URL per job, curl it when the job finishes, and get alerted when it doesn't — plus 'Smart Alerts' that adapt to a job's rhythm. That minimalism is also its limit. Pakyas trades a little of that simplicity for a richer execution-signal model — distinct start/success/fail events, exit codes, and run-duration tracking — job-accurate state vocabulary, and built-in flap dampening. (Both ship an official command-line wrapper — Pakyas's pakyas-cli and DMS's Field Agent.) If all you need is a single completion check-in and a proven PagerDuty path, Dead Man's Snitch is a fine, focused choice. If you want finer-grained signals, native Discord/Telegram delivery, and noise control built in, Pakyas covers more ground. Both are hosted SaaS, so neither offers self-hosting.

New to the terminology? See the cron monitoring glossary for plain-language definitions, or explore everything Pakyas tracks on the features page.

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