Mackerel review
A broad monitoring toolkit with useful anomaly detection and a limited free tier.
Reviewed by iTechGuides Editors · Editorial team · Updated Oct 2026
Mackerel is a cloud-based infrastructure monitoring service for teams operating servers, applications, containers, and multi-cloud environments. It supports Linux and Windows Server hosts, host and service metrics, warning and critical thresholds, dashboards, alert routing, external URL checks, SSL certificate monitoring, and downtime controls. Cloud teams that need centralized visibility across AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, Amazon ECS, or Kubernetes are the clearest fit.
The published plans make Mackerel accessible for small monitoring footprints. The Free plan covers up to 5 standard hosts and micro hosts combined, up to 500 metrics, 1-day data retention, and up to 20 external monitors free of charge. A two-week free trial is available, after which the Free plan is automatically transferred. Standard costs ¥2,180 tax included per standard host-month or ¥660 tax included per micro host-month, billed monthly. It adds 460-day data retention, while usage-based billing also applies to hosts, metrics, and trace spans. Teams should estimate usage across those components rather than treating the starting host price as a complete fixed subscription.
Mackerel’s ecosystem fit is one of its stronger attributes. Alert notifications can reach email, Slack, Chatwork, Microsoft Teams, PagerDuty, Twilio, and webhooks, while plugins, REST APIs, and the mkr command-line tool support extensions. Custom dashboards include graph, number, and Markdown widgets, and expression monitoring supports calculated metrics and forecasts. Machine-learning anomaly detection for roles adds an analytical layer beyond threshold alerts. Mackerel is a sensible choice for cloud and container teams that value broad monitoring functions and integrations; teams needing longer Free-plan retention or a simpler fixed-cost structure should look closely at the Standard billing model before choosing it.
Mackerel pros and cons
- Where it wins
- Monitors hosts, services, URLs, SSL certificates, clouds, and containers
- Machine-learning anomaly detection supports role-based monitoring
- Alerts connect with Slack, Teams, PagerDuty, webhooks, and more
- Where it doesn't
- Free plan retains data for only 1 day
- Free plan covers up to 5 standard and micro hosts combined
- Standard billing varies with hosts, metrics, and trace spans
Mackerel fact sheet, pricing and score →
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