Vitalgate vs Calibre
Calibre monitors production: scheduled synthetic tests from many locations, real-user monitoring and detailed reports. Vitalgate guards the pull request: every change is audited and blocked if it breaks a budget. Many teams need the first; every team shipping often needs the second.
| Feature | Vitalgate | Calibre |
|---|---|---|
| Main job | Block regressions in pull requests | Monitor live sites continuously |
| Pull request checks | Built in: a GitHub check and a results comment | Possible through its CLI and API in your CI |
| Synthetic monitoring | Per pull request, on GitHub Actions | Scheduled tests, many locations and devices |
| Real-user data | Chrome UX Report (p75, 28 days) | Chrome UX Report plus its own RUM |
| Alerts | Email, Slack, Discord | Yes |
| Free plan | Yes, 1 repository | No, 15-day trial |
| Price | Free for 1 repository; Pro is $29/month per workspace for unlimited repositories. | From $75/month |
Calibre details from its own site, checked October 2026. Calibre pricing: Starter $75/month, Team $150/month, Company $1,500/month billed yearly; 15-day free trial.
What a pull request gets from Vitalgate
A results comment, updated on every push, and a "Vitalgate" check that fails when a required budget is broken. Make the check required and the pull request can't be merged.
Vitalgate: a required performance budget was exceeded
| Metric | This PR | Change vs baseline | Budget | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Performance score | 81 | -11 | ≥ 90 (required) | |
| Largest Contentful Paint | 2.91s | +38% | ≤ 2.50s (required) | |
| Cumulative Layout Shift | 0.020 | no change | ≤ 0.100 | |
| First Contentful Paint | 1.42s | +2% | ≤ 1.80s | |
| Total Blocking Time | 0.24s | +33% | ≤ 0.30s |
Median of 3 Lighthouse lab runs on this workflow's runner. Full report on Vitalgate
Before release vs after release
Calibre tells you how your production site is doing and when it changed. Vitalgate runs on each pull request, so a slow change fails its check before it's merged. If regressions keep reaching production, the pull request is the cheaper place to catch them.
Where Calibre is stronger
Calibre has scheduled tests from many locations and devices, its own real-user monitoring, deeper reports and SSO on larger plans. Vitalgate's real-user view is the Chrome UX Report only, which needs enough public traffic to show data.
Choose Calibre for
- Monitoring production around the clock from many locations
- Teams that need their own real-user monitoring
- Sites behind logins or with low public traffic
Choose Vitalgate for
- Stopping regressions before merge, on every pull request
- Small teams that want a free plan to start
- Teams already on GitHub Actions and Vercel or Netlify previews