If you have a website or a web application then it is essential that you reach your users without any downtime whatsoever. And even if there is a downtime, it’s important to know when the downtime has occurred and how long it is. This helps you to pinpoint the problem and troubleshoot if needed. One way to monitor your website or web application is to launch your Google Analytics and stare at your monitor 24×7.
Though you can do that, it is not the most efficient or sane way to do it. So, to help you with your website or web application uptime monitoring, here are some of the best and free best website monitoring tools.
Website Monitoring Service
1. Uptime Robot
Uptime Robot is one of the most popular uptime monitoring tools. The good thing about Uptime Robot is that it lets you monitor or check multiple types like HTTP(s), Pings, Ports, etc. You can even set maintenance windows if you know your website or service is going on a scheduled downtime.
The number of services you can monitor for free: 50 monitors.
Check intervals: 5-minute intervals or 1-minute monitoring intervals (paid)
How it alerts: Email alerts is free, SMS alert is paid.
2. Uptime Monitoring with Google Docs
If you don’t want to use a dedicated uptime monitoring tool then you can use the Google Docs to monitor your website uptime. It is free and there are no limits on how many websites you can monitor. Just head over to the official website, copy the website uptime monitoring doc, follow the instructions over there and you are good to go. Every time there is a downtime, it will list the details in the Google Sheet and you will also receive alerts.
The number of services you can monitor for free: Unlimited.
Check intervals: Every few minutes.
How it alerts: via Email and SMS, both are free.
3. SiteUptime
Using SiteUptime you can monitor one website from eight different locations for accurate uptime monitoring reports. SiteUptime also provides you with monthly reports, online statistics, and public statistics. However, you cannot configure it to monitor Ping and DNS on the free plan.
The number of services you can monitor for free: 1 monitor
Check intervals: 30 and 60-minute intervals or 2-minutes for paid users.
How it alerts: via Email is free, SMS and call alerts are paid features.
4. Monitis
Using Monitis you can monitor many different things like websites, web applications, cloud, servers, etc. The good thing about Monitis is that you can monitor almost anything, including your own custom applications using the Monitis API.
The number of services you can monitor: 1 monitor.
Check intervals: 1, 3, and 5-minute intervals.
How it alerts: via Email, SMS, and twitter.
5. UPTIMIA
UPTIMIA’s free plan lets you monitor one website from five different data centers. When there is a downtime, it will alert you via email. However, you cannot do transaction monitoring or full load monitoring with the free plan.
The number of services you can monitor: 1 monitor.
Check intervals: 5-minute intervals or 1-minute for paid users.
How it alerts: alerts you via Email, SMS and call are under paid plan.
6. Happy Apps
Happy Apps lets you not only monitor the website uptime but also the response time. Moreover, you can also use it to monitor your apps, servers, databases, etc. The unique thing about Happy Apps is that it lets you execute custom quires and Regex search at each check
The number of services you can monitor: 3 monitors.
Check intervals: 5-minute intervals for free users and 1-minute checks for paid users.
How it alerts: via Email is free, SMS alerts are paid.
7. AppBeat
AppBeat is a dedicated service to monitor your website or web application uptime with just a few clicks. The good thing about AppBeat is that it lets you migrate your existing monitors on other services to AppBeat. Moreover, if you have some special applications then the devs at AppBeat can help you create a custom solution to monitor and reliability.
The number of services you can monitor: 3 monitors.
Check intervals: 5-minute intervals for free users and 1-minute checks for paid users
How it alerts: via Email. The free plan is limited to 30 emails per month.
8. PingMy.site
PingMySite lets you monitor one website from 30 different locations with one-minute intervals between the checks. When there is a downtime, the service will let you know the same via email, SMS, and mobile push notifications. Apart from that, if you chose to subscribe to their paid plan, you will get a free SSL certificate for one year.
The number of services you can monitor: 1 monitor.
Check intervals: one-minute intervals between checks.
How it alerts: via Email, SMS, Twitter, and mobile push notifications.
9. Monitive
Monitive lets you monitor the uptime for a wide variety of things like HTTP(s), FTP, MySQL, POP3, SMTP, IMAP, DNS, PING, etc. As soon as there is a downtime, it will let you know via Email or Twitter. Moreover, if there is a downtime greater than 2-minutes, Monitive will start automated diagnosis routine to help you in the troubleshooting process. If you want the SMS notifications then you need to signup for their paid plan.
The number of services you can monitor: 1 monitor.
Check intervals: 10-minute interval between checks or 1-minute checks for paid users.
How it alerts: via Email and Twitter for free while SMS alerts are paid.
10 Uptime Spy
Uptime Spy is yet another uptime monitoring tool that monitors your website from different locations. Unlike other services, Uptime Spy can pinpoint specific routes where your website or server is unreliable. Using Uptime Spy, you can also monitor ports and custom strings of your website or application.
The number of services you can monitor: 1 monitor.
Check intervals: 5-minute interval between checks.
How it alerts: via Email. SMS alerts are only available for paid plans.
Hope that helps and if you think I missed any of your favorite Website monitoring service then do comment below sharing them in the comments section.