This post will discuss why it is essential to monitor uptime of your website. We will introduce you to some of the tools for monitoring website performance, such as Hetrix Tools and Uptime Robot. These services keep a vigilant eye on your website’s uptime and promptly alert you via SMS, email, or Slack when there’s downtime. Monitoring uptime became essential after a 2017 pitch failure when my podcast website was down, costing a key opportunity.
The Impact of Unexpected Downtime
Don’t let the heading carry you away. I merely wrote a myth, or an act of bravado, or a casual response from many people when you ask them, “How do you track that your website is online and accessible?”
I host my website at web host X, and I have subscribed to their top-notch Plan Y. They guarantee me 99.xxxx percent uptime, so I do not have to worry. – Amar Vyas, October 2017
Epiphany After a Pitch
In mid-November 2017, I was pitching our latest podcast, Fairytales of India, to a brand. We (i.e., gaathastory, my podcasting venture) were almost on cruise control- there was a great fit between the brand and our show. Everything went well, till someone asked us to take them to our podcast website. Needless to say, the website was not accessible.
We learnt later that the server had experienced some issues an hour before we were to start the pitch. Had we known before the meeting that the website was down, we could have taken some corrective measures. Server monitoring was an afterthought till that incident.
The Need to Monitor Uptime of Your Website
Contrary to what some may believe, even if your web host guarantees a 99.xxxx percent uptime, it’s still essential to monitor your website’s uptime. This was a lesson I learned the hard way three years ago when I thought my top-notch hosting plan was enough to ensure my website’s availability.
Why Do Websites Go Down?
Websites can become inaccessible for various reasons: downtime can stem from power failures, disk issues, network problems, shared hosting glitches, or CMS updates breaking functionality.
- Server Issues: The server hosting the site could stop working due to power failure in the datacenter, disk failure, network connectivity issues, among other reasons.
- Web Host Problems: The web host may encounter issues with their setup. This is often the case in a shared hosting environment.
- CMS Errors: An update to the content management system might ‘break’ things. Or a database error or an errant plugin in case of CMS like WordPress or Joomla.
Server Uptime: Monitoring Tools and Services
In the quest for a cost-effective solution to monitor website uptime, I came across several tools. Here are some of the top ones:
Freshping
Freshping, offered by Freshdesk, allows you to set up a maximum of 50 alerts in its base (free) plan. Setting up the account is quite simple – enter your email Id, and name, and you’re good to go!
Hetrix Tools
Hetrix Tools is a mature and robust website monitoring tool. They had an offer for adding free additional monitors, which I found quite useful.
Uptime Robot
Uptime Robot is another popular tool for monitoring website uptime. It’s a freemium tool, meaning it offers both free and premium plans.
PHP Server Monitor
PHP Server Monitor is an open-source, self-hosted tool for monitoring website uptime. It’s a great option if you prefer to have more control over your monitoring tool.
Screpy
Screpy offers uptime monitoring plus SEO and speed optimization, managing up to 10 sites with auto-crawling to detect new pages.
Open Source Tools
Here are some open-source website uptime monitoring services that you may find useful for your needs:
- Upptime
- Description: GitHub-powered open-source uptime monitor and status page.
- Features: Monitor uptime every 5 minutes using GitHub Actions, get a sleek status page, and receive notifications via Slack, Telegram, custom webhooks.
- Source: Upptime
- StatusOK
- Description: Open-source, self-hosted solution to monitor website uptime and APIs.
- Features: Offers monitoring checks, notification options via Slack, email, Mailgun, HTTP Endpoint, and data storage in InfluxDB with Grafana statistics.
- Source: StatusOK
- Uptime Kuma
- Description: Self-hosted monitoring with HTTP/ping/TCP checks, status pages, and multi-protocol support.
Self-Hosted Uptime Monitoring Services
Explore self-hosted uptime monitoring services, including Cabot, PHP Server Monitor, Upptime, and Uptime Kuma, highlighting their features and benefits.
Tips for Selecting Monitoring Tools
When choosing a website monitoring tool, consider whether a free or paid tier suits your needs better. Also, consider whether a self-hosted or SaaS model is more suitable for your situation. Choose based on free vs. paid tiers and self-hosted vs. SaaS, prioritizing cost-effective options like Freshping’s free 50-alert plan.
Additional Resources About Website Monitoring
There are several other sites that provide website monitoring, such as Pingdom and Statuscake. You can learn more about them and other website monitoring tools from the resources listed below: