UptimeRobot

Just begun using this, however I like it so far. It is best only for very simple uptime, and ping knowledge of public websites. Not much else.

• It is free since 2010 - they dont yet know their business model going fwd, but been free for a while now
• It collects data down to 5 minute intervals
• Setting up a new acct is 3 fields done in 30 seconds
• UI/UX is slick and stupid-easy
• SMS notification built-in

Compared to: I also compared Pingdom, Port Monitor, New Relic, Zabbix, Splunk The first two had weak free models - 15 days or not frequent enough monitor intervals. The latter three are overly complex for my needs and Zabbix/Splunk have to be installed on a server you own. Splunk did have a cloud version but the signup was complex and I stopped. New Relic had a 15 day trial and their free version (carefully hidden) only allows on website monitor.

They broke it. Monitors are frequently not working, reporting state 30-40 minutes late, or not at all. I have 2 accounts and 1 account may report correctly while the second doesn't - it's just unusable. Support say: “this is normal”.

Right now, I have a monitor that should be up, but isn’t. Their solution? - Reset the stats and lost 3 years of history because it is "stucked in cache". Disgraceful.

No solution and refund from their team.

I have used this service for years with the free plan, to monitor the down times of small personal projects and the websites I develop. In May 2024 I notice that I no longer receive down notifications via their Telegram bot, as was the case until the previous month. I then read on their site that the notification functionality on Telegram has been made exclusive to paid plans. I open a live chat with support, I ask when this change was implemented and why I have not received any communication about it, other than an email in which I was notified of the change in username of their Telegram bot: I am told that the change dates back to around a year ago and that communication was sent via email. After having pointed out to him that what was said contrasts with what I reported, I ask, as compensation for the lack of communication, that the notification functionality via Telegram still be enabled while maintaining my free plan, or that I be offered a discount for one of the paid plans. I am offered a 30% coupon for an annual plan, which on the minimum plan would have made me spend around €126, €130 if paying with PayPal as the fee is recovered from the user. However, an expense that was too high for my needs to justify the upgrade. Disappointed by the experience I had with the support, I opt for an alternative service that allows me to keep the notifications on Telegram and the next day I delete the account on their site.

Add the site UptimeControl.net to the article, because only they have a 3-minute site availability check interval on the free plan.

UptimeRobot works great EXCEPT it will silently ignore expired TLS certificates and pretend everything is fine. I don't want to complain about a free service but this is very sneaky and bit me hard.

It's fine not to include full certificate monitoring/reminders in the free plan, but when my site is down because of TLS issues, I need to know.

It's perhaps not the sexiest, but it works flawlessly (if you like me can live with 5 minute intervals). I've been using it for years and it has not failed me yet. There's even a mobile app and a dashboard page, but I usually stick with the Slack integration for instant notifications.

I have been using this for a few years. It's very simple, and free. - I have not tried the API, so i can't comment on that.