Uptime Monitors
Uptime monitors are the foundation of website monitoring. They check if your website or API is responding to HTTP requests and track response times, status codes, and availability.
What Uptime Monitors Check
Key metrics tracked for your websites
Availability
Whether your server answers within the site's timeout: 10 seconds unless you choose another.
Status Codes
HTTP status codes returned (2xx = success, 4xx/5xx = failures).
Response Time
How long the server takes to respond, tracked in milliseconds.
SSL Certificate
Certificate validity, expiration dates, and issuer information.
Configuration Options
Settings for your uptime monitors
URL
The full URL to monitor, including protocol (http:// or https://). You can monitor any publicly accessible URL.
https://api.example.com/health
https://shop.example.com/products
HTTP Method
Every check is a GET request, the way a browser loads the page. Other methods are not offered.
Timeout
How long a check waits for an answer before it counts as failed, chosen in the site's settings. The default is 10 seconds. The regions that confirm a failure wait as long.
Check Interval
How often to run the check. Faster intervals catch issues sooner but use more of your plan's check quota.
Understanding Monitor Status
What each status indicator means
UP
Your site is responding with a successful status code (2xx) within the timeout period. All is well.
DEGRADED
A content or dependency check set to Degraded severity is failing, or a dependency reports degraded service. It is less urgent than a DOWN outage.
DOWN
Your site is not responding or is returning error status codes. Other regions re-check each failure; if any of them sees the site up, no alert is sent.
Best Practices
Tips for effective uptime monitoring
- Monitor your homepage AND health endpoint
Your homepage tests the full stack, while a /health endpoint can catch backend issues faster.
- Give a slow page a longer timeout
A page that often takes 7 or 8 seconds fails some checks at 10 seconds and passes at 15 or 30. A site that stops answering is then found down that much later. If a page takes longer still, monitor a lighter one, such as a health check endpoint.
- Add content monitors for critical pages
A page can return 200 OK but show an error message. Pair uptime monitors with content monitors for complete coverage.
- Group related monitors
Use monitor groups to organize by client, project, or environment (production, staging, etc.).