One-shot vs continuous uptime monitoring — this tool vs UptimeRobot
Our checker is a single live probe from your browser right now. For "is it just me or is the site really down?" questions, it's ideal. For 24/7 monitoring with alerting, you want a continuous service:
- UptimeRobot — free tier monitors 50 URLs every 5 minutes. Email + Slack alerts. Best free option for solo projects.
- Pingdom — paid, minute-level checks from 100+ global locations. Enterprise-grade.
- Better Stack — modern UI, incident management, free tier.
- StatusCake — similar scope, free tier available.
- Self-host — UptimeKuma (Docker, open source) for unlimited monitoring on your own server.
Our tool is complementary: use it for instant spot-checks; use a continuous service for production SLA.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I check if a website is up or down?
Paste the URL and click Check. The tool makes a live HTTP request from your browser, returns the status code, response time in milliseconds, and any redirect chain. If it's up, you see `200 OK`; if down, you see the error.
What does a 500, 503 or 502 error mean?
500 = internal server error (app crashed). 502 = bad gateway (reverse proxy got a bad response from upstream). 503 = service unavailable (overloaded or in maintenance). 504 = gateway timeout (upstream too slow). All three mean server-side trouble.
How is this uptime checker different from UptimeRobot or Pingdom?
Those services run scheduled checks from global probes and alert you. This is a one-shot live check from your browser — perfect for "is it just me, or is the site really down?" Combine with their paid services for continuous monitoring.
Why does a site show up for me but down in the checker (or vice versa)?
Likely CDN / DNS / regional issues: your browser may hit a cached edge, while the check hits a different POP. Or browser extensions, VPN, or local DNS are interfering. Try from an incognito window or different network.
How fast should a website respond?
Under 500ms Time to First Byte is good, under 200ms is excellent (Google's Core Web Vitals). Over 1 second feels slow to users and hurts SEO. Use our PageSpeed tool for deeper performance analysis.
Smarter quality checks. Faster deployments.
Better apps.
