Downtime isn’t just a technical glitch – it’s lost money, lost trust, and lost opportunities. Whether you’re running an eCommerce store, a SaaS product, or even a blog, keeping your site online is critical.
That’s why uptime monitoring tools should be a part of your website management strategy.
Table of contents
What is uptime monitoring?
At its simplest, uptime monitoring is a service that checks whether your website or application is available online. Most monitoring tools send a request to your server at regular intervals (for example, every minute) and record whether it responds correctly.
If the site goes down, the monitoring service alerts you via email, SMS, Slack, or another channel so you can fix the problem before too many users notice.
Types of uptime monitoring checks
Basic response code checks
Most uptime monitoring starts with a basic check: did the server respond with a valid HTTP status code like 200 OK? If yes, the site is marked as online.
This is helpful but limited. A site could still be broken even if it’s returning a valid code – for example, if it shows an error message instead of your homepage.
Keyword and content monitoring
That’s why some platforms offer content verification. Instead of just checking for a 200 response, they also search the page for specific keywords or phrases. For example, you could configure your monitor to look for “Welcome back” on your login page or “Add to Cart” on your store.
If the keyword is missing, the platform alerts you – even if the page technically loaded. This helps catch hidden failures like database issues, misconfigured redirects, or cached error pages.
Other advanced features
- SSL/TLS monitoring: Warns you before your certificate expires.
- DNS checks: Ensures your domain records are resolving correctly.
- Website speed monitoring: Tracks page load speed and response times.
- Transaction monitoring: Simulates user flows (e.g., logging in, checking out).
- Geo-location checks: Tests from different regions to spot localised issues.
Best uptime monitoring tools
Here are some popular uptime monitoring services that offer a mix of these features:
- UptimeRobot – Simple and popular, with free keyword monitoring options.
- Pingdom – Part of SolarWinds, with performance tracking and content checks.
- StatusCake – Offers flexible monitoring, SSL checks, and global test locations.
Example: Set up a free uptime monitor with UptimeRobot
One of the easiest ways to get started with uptime monitoring is with UptimeRobot’s free plan. Here’s how to set up a basic monitor:
- Create an account at UptimeRobot (free plan available).
- Once logged in, click Add New Monitor.
- Choose the monitor type:
- HTTP(s) for checking a website URL.
- Keyword if you want to search for specific text on a page.
- Enter your website’s URL (for example,
https://example.com). - If using keyword monitoring, enter the word or phrase that should appear on the page.
- Select how often UptimeRobot should check your site (every 5 minutes on the free plan).
- Add your alert contact (email, Slack, Teams, etc.).
- Click Create Monitor.
That’s it! UptimeRobot will start checking your site and notify you if it goes down.
Why you can’t rely only on hosting uptime guarantees
Most web hosts advertise impressive uptime guarantees like 99.9% uptime. While these guarantees sound reassuring, they usually come with fine print – limited compensation, certain exclusions, or no coverage for smaller outages.
Even if your host provides monitoring, it’s smart to run your own independent checks. This way, you:
- Get a second opinion on your site’s availability.
- Can hold your provider accountable if downtime exceeds the SLA.
- See uptime from a user’s perspective, not just from the host.
What 99.9% uptime really means
“99.9% uptime” still allows for downtime:
- About 43 minutes per month
- Roughly 8 hours and 45 minutes per year
Even tiny percentages add up, so keeping your own logs with an independent monitor ensures you see the real picture.
The cost of website downtime for eCommerce
For an online store, downtime is more than an inconvenience – it’s lost revenue. Let’s take a very simple example:
- An e-commerce site makes £50,000 in sales per month.
- That’s about £1,667 in sales per day, or £69 per hour.
- If the host promises 99.9% uptime, you could lose up to 8 hours and 45 minutes per year.
That works out to about £600 in lost sales annually.
Annual lost sales at 99.9% uptime (8h 45m downtime)
| Monthly revenue | Annual revenue | Direct lost sales |
|---|---|---|
| £50,000 | £600,000 | £600 |
| £100,000 | £1.2M | £1,200 |
| £250,000 | £3M | £3,000 |
| £500,000 | £6M | £6,000 |
| £1,000,000 | £12M | £12,000 |
| £10,000,000 | £120M | £120,000 |
Sometimes, independent monitoring reveals that your site isn’t meeting its advertised uptime. For instance, if you measure just 99% uptime over a year, the resulting downtime – and associated losses – can add up quickly.
What to do if your website uptime isn’t as guaranteed
If your monitoring shows that uptime is worse than promised, here are some options:
1. Check the SLA fine print
Review your host’s Service Level Agreement (SLA). It will define what counts as downtime and what compensation is available. Sometimes “network downtime” excludes maintenance or localised outages.
2. Request service credits
Many providers offer partial refunds or account credits if uptime drops below the guarantee. Use your monitoring logs as evidence.
3. Escalate with support
Share independent monitoring data with the host’s support team. This gives you leverage and helps them diagnose recurring issues.
4. Switch providers
If uptime problems persist, consider moving to a more reliable hosting company or cloud provider with stronger SLAs and a better track record.
5. Mitigate downtime risk
Even the best hosts can fail. Strategies to reduce the impact include:
- CDNs (Content Delivery Networks) to serve cached versions of your site.
- Load balancers to distribute traffic across multiple servers.
- Multi-region hosting so that one data centre outage doesn’t take your whole site offline.
Real-world website downtime examples
- Retailer outage on Black Friday: A few hours of downtime can mean millions in lost revenue during peak shopping periods.
- SaaS startup downtime: Repeated outages led to customer churn and negative reviews.
- Independent monitoring leverage: The company used uptime logs to hold their provider accountable and successfully negotiated a move to a higher-reliability plan.
Actionable takeaways
- Sign up for a free website uptime monitoring tool today.
- Set up at least one keyword/content check.
- Compare your measured uptime with your host’s guarantee.
- Review your SLA to understand your rights.
- Plan a mitigation strategy if uptime consistently falls short.