Life has its ups and downs.
This past month, most of the websites I work with have crashed online.
Last week, ChurchMag had some server issues that pushed us offline for more than a day. The week before that, the new server provider that I use to host almost a dozen websites had some rolling blackouts that forced me to jump back to my previous server provider.
As for my own sites, I was first made aware of the problem from someone who said my site was down. It was intermittent and had been happening for over a week. I wish I had been using something to monitor my sites’ uptime.
What tool do you use?
I’m thinking about using something like Pingdom.
Pingdom
With a service like Pingdom, I would be the first to know when a website is down. Not from someone, else. Not only does it alert you when there’s downtime, but it also helps with troubleshooting and generates reports.
Features Include
Alerts
When your website isn’t reachable and responding well, Pingdom will alert you via email, Twitter, SMS or the Pingdom smartphone app. You can set how often it checks your site – 1 to 60 minutes – and how long it has to be down before you are alerted. You can also set what it pings: HTTP(S), TCP port, Ping, DNS, UDP, SMTP, POP3 and IMAP.
Reports
Pingdom keeps track of all your stats, so you can track your sites performance. Looking through your reports and visualizing problems with a graph may help you troubleshoot or avoid future problems.
Reports can be made public and you can have them regularly emailed to you, as well.
Troubeshooting
This, I like.
When Pingdom detects and error on a site, it automatically runs tests! By the time you get moving on a server drop-out, Pingdom may already have the data you need to fix the problem.
Extras
Pingdom offers an iPhone and Android app for Pingdom on the go, a desktop notifier for your desktop/laptop, and a full API.
Pricing
Basic
- Monitor 5 sites/servers
- 20 SMS alerts on signup
- Unlimited email and Twitter alerts
- Unlimited contacts
- $9.95 per month
Business
- Monitor 30 sites/servers
- 200 SMS alerts on signup
- Unlimited email and Twitter alerts
- Unlimited contacts
- Discount on extra SMS alerts
- $39.95 per month
Conclusion
Honestly, for a guy like me, it’s a little more per month than I want to spend ($40). I don’t need a solution that’s quit this robust, right now, so let me know what service you use.
Don’t get me wrong, Pingdom looks solid. If you’re serving 20+ sites, maybe $40 a month isn’t bad. If you’re only running a few or want to keep an eye on one site (business, organization, Church), $10 per month seems a little high.
Ben Miller says
I’ve used Are My Sites Up? in the past. They used to have a free option, but I don’t see it there anymore. But their paid plans look much cheaper than Pingdom: between $3 and $19 a month.
Eric Dye says
Will check it out, thanks Ben!
gr33n3ggz says
I use http://basicstate.com/ only charge for what you are alerted to.
Eric Dye says
Interesting …
J Kilgore says
I use pingdom to do external monitoring for work. I like the options(It will tweet you!) And it’s worked well for me. For personal stuff I usually use UptimeRobot.com cause it’s free.
Eric Dye says
Dude. Totally going to look at UptimeRobot.
richard smith says
For NZ based monitoring (although they have nodes around the world) these guys are worth a look http://sentinelmonitoring.com/. They have a great interface and support and growing quite a fan base.
Eric Dye says
Will check it. Thanks!
James Cooper says
I’ve not used pingdom for checking uptime, but their tools are great for seeing there’s a bottleneck on a site slowing down load time…
Eric Dye says
Cool!
Stephen Peterson says
We also use Uptime Robot. They are pretty flexible, and they are free.
http://www.uptimerobot.com/
Eric Dye says
🙂
Josh Guerette says
Pingdom does have a free version as well, supporting a single domain and up to 20 SMS notifications (per month cycle, I would assume). Email notifications are unlimited and free.
Eric Dye says
But do you get all the same services? #curious
Josh Guerette says
Haven’t a clue, just switched over to UptimeRobot 🙂