1. Uptime Robot
Uptime Robot offers comprehensive website monitoring services that site owners can access at no cost all. Users can add up to 50 sites, each of which will be checked once every five minutes. Notifications of downtime can be sent by SMS, Twitter, email, push notification for iPad and iPhone and RSS feed according to user preference.
2. Pingdom
Pingdom is a popular uptime monitoring service that offers a free service that allows users to receive up to 20 SMS notifications for downtime. Their paid business service provides 200 free SMS alerts for downtime upon sign-up and will monitor up to 30 servers or sites. Business plan subscribers additionally receive unlimited contacts and unlimited Twitter and e-mail alerts. The Pingdom Basic plan is designed for blogs and small websites and provides monitoring for up to five servers or sites, 20 free SMS notifications and unlimited contacts, e-mail and Twitter alerts. Both the Business and the Basic plan come with the option of a 30-day, risk-free trial. Paying Pingdom users can receive response time reports, uptime reports and root cause analysis for downtime issues.
3. Uptrends
Uptrends offers an array of paid services, however, it also offers a free, four week trial for each of these. In addition to standing uptime monitoring, Uptrends offers its customers transaction monitoring, server monitoring from outside the firewall and SLA monitoring, which allows site owners to verify SLA objectives through the use of a third-party. Uptrends also provides a range of free SmartPhone apps that allow users to access their accounts and reports from their mobile devices.
4. Internet Seer
Internet Seer offers a free monitoring services that will check server uptime once every hour. The only monitored protocols for this free standard service is HTTP and users will need to accept a paid plan in order to get monitoring for HTTPS, SMTP. POP3 and other ports. The free Internet Seer package also includes unlimited contacts, free e-mail text or pager notifications, availability reports and master account maintenance. Those wishing to subscribe to more comprehensive monitoring packages can choose services with five minute, 15 minute or 30 minute checking intervals.
5. 100Pulse
100Pulse provides free monitoring at 15 minute intervals for up to two monitors. Users can receive free instant alerts through iGoogle gadgets, Twitter, RSS feed and e-mail. 100Pulse also offers paid services starting at just $1 per month for monitoring at five minute intervals as well as affiliate and reseller programs.
6. Site24x7
Site24x7 offers a range of paid services, however, these products start at just $1 a month and thus, the most basic option essentially is free. This system supports HTTP, DNS, FTP, SFTP, Ping, SMTP, SSL, POP and TCP among others, making it one of the most all-inclusive, low-cost service around. Users can get instant SMS notifications and can additionally access the dashboard display via their mobile phones in order to manually check site availability from this platform.
7. Montastic
Montastic offers a website monitoring service that is entirely free and easy to use. Site owners simply sign up on the site for this service, enter the URL they want monitored and the set-up is complete. A green light display shows that the site is up and running while a red light indicates problems. Montastics also offers a free e-mail notification services.
8. Are My Sites Up?
Are My Sites Up has a number of paid plans for site owners to choose from, including monthly service packages and paid yearly subscriptions. For free services, users will need to take advantage of the free trial offers that are available with each plan option. The most basic plan, starting at just $7.95 per month includes one minute site checks, unlimited e-mail notifications, unlimited user accounts, voice calls, RSS feeds and Keyword content checks among other things.
9. BasicStat
BasicState users receive 10 free usage credits when signing up for their free accounts. Once these credits have been exhausted, they have the option of paying for additional credits in batches. A 15 minute monitor costs two credits per month and SMS alerts cost one credit each. All e-mail and text alerts are totally free. Site owners can use pay for what they use and avoid monthly service charges by opting to use BasicState.
10. Monitor.us
Much like Montastic, Monitor.us provides a free dashboard based web monitoring system that allows users to view the status of their sites quickly and easily. This cloud-based systems enable site owners to view the status of their databases and web applications and to learn important details about site availability and response time. Users also have access to free e-mail notifications, however, the reliability of these notifications have received mixed reviews.
11. New Relic
New Relic provides a free sign-up which will allow for a free 14-day trial. Those wishing to continue on with New Relic without signing up for a paid plan can choose the free Lite plan which provides reports for application response times, server resources monitoring, application availability monitoring and alerting and incidention detection and alerting at absolutely no cost.
12. Monitis
Monitis offers all of its clients a free 15-day full system trial, after which, users can build packages that include web & cloud application monitoring, database performance monitoring, website transaction monitoring and web server and network health monitoring as well as regular uptime and performance checks. Site owners can access their information from a single web dashboard and have access to pay-as-you-go plans rather than monthly or annual fees.
13. Uptime Dog
Uptime Dog offers a completely free website monitoring service that provides check at 2 minute intervals. When sites are unresponsive, site owners will receive instant e-mail notifications. The only catch is that users are required to place a HTML link leading back to Uptime Dog's website on each of the sites that are being monitored.
14. Service Uptime
Users can get free website monitoring with checks for a single monitor at 30 minute intervals through Service Uptime. This comes with an unlimited number of e-mail alerts and a range of performance reports that are delivered to the user's e-mail address on a weekly or monthly basis. SMS alerts, however, must be purchased in one of three packages, ranging from 10 SMS alerts for $2.50 to 100 SMS alerts for $20.00.
15. Free Web Monitoring
Free Web Monitoring provides website testing every hour, weekly statistics reports, email alerts, monitoring for multiple URLs and false alarm protection, all at no cost to the user.
16. Site Uptime
This service provides free 30 - 60 minute checks for one monitor, free monthly reports, e-mail alerts, dashboard access and online statistics. Users also have the option of upgrading to paid plans which start as low as just $5 per month.
17. Status Cake
Users can get free five minute monitoring for unlimited websites, however, there are no free instant alerting systems for those who do not sign up for a paid plan. Site owners can instead access their notifications using the online dashboard.
18. Host Tracker
Host Tracker offers a very basic free plan that includes 30 minute monitoring for up to two URLs. There are no free methods for receiving instant notifications. Users will need to use the online dashboard to track developments instead or upgrade to a paid account.
19. Binary Canary
Binary Canary provides free 15 minute monitoring for up to five monitors. Users will have to purchase phone and SMS credits for instant notifications or they can alternatively receive free e-mail and free SMS by e-mail notifications instead.
20. Hyperspin
Hyperspin offers site owners a free sign-up for site monitoring but no actual free monitoring services. Their rates for minute by minute monitoring are very low and users have the option of entering into the reseller program for a one-time $30 fee. Resellers have access to deep discounts for their own monitoring services, making the already nominal pricing for basic packages even lower.
Barry, 10 June, 2013
I think that I can recommend another tool for you which is Anturis (http://www.anturis.com). The tool is ideal for site monitoring by offering real time monitoring of any difficulties appearing on the site.
David, 19 March, 2013
Hi James and Susie,
Thanks for your comments and suggestions. Both services seem good!
/David
Susie Kinsella, 19 March, 2013
At monitorhub.com, we have released a easy to use website monitoring service, aimed for the non-technical user, it has a simple interface and clear dashboard. If you are looking for downtime alerts and detailed performance reporting, then it's worth checking us out.
James, 18 January, 2013
I would suggest adding Got Site Monitor to the list. It also gives user 5 free website monitors with 5-minute monitoring interval from multiple monitoring locations.