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Best Uptime Monitoring Tools 2026

Compare PingZen with popular alternatives. Find the perfect tool for your monitoring needs.

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Free forever · No credit card · 5-min setup

What is Uptime Monitoring?

Uptime monitoring is the practice of automatically checking whether your websites, APIs, and servers are available and responding correctly. A monitoring service sends requests to your server at regular intervals (from 30 seconds to 5 minutes) and notifies you when something goes down. This lets you detect problems before your users do, minimizing downtime and its costs. Studies show that an hour of downtime can cost businesses anywhere from hundreds to tens of thousands of dollars depending on scale. Monitoring tools also track SSL certificates, domain expiration, response times, and availability across multiple protocols.

Best Uptime Monitoring Tools 2026
ServicePriceIntervalsProtocolsBest ForActions
PingZen
Free monitoring with 22 protocols
Free forever30 seconds22 protocolsEveryoneStart Free
Pingdom
Enterprise uptime monitoring by SolarWinds
From $15/month1 minute5 protocolsEnterprise teams needing RUMCompare
UptimeRobot
Popular freemium uptime monitoring
Free / $7-29/month5 min free / 30s paid10 protocolsBudget-conscious usersCompare
Better Stack
Modern observability platform for DevOps
Free / $29+/month30 seconds15 protocolsDevOps with on-call needsCompare
StatusCake
UK-based uptime monitoring with free tier
Free / $20-66/month5 min free / 1 min paid8 protocolsUK-based businessesCompare
Uptime Kuma
Self-hosted open source monitoring
Free (self-hosted)20 seconds17 protocolsSelf-hosting enthusiastsCompare
Site24x7
Enterprise monitoring by Zoho
From $9/month1 minute20+ protocolsZoho ecosystem usersCompare
Cronitor
Cron job and uptime monitoring for developers
Free / $20-50/month30 seconds5 protocolsDevelopers monitoring cronCompare
Pulsetic
Simple uptime monitoring with beautiful status pages
Free / $9-39/month1 min free / 30s paid6 protocolsTeams wanting nice status pagesCompare
HetrixTools
Uptime, blacklist, and server monitoring
Free / $5-25/month1 min free / 30s paid5 protocolsBlacklist/DNSBL monitoringCompare
Freshping
Free monitoring by Freshworks
Free (50 monitors)1 minute4 protocolsFreshworks usersCompare
Checkly
Monitoring as Code with Playwright
From $30/month1 minuteHTTP + BrowserDeveloper teams (MaC)Compare
Datadog
Enterprise observability platform
From $23/host/month1 minute~5 syntheticFull observability needsCompare
New Relic
Full-stack observability with free 100GB/month
Free (100GB) / $49+/user/month1 minute~6 syntheticAPM + observabilityCompare
Zabbix
Open-source infrastructure monitoring
Free (self-hosted)1 second (custom)HTTP, TCP, SNMP, JMX, SSHInfrastructure monitoringCompare
Oh Dear
All-in-one monitoring for Laravel teams
From €10/month1 minute~15 check typesLaravel developersCompare
Uptrends
Enterprise synthetic monitoring with 229 locations
From $5.10/monitor/mo1 minute~12 protocols + RUMEnterprise RUM teamsCompare
Uptime.com
Enterprise monitoring trusted by Fortune 500
From $9/month1 minute20+ check typesFortune 500 teamsCompare
Grafana Cloud
Full observability platform with synthetic monitoring
Free tier + Pro pay-as-you-go1 minute7 check types + k6 scriptedObservability teamsCompare
Monitorus
Российский мониторинг с оплатой за проверку
Pay-per-check (0.015₽)1 minute~12 check typesRussian SMBsCompare
Ping-Admin
Monitoring with free SMS and phone call alerts
Pay-per-check (~$0.7/mo)1 minute~12 protocols + DB checksPhone alert usersCompare
Host-Tracker
Website monitoring from 300+ global locations
From $9.90/month1 minute~10 protocols + SNMPCIS enterprisesCompare
Statuser
Russian indie monitoring with rich diagnostics
Free (10 monitors) + Pro5 minutes (free)6 protocolsRussian indie teamsCompare
Gatus
Developer-first health dashboard in Go
Free (self-hosted)Configurable (any)6 protocolsDevOps self-hostersCompare
Statping-ng
Beautiful self-hosted status page with monitoring
Free (self-hosted)Configurable (any)3 (HTTP, TCP, ICMP)Status page fansCompare
Vigil
Lightweight Rust monitor for microservices
Free (self-hosted)Configurable (any)5 (HTTP, TCP, SSH, ICMP, RabbitMQ)Microservice teamsCompare
Prometheus Blackbox
Metrics-driven endpoint probing for Prometheus
Free (self-hosted stack)Configurable (any)6 (HTTP, HTTPS, DNS, TCP, ICMP, gRPC)Prometheus usersCompare
Nagios
The grandfather of infrastructure monitoring
Free (Core) / From $2,495 (XI)Configurable (1-60 min typical)1000+ via pluginsLegacy infrastructureCompare
Check-Host
Free online tool for checking host availability worldwide
Free (online tool)Manual (on-demand)5 (HTTP, Ping, DNS, TCP, UDP)Quick diagnostic checksCompare
MegaIndex
Russian SEO platform with website monitoring features
Free / from $49/monthN/A (SEO crawling)HTTP only (SEO focus)SEO professionalsCompare
Downdetector
Crowdsourced outage detection for major services
Free to browse / Enterprise pricingCrowdsourced (passive)None (user reports)Major service outagesCompare
Netdata
Per-second infrastructure monitoring with ML anomaly detection
Free (5 nodes) / from $90/year1 second (metrics)3 (HTTP, TCP, Ping)Infrastructure metricsCompare
Upptime
GitHub Actions-powered uptime monitoring — no server needed
Free (uses GitHub Actions)5 minutes (GitHub limit)2 (HTTP, Ping)GitHub-native developersCompare
OpenStatus
Open-source synthetic monitoring from 28 global regions
Free (1 monitor) / from $30/month10 min (free) / 30s (Pro $100)~5 (HTTP, DNS, SSL, SMTP, web)Synthetic monitoringCompare
Icinga
Modern Nagios fork with REST API and web dashboard
Free (self-hosted) / Paid for enterprise OSConfigurable (any)20+ via plugins (HTTP, ICMP, TCP, DNS, SMTP, SSH, etc.)Nagios replacementCompare
Checkmk
Enterprise IT monitoring with auto-discovery and 2,000+ plugins
Free (750 services) / Enterprise pricingConfigurable (1 min default)All via 2,000+ pluginsEnterprise IT teamsCompare
SigNoz
Open-source Datadog alternative for traces, logs, and metrics
Free (self-hosted) / from $199/month cloudN/A (APM, not uptime)None (instruments app code)APM/observabilityCompare
OneUptime
Open-source all-in-one monitoring, status pages, and on-call
Free tier / from $20/monthConfigurable7 (HTTP, TCP, UDP, DNS, SSL, Ping, API)Open-source all-in-oneCompare
PRTG
Enterprise network monitoring with 250+ sensor types
Free (100 sensors) / from $1,60030 seconds (configurable)250+ sensor types (SNMP, HTTP, WMI, etc.)Network infrastructureCompare
Hyperping
Uptime monitoring with beautiful status pages and on-call
Free (5 monitors) / from $24/month3 min (free) / 30s (paid)3 (HTTP, Browser, Heartbeat)Developer-friendly uptimeCompare
Dotcom-Monitor
Enterprise synthetic monitoring with real browser testing
From $19.95/month1 minute~10 (HTTP, TCP, Ping, DNS, FTP, SMTP, POP3, SSL)Enterprise synthetic testsCompare
Robotalp
11-in-1 monitoring platform with lifetime deals
Freemium / from $15/month1 minute~11 monitoring typesBudget monitoringCompare
Updown.io
Pay-per-check monitoring with dual-stack IPv6 support
Pay-per-check (~€0.60/month/site)15 seconds (paid)6 (HTTP, TCP, ICMP, SSL, Domain, Heartbeat)Simple API monitoringCompare
NodePing
Developer-friendly monitoring with 30+ check types and unlimited SMS
From $8/month15 seconds30+ check typesSNMP infrastructureCompare
Xitoring
Server and uptime monitoring with embeddable widgets
Free (8 checks) / $10/server1 minute8 (HTTP, Ping, DNS, IMAP, FTP, POP3, Heartbeat, TCP)Server + uptime comboCompare
WebGazer
Website monitoring with cron jobs and domain tracking
Free (50 monitors, 5min) / from $19/month5 min (free) / 30s ($179/month)3 (HTTP, Ping, SSL)Cron job monitoringCompare
OnlineOrNot
API-first monitoring with browser checks from 130+ locations
Free (3 monitors) / from $12/month3 min (free) / 30s (paid)4 (HTTP, Heartbeat, Browser, Keyword)Browser rendering checksCompare
Upmon
Simple uptime monitoring with heartbeat and unlimited SMS alerts
Free (5 monitors) / from $5/monthConfigurable (varies by plan)3 (HTTP, SSL, Keyword)Unlimited SMS alertsCompare
AppBeat
Multi-protocol monitoring with redundancy and page integrity checks
14-day trial / paid plans (custom)30 seconds to 60 minutes15+ (HTTP/2, HTTP/3, SMTP, DNS, UDP)HTTP/3 and redundancyCompare
PingPing
Dead-simple website monitoring for indie developers
From $4/month (no free plan)30 seconds (all plans)2 (HTTP, SSL)Indie developer simplicityCompare
Phare
Pay-as-you-go monitoring with no feature gates and AI incident management
Free unlimited / from €5/month (pay-as-you-go)30 seconds (all plans, even free)5 (HTTP, TCP, SSL, API, Database)No feature gatingCompare
Testomato
Functional website testing with content monitoring and SEO checks
From $15/month (no free plan)60s uptime (Starter) / 15s (Business+)2 (HTTP, SSL)Content/SEO testingCompare
Sematext
Full observability platform with logs, metrics, synthetics, and RUM
Free (500MB/day) / Synthetics from $5/month1 min (Synthetics) / 10s (Infrastructure)3 (HTTP, Browser, API)Full observability stackCompare
Uptimia
Website monitoring with Real User Monitoring and 171 global locations
Free (1 site, 5min) / from $9/month5 min (free) / 30s (Advanced+)8 (HTTP, DNS, TCP, UDP, SMTP, POP3, IMAP, SSL)RUM with 171 locationsCompare
Upzilla
Website monitoring with blacklist checks and competitor tracking
Free (10 monitors) / paid plans available1 min to 120 min (configurable)6 (HTTP, API, TCP, Mail, Blacklist, PageSpeed)Competitor trackingCompare
Dynatrace
AI-powered full-stack observability with synthetic monitoring
Consumption-based (~$2,000+/month min)5 min minimum (synthetic)4 (HTTP, TCP, DNS, Browser)Enterprise AI observabilityCompare
Splunk Synthetic
Enterprise synthetic monitoring with video recordings and multi-step tests
$25/host/month (200-host min = $5,000+/month)1 min (uptime) / configurable (browser)4 (HTTP, TCP, UDP, API)Enterprise browser testingCompare
AppDynamics
Cisco-owned APM with business performance monitoring and code-level diagnostics
Custom enterprise (from ~$6/month entry)Agent-based (continuous collection)3 (HTTP, TCP, DNS)Code-level APMCompare
ThousandEyes
Internet and network intelligence with BGP monitoring and path visualization
Enterprise custom only (contact sales)1 second to 1 minute (continuous)8 (HTTP, DNS, BGP, SIP, RTP, FTP, SNMP, Traceroute)Network intelligence/BGPCompare
Catchpoint
Internet Performance Monitoring with 3,000+ vantage points and BGP observability
Free (150 checks/mo) / $180/yr / $999/month5-10 seconds (granular)10+ (HTTP, TCP, Ping, DNS, BGP, SMTP, NTP)IPM with 3000+ agentsCompare
Nexthink
Digital Employee Experience platform with AI-powered endpoint monitoring
Enterprise per-device (~£12+/device/year)Continuous (device-based agent)0 (endpoint monitoring, not protocol-based)Employee experience (DEX)Compare
LogicMonitor
Cloud-based infrastructure monitoring with 3,000+ integrations and AIOps
From $22/resource/month (no free plan)1 min (configurable per DataSource)SNMP, API, custom probesInfrastructure AIOpsCompare
Auvik
Network monitoring and management for MSPs with auto-discovery and topology mapping
Per-device pricing (no free plan)15s (network) / 60s (standard)SNMP, NetFlow, SSH, CDP, LLDP, APIsMSP network managementCompare
Montastic
Simple free website monitoring with embeddable status widgets
Free (9 URLs)30 min7Compare
Are My Sites Up
Bulk website monitoring with 1-minute checks and unlimited SMS
From $8/mo1 min2-3Compare
Monitis
Enterprise web monitoring by TeamViewer from 30+ locations
From $12/mo1 min8-10Compare
VisualPing
Visual website change detection and pixel-level monitoring
Free (5 pages)5 min1 (visual)Compare
Hexometer
AI-powered website monitoring across 6 dimensions
From $12/mo~5 min6 areasCompare
ContentKing
Real-time SEO monitoring and auditing platform by Conductor
From $139/moReal-time crawlSEO onlyCompare
SmokePing
Open-source network latency measurement and visualization
Free (open source)Configurable6 (ICMP, TCP, DNS, FTP, HTTP, HTTPS)Compare
LibreNMS
Auto-discovering open-source network monitoring system
Free (open source)5 min (SNMP polling)SNMP, CDP, LLDP, OSPF, BGPCompare
Observium
Low-maintenance network monitoring with automatic device discovery
Free (Community)5 min (SNMP)SNMP, WMI, HTTP, DNSCompare
Zenduty
End-to-end incident alerting and response orchestration
Free / $5/user/moN/A (incident mgmt)100+ integrationsCompare
Squadcast
SRE incident management with on-call alerting and SLO tracking
Free / $12/user/moN/A (incident mgmt)100+ integrationsCompare
Instatus
Modern status page platform with beautiful UI and free plan
Free / $20/moN/A (status page)Integrations onlyCompare

How to Choose a Monitoring Tool

Protocols
If you only monitor websites, HTTP/HTTPS is enough. For microservices and APIs, you need TCP, gRPC, and WebSocket support. For full infrastructure coverage, add DNS, SMTP, WHOIS, and SSL monitoring.
Check Interval
Shorter intervals mean faster detection. 30 seconds is the standard for critical services. 5 minutes is acceptable for non-critical sites. Most free tiers offer 5-minute intervals — PingZen offers 30 seconds for free.
Alert Channels
Make sure the service supports your preferred channel: Telegram, Slack, Discord, Email, WhatsApp, SMS, or webhooks for custom integrations. PingZen supports 12+ channels out of the box.
Pricing & Limits
Free tiers are often limited by monitor count or interval. Some services offer only a trial period. PingZen offers unlimited free monitors with 30-second intervals — no hidden fees, no time limits.

Why Choose PingZen?

  • 100% free — no hidden fees
  • 22 monitoring protocols (HTTP, TCP, DNS, gRPC, WebSocket...)
  • 30-second check intervals
  • 12+ alert channels (Telegram, Slack, Discord, WhatsApp...)
  • Free public status pages
  • European datacenter (Frankfurt)

Frequently Asked Questions

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Free monitoring with 22 protocols and 30-second intervals. Setup in 30 seconds.

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Free forever · No credit card · 5-min setup

PingZen

Website monitoring made simple. Know when your site goes down before your users do.

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