Best Uptime Monitoring Tools 2026
Compare PingZen with popular alternatives. Find the perfect tool for your monitoring needs.
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.
| Service | Price | Intervals | Protocols | Best For | Actions |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
PingZen Free monitoring with 22 protocols | Free forever | 30 seconds | 22 protocols | Everyone | Start Free |
Pingdom Enterprise uptime monitoring by SolarWinds | From $15/month | 1 minute | 5 protocols | Enterprise teams needing RUM | Compare |
UptimeRobot Popular freemium uptime monitoring | Free / $7-29/month | 5 min free / 30s paid | 10 protocols | Budget-conscious users | Compare |
Better Stack Modern observability platform for DevOps | Free / $29+/month | 30 seconds | 15 protocols | DevOps with on-call needs | Compare |
StatusCake UK-based uptime monitoring with free tier | Free / $20-66/month | 5 min free / 1 min paid | 8 protocols | UK-based businesses | Compare |
Uptime Kuma Self-hosted open source monitoring | Free (self-hosted) | 20 seconds | 17 protocols | Self-hosting enthusiasts | Compare |
Site24x7 Enterprise monitoring by Zoho | From $9/month | 1 minute | 20+ protocols | Zoho ecosystem users | Compare |
Cronitor Cron job and uptime monitoring for developers | Free / $20-50/month | 30 seconds | 5 protocols | Developers monitoring cron | Compare |
Pulsetic Simple uptime monitoring with beautiful status pages | Free / $9-39/month | 1 min free / 30s paid | 6 protocols | Teams wanting nice status pages | Compare |
HetrixTools Uptime, blacklist, and server monitoring | Free / $5-25/month | 1 min free / 30s paid | 5 protocols | Blacklist/DNSBL monitoring | Compare |
Freshping Free monitoring by Freshworks | Free (50 monitors) | 1 minute | 4 protocols | Freshworks users | Compare |
Checkly Monitoring as Code with Playwright | From $30/month | 1 minute | HTTP + Browser | Developer teams (MaC) | Compare |
Datadog Enterprise observability platform | From $23/host/month | 1 minute | ~5 synthetic | Full observability needs | Compare |
New Relic Full-stack observability with free 100GB/month | Free (100GB) / $49+/user/month | 1 minute | ~6 synthetic | APM + observability | Compare |
Zabbix Open-source infrastructure monitoring | Free (self-hosted) | 1 second (custom) | HTTP, TCP, SNMP, JMX, SSH | Infrastructure monitoring | Compare |
Oh Dear All-in-one monitoring for Laravel teams | From €10/month | 1 minute | ~15 check types | Laravel developers | Compare |
Uptrends Enterprise synthetic monitoring with 229 locations | From $5.10/monitor/mo | 1 minute | ~12 protocols + RUM | Enterprise RUM teams | Compare |
Uptime.com Enterprise monitoring trusted by Fortune 500 | From $9/month | 1 minute | 20+ check types | Fortune 500 teams | Compare |
Grafana Cloud Full observability platform with synthetic monitoring | Free tier + Pro pay-as-you-go | 1 minute | 7 check types + k6 scripted | Observability teams | Compare |
Monitorus Российский мониторинг с оплатой за проверку | Pay-per-check (0.015₽) | 1 minute | ~12 check types | Russian SMBs | Compare |
Ping-Admin Monitoring with free SMS and phone call alerts | Pay-per-check (~$0.7/mo) | 1 minute | ~12 protocols + DB checks | Phone alert users | Compare |
Host-Tracker Website monitoring from 300+ global locations | From $9.90/month | 1 minute | ~10 protocols + SNMP | CIS enterprises | Compare |
Statuser Russian indie monitoring with rich diagnostics | Free (10 monitors) + Pro | 5 minutes (free) | 6 protocols | Russian indie teams | Compare |
Gatus Developer-first health dashboard in Go | Free (self-hosted) | Configurable (any) | 6 protocols | DevOps self-hosters | Compare |
Statping-ng Beautiful self-hosted status page with monitoring | Free (self-hosted) | Configurable (any) | 3 (HTTP, TCP, ICMP) | Status page fans | Compare |
Vigil Lightweight Rust monitor for microservices | Free (self-hosted) | Configurable (any) | 5 (HTTP, TCP, SSH, ICMP, RabbitMQ) | Microservice teams | Compare |
Prometheus Blackbox Metrics-driven endpoint probing for Prometheus | Free (self-hosted stack) | Configurable (any) | 6 (HTTP, HTTPS, DNS, TCP, ICMP, gRPC) | Prometheus users | Compare |
Nagios The grandfather of infrastructure monitoring | Free (Core) / From $2,495 (XI) | Configurable (1-60 min typical) | 1000+ via plugins | Legacy infrastructure | Compare |
Check-Host Free online tool for checking host availability worldwide | Free (online tool) | Manual (on-demand) | 5 (HTTP, Ping, DNS, TCP, UDP) | Quick diagnostic checks | Compare |
MegaIndex Russian SEO platform with website monitoring features | Free / from $49/month | N/A (SEO crawling) | HTTP only (SEO focus) | SEO professionals | Compare |
Downdetector Crowdsourced outage detection for major services | Free to browse / Enterprise pricing | Crowdsourced (passive) | None (user reports) | Major service outages | Compare |
Netdata Per-second infrastructure monitoring with ML anomaly detection | Free (5 nodes) / from $90/year | 1 second (metrics) | 3 (HTTP, TCP, Ping) | Infrastructure metrics | Compare |
Upptime GitHub Actions-powered uptime monitoring — no server needed | Free (uses GitHub Actions) | 5 minutes (GitHub limit) | 2 (HTTP, Ping) | GitHub-native developers | Compare |
OpenStatus Open-source synthetic monitoring from 28 global regions | Free (1 monitor) / from $30/month | 10 min (free) / 30s (Pro $100) | ~5 (HTTP, DNS, SSL, SMTP, web) | Synthetic monitoring | Compare |
Icinga Modern Nagios fork with REST API and web dashboard | Free (self-hosted) / Paid for enterprise OS | Configurable (any) | 20+ via plugins (HTTP, ICMP, TCP, DNS, SMTP, SSH, etc.) | Nagios replacement | Compare |
Checkmk Enterprise IT monitoring with auto-discovery and 2,000+ plugins | Free (750 services) / Enterprise pricing | Configurable (1 min default) | All via 2,000+ plugins | Enterprise IT teams | Compare |
SigNoz Open-source Datadog alternative for traces, logs, and metrics | Free (self-hosted) / from $199/month cloud | N/A (APM, not uptime) | None (instruments app code) | APM/observability | Compare |
OneUptime Open-source all-in-one monitoring, status pages, and on-call | Free tier / from $20/month | Configurable | 7 (HTTP, TCP, UDP, DNS, SSL, Ping, API) | Open-source all-in-one | Compare |
PRTG Enterprise network monitoring with 250+ sensor types | Free (100 sensors) / from $1,600 | 30 seconds (configurable) | 250+ sensor types (SNMP, HTTP, WMI, etc.) | Network infrastructure | Compare |
Hyperping Uptime monitoring with beautiful status pages and on-call | Free (5 monitors) / from $24/month | 3 min (free) / 30s (paid) | 3 (HTTP, Browser, Heartbeat) | Developer-friendly uptime | Compare |
Dotcom-Monitor Enterprise synthetic monitoring with real browser testing | From $19.95/month | 1 minute | ~10 (HTTP, TCP, Ping, DNS, FTP, SMTP, POP3, SSL) | Enterprise synthetic tests | Compare |
Robotalp 11-in-1 monitoring platform with lifetime deals | Freemium / from $15/month | 1 minute | ~11 monitoring types | Budget monitoring | Compare |
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 monitoring | Compare |
NodePing Developer-friendly monitoring with 30+ check types and unlimited SMS | From $8/month | 15 seconds | 30+ check types | SNMP infrastructure | Compare |
Xitoring Server and uptime monitoring with embeddable widgets | Free (8 checks) / $10/server | 1 minute | 8 (HTTP, Ping, DNS, IMAP, FTP, POP3, Heartbeat, TCP) | Server + uptime combo | Compare |
WebGazer Website monitoring with cron jobs and domain tracking | Free (50 monitors, 5min) / from $19/month | 5 min (free) / 30s ($179/month) | 3 (HTTP, Ping, SSL) | Cron job monitoring | Compare |
OnlineOrNot API-first monitoring with browser checks from 130+ locations | Free (3 monitors) / from $12/month | 3 min (free) / 30s (paid) | 4 (HTTP, Heartbeat, Browser, Keyword) | Browser rendering checks | Compare |
Upmon Simple uptime monitoring with heartbeat and unlimited SMS alerts | Free (5 monitors) / from $5/month | Configurable (varies by plan) | 3 (HTTP, SSL, Keyword) | Unlimited SMS alerts | Compare |
AppBeat Multi-protocol monitoring with redundancy and page integrity checks | 14-day trial / paid plans (custom) | 30 seconds to 60 minutes | 15+ (HTTP/2, HTTP/3, SMTP, DNS, UDP) | HTTP/3 and redundancy | Compare |
PingPing Dead-simple website monitoring for indie developers | From $4/month (no free plan) | 30 seconds (all plans) | 2 (HTTP, SSL) | Indie developer simplicity | Compare |
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 gating | Compare |
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 testing | Compare |
Sematext Full observability platform with logs, metrics, synthetics, and RUM | Free (500MB/day) / Synthetics from $5/month | 1 min (Synthetics) / 10s (Infrastructure) | 3 (HTTP, Browser, API) | Full observability stack | Compare |
Uptimia Website monitoring with Real User Monitoring and 171 global locations | Free (1 site, 5min) / from $9/month | 5 min (free) / 30s (Advanced+) | 8 (HTTP, DNS, TCP, UDP, SMTP, POP3, IMAP, SSL) | RUM with 171 locations | Compare |
Upzilla Website monitoring with blacklist checks and competitor tracking | Free (10 monitors) / paid plans available | 1 min to 120 min (configurable) | 6 (HTTP, API, TCP, Mail, Blacklist, PageSpeed) | Competitor tracking | Compare |
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 observability | Compare |
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 testing | Compare |
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 APM | Compare |
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/BGP | Compare |
Catchpoint Internet Performance Monitoring with 3,000+ vantage points and BGP observability | Free (150 checks/mo) / $180/yr / $999/month | 5-10 seconds (granular) | 10+ (HTTP, TCP, Ping, DNS, BGP, SMTP, NTP) | IPM with 3000+ agents | Compare |
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 probes | Infrastructure AIOps | Compare |
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, APIs | MSP network management | Compare |
Montastic Simple free website monitoring with embeddable status widgets | Free (9 URLs) | 30 min | 7 | Compare | |
Are My Sites Up Bulk website monitoring with 1-minute checks and unlimited SMS | From $8/mo | 1 min | 2-3 | Compare | |
Monitis Enterprise web monitoring by TeamViewer from 30+ locations | From $12/mo | 1 min | 8-10 | Compare | |
VisualPing Visual website change detection and pixel-level monitoring | Free (5 pages) | 5 min | 1 (visual) | Compare | |
Hexometer AI-powered website monitoring across 6 dimensions | From $12/mo | ~5 min | 6 areas | Compare | |
ContentKing Real-time SEO monitoring and auditing platform by Conductor | From $139/mo | Real-time crawl | SEO only | Compare | |
SmokePing Open-source network latency measurement and visualization | Free (open source) | Configurable | 6 (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, BGP | Compare | |
Observium Low-maintenance network monitoring with automatic device discovery | Free (Community) | 5 min (SNMP) | SNMP, WMI, HTTP, DNS | Compare | |
Zenduty End-to-end incident alerting and response orchestration | Free / $5/user/mo | N/A (incident mgmt) | 100+ integrations | Compare | |
Squadcast SRE incident management with on-call alerting and SLO tracking | Free / $12/user/mo | N/A (incident mgmt) | 100+ integrations | Compare | |
Instatus Modern status page platform with beautiful UI and free plan | Free / $20/mo | N/A (status page) | Integrations only | Compare |
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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