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Setting Up Monitors

Learn how to quickly create monitors to track your websites and APIs.

What is a Monitor?​

A monitor automatically checks your website or API at regular intervals to ensure it's online and responding correctly. When something goes wrong, you'll get an instant notification.

Monitor Types​

Bareuptime offers four different types of monitoring, each designed to solve specific problems you might face with your online services.

HTTP Monitoring (Free & Premium)​

This is your bread and butter monitoring - perfect for keeping an eye on whether your website or API is actually working. HTTP monitoring sends requests to your URLs and checks if they respond properly, just like a visitor would.

What it does for you: Every few minutes, we'll visit your website and measure how long it takes to load, what status code it returns (like 200 for success or 500 for server errors), and whether your SSL certificate is still valid. If something goes wrong, you'll know immediately instead of finding out from an angry customer.

Best for: Company websites, online stores, REST APIs, and any web service where uptime matters. You can monitor everything from your homepage to specific API endpoints that your mobile app depends on.

Monitoring frequency: Premium users can check as often as every minute for critical services, while free users can check every 10 minutes to 1 hour - which is still plenty for most websites.

Keyword Monitoring (Free & Premium)​

Sometimes your website loads fine, but the content is wrong. Maybe your price got corrupted, your "Add to Cart" button disappeared, or someone hacked your site. Keyword monitoring solves this by checking that specific text appears on your pages.

What it does for you: Beyond basic uptime checks, we'll scan your page content looking for keywords you specify. You could monitor for "Free Shipping" on your product pages, "© 2024" in your footer, or make sure login forms still show "Sign In" instead of error messages.

Best for: E-commerce sites (monitor product availability and pricing), business websites (ensure contact info stays accurate), and any site where content accuracy matters as much as uptime. It's also great for detecting defacement or unauthorized changes.

Pro tip: You can monitor for text that should be there (like product names) or text that should never appear (like "hacked" or "error").

Advanced Page Monitoring (Premium Only)​

Think of this as a comprehensive health checkup for your website. It goes far beyond "is it up?" to answer "how well is it performing?" and "are there any lurking problems?"

What it does for you: We analyze your page loading performance (how fast different elements load), check when your domain registration expires (so you never lose your domain by accident), and detect if your site is blocking legitimate visitors with overly aggressive bot protection.

Best for: Business-critical websites, e-commerce platforms, and any site where performance directly impacts revenue. If your site loading 2 seconds slower could cost you customers, this monitoring helps you catch performance issues before they hurt your business.

Why hourly checks: These comprehensive analyses require significant resources, so we run them every hour to give you detailed insights without overwhelming our systems or yours.

Email Domain Monitoring (Premium Only)​

Your website might be up, but can your customers actually receive emails from you? Email deliverability is often overlooked until suddenly your order confirmations aren't reaching customers or your marketing emails hit spam folders.

What it does for you: We monitor your email infrastructure by checking that your mail servers are properly configured, your domain isn't on spam blacklists, and your email authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) is set up correctly. Think of it as a health check for your entire email system.

Best for: Any business that sends important emails - order confirmations, password resets, newsletters, or support responses. If email is part of your customer experience, this monitoring ensures those emails actually reach their destination.

Daily comprehensive checks: Email reputation and deliverability change slowly, so we perform thorough daily analysis rather than constant checking.

HTTP Request Methods Explained​

Most websites just need simple GET requests - that's like opening a webpage in your browser. But if you're monitoring APIs or more complex services, you might need different request types.

GET requests are perfect for checking if web pages load properly. This covers 90% of monitoring needs - your homepage, product pages, login forms, and simple API endpoints that just return data.

POST, PUT, PATCH, and DELETE requests (Premium feature) let you test more complex API operations. For example, you could monitor a user registration endpoint by sending a POST request, or test an API that updates customer information using PUT requests. This ensures your entire API workflow stays functional, not just the parts that display information.

Creating Your First Monitor​

Step 1: Access Monitor Creation​

  1. Log in to app.bareuptime.co
  2. Click "Add Monitor" button
  3. Fill in the monitor details

Step 2: Configure Your Monitor​

Give your monitor a clear name that tells you exactly what it's watching. Instead of "Monitor 1", use something like "Company Homepage" or "Payment API Health Check". When you get an alert at 2 AM, you'll immediately know what's broken.

Enter the complete URL you want to monitor. This must be a full HTTPS URL - we don't support HTTP anymore because it's 2024 and your site should be secure anyway. You can monitor your homepage (https://mywebsite.com), specific pages (https://mysite.com/login), or API endpoints (https://api.mysite.com/health).

Choose how often to check based on how critical your service is. Premium users can check every minute for mission-critical services, while free users can check every 10 minutes to an hour. For most websites, checking every 5-10 minutes is perfect - frequent enough to catch issues quickly but not so often that you're hammering your server.

Select the monitoring type that fits your needs:

  • HTTP monitoring for basic "is my site up" checks (perfect for most websites)
  • Keyword monitoring when you also need to verify content is correct
  • Advanced page monitoring (Premium) for comprehensive performance and security analysis
  • Email domain monitoring (Premium) for email deliverability health checks

Pick the right HTTP method for what you're testing. GET requests work for 99% of monitoring - they're like loading a page in your browser. POST, PUT, PATCH, and DELETE (Premium features) are for testing specific API operations that modify data.

Step 3: Optional Advanced Settings​

Request Headers (Optional)​

Add custom headers for authentication or API requirements:

Format: One header per line

Authorization: Bearer your-token-123
Content-Type: application/json
X-API-Key: your-api-key

Request Body (Optional)​

For POST/PUT/PATCH requests, add request data:

Example JSON:

{
  "test": true,
  "health_check": "active"
}

Automatic Settings​

Bareuptime automatically configures:

  • Timeout: 5 seconds (fixed)
  • Retries: 3 attempts (fixed)
  • Expected Status: 200 OK
  • SSL Verification: Enabled

Step 4: Save Your Monitor​

Click "Create Monitor" to start monitoring immediately.

Common Monitoring Scenarios​

Here are some real-world examples of how to set up monitoring for different types of services:

Monitoring Your Company Website​

Most businesses start here - making sure your main website stays online. This catches the obvious problems like server crashes or hosting issues.

Name: Company Homepage
URL: https://mycompany.com
Check Interval: 10min (free) or 5min (premium)
Monitor Type: http
HTTP Method: get

Why this works: Simple and effective for catching 90% of website issues. You'll know within 10 minutes if your site goes down, which is fast enough for most businesses.

E-commerce Product Page Content​

Your website might load fine, but what if the "Add to Cart" button disappeared or the price shows as $0? Content monitoring catches these sneaky issues.

Name: Product Page Content Check
URL: https://mystore.com/products/bestseller
Check Interval: 20min
Monitor Type: keyword
Keywords to monitor: "Add to Cart", "$29.99", "In Stock"

Why you need this: Product page corruption can cost sales. This ensures your key product information displays correctly.

API Health Monitoring with Authentication​

If you have mobile apps or integrations that depend on your API, you need to monitor the endpoints they actually use - including authentication.

Name: User API Health Check
URL: https://api.mycompany.com/v1/users/me
Check Interval: 5min (premium recommended)
Monitor Type: http
HTTP Method: get
Request Headers: Authorization: Bearer abc123
                X-API-Version: v1

Pro tip: Monitor the same endpoints your apps use, with the same authentication. A working login page doesn't mean your API is responding to authenticated requests.

Comprehensive Website Analysis (Premium)​

For mission-critical websites, you want to know about performance problems and security issues before they impact customers.

Name: Complete Website Health Check
URL: https://mycompany.com
Check Interval: 1hr (automatic, optimized for thorough analysis)
Monitor Type: advanced_page_monitoring

What you get: Page load performance analysis, domain expiry warnings, and detection of overly aggressive bot blocking that might be preventing legitimate users from accessing your site.

Email Infrastructure Health (Premium)​

Nothing frustrates customers more than not receiving order confirmations or password reset emails. This monitors your entire email system health.

Name: Email System Health
URL: https://mycompany.com
Check Interval: 1hr (automatic daily checks)
Monitor Type: email_domain

What it catches: Mail server configuration problems, spam blacklist issues, and email authentication failures that prevent your emails from reaching customers.

API Endpoint Testing (Premium)​

For critical API operations like user registration or payment processing, you want to test the actual functionality, not just connectivity.

Name: User Registration API Test
URL: https://api.mycompany.com/auth/register
Check Interval: 10min
Monitor Type: http
HTTP Method: post
Request Headers: Content-Type: application/json
Request Body: `{"test": true, "email": "test@example.com"}`

Important: Use test data that won't interfere with real users. Many APIs have special test modes or sandbox endpoints for this purpose.

Best Practices for Effective Monitoring​

Start Simple, Then Expand​

Don't try to monitor everything at once. Begin with your most critical service - usually your main website or primary API. Once that's working well and you understand the alerts, add more monitors gradually. This prevents alert fatigue and helps you learn what normal vs. concerning patterns look like for your services.

Name Your Monitors Thoughtfully​

When you get a 3 AM alert, you shouldn't have to guess what "Monitor 1" refers to. Use names that immediately tell you what broke and how urgent it is. "Company Homepage" is good, but "Homepage - Customer Facing" is better because it implies customer impact. "Payment API - Critical" tells you this alert needs immediate attention even at midnight.

Match Monitoring Frequency to Business Impact​

Critical services that directly impact revenue (like payment processing or user authentication) deserve premium monitoring with 1-5 minute checks. Your company blog or documentation site can probably be checked every 20-30 minutes without issues. Email infrastructure and comprehensive performance analysis work well with hourly checks since problems in these areas develop slowly.

Monitor What Your Users Actually Use​

Your homepage might be perfect, but if your mobile app's API is down, your customers can't actually use your service. Think about the complete user journey - from discovering your site to completing a purchase or signup - and monitor the critical points in that path. This often means monitoring specific API endpoints, not just pretty web pages.

Choose the Right Tool for Each Job​

HTTP monitoring catches obvious outages and is perfect for most websites. Keyword monitoring is essential for e-commerce sites where a corrupted product page could cost sales. Advanced page monitoring (Premium) helps prevent performance issues that cause customers to abandon your site. Email domain monitoring (Premium) ensures your transactional emails actually reach customers. Most businesses need a mix of these approaches.

Deep Dive Guides for Each Monitor Type​

Once you understand the basics, these comprehensive guides will help you get the most out of each monitoring approach:

HTTP Monitoring Guide - Everything you need to know about basic uptime monitoring, from simple website checks to complex API monitoring with authentication. Perfect for getting started or optimizing your existing HTTP monitors.

Keyword Monitoring Guide - Learn how to monitor not just whether your site loads, but whether it's showing the right content. Essential for e-commerce sites and anyone who needs to verify that critical information displays correctly.

Advanced Page Monitoring Guide - Premium feature that provides comprehensive analysis of your website's performance, security, and health. Includes page load optimization, domain expiry monitoring, and bot protection analysis.

Email Domain Monitoring Guide - Premium email infrastructure monitoring that ensures your emails actually reach customers. Covers deliverability analysis, spam reputation monitoring, and mail server health checks.

Getting More Help​

For technical integration, check our API Documentation if you want to create and manage monitors programmatically. This is especially useful if you're managing many monitors or integrating monitoring into your deployment pipeline.

For staying informed, set up notification channels so you know immediately when something breaks. Email notifications work for most people, but Slack or SMS integration can be crucial for mission-critical services.

For customer communication, consider creating status pages that show your service health to users. This builds trust and reduces support tickets when issues do occur.

Your Next Steps​

After setting up your first monitors, here's how to build a comprehensive monitoring strategy:

  1. Configure your alerts properly - Set up email, Slack, or SMS notifications so you know about problems immediately. Test these alerts to make sure they actually reach you.

  2. Create a status page - Let your customers see your service health proactively. This builds trust and reduces "is it just me?" support requests.

  3. Review your monitoring coverage - Look at your service from a customer's perspective. Are you monitoring all the critical paths they use? Don't just monitor your homepage if customers primarily use your API.

  4. Consider premium features - If downtime costs you money, premium monitoring with faster check intervals and advanced analysis can pay for itself by catching problems earlier.

  5. Learn from your data - Use the uptime reports and performance data to understand your service's patterns and identify areas for improvement.