Free uptime monitoring checks your website every few minutes and alerts you by email, text or chat when it stops responding. Hosted services are the quickest to set up, open-source monitors suit people who want to run their own, and cron monitors suit sites that rely on scheduled jobs. Free plans usually limit how many checks you can run and how often.
Most small business owners find out their website is down from a customer, a friend or a sudden drop in enquiries. An uptime monitor flips that around, so you're the first to know and can fix it before anyone notices.
Below are ten free uptime monitoring tools in no particular order, sorted alphabetically, from small open-source projects to established services. Each description comes from the tool's own website, re-checked today. If you're worried about attacks as well as outages, my guide on how to stop hackers getting into your business website covers that side.
Decide what you need to watch. A brochure site needs a simple homepage check, while a shop needs its checkout watched too, and a site that sends daily emails or backups needs its scheduled jobs monitored.
Free uptime monitoring tools at a glance
In the free plan column, Yes means the tool's own site describes a free plan or free open-source use, Trial only means a time-limited trial, and No means neither is stated. Free plans usually limit monitors, check frequency and alert types.
| Tool | Type | Good for | Free plan |
|---|---|---|---|
| Better Stack | Uptime monitoring and incident tool | Monitoring with on-call alerts | Yes |
| Checkly | Synthetic monitoring platform | Testing key pages and checkout flows | Yes |
| Cronitor | Cron job and uptime monitor | Watching scheduled jobs | Yes |
| Healthchecks.io | Cron job monitoring | Simple heartbeat checks for scheduled tasks | Yes |
| HetrixTools | Uptime and server monitoring | Several free monitors with status pages | Yes |
| OneUptime | Open-source observability platform | Monitoring, status pages and incidents together | Yes |
| StatusCake | Website monitoring service | Uptime, page speed and domain checks | Yes |
| Upptime | Open-source monitor on GitHub | Free monitoring and status page via GitHub | Yes |
| Uptime Kuma | Self-hosted monitoring tool | Running your own monitor | Yes |
| UptimeRobot | Website uptime monitor | Quick setup for small sites | Yes |
Ten free uptime monitoring tools to try
Better Stack
Best for: Small teams who want uptime checks, status pages and on-call alerts in one place.
Checkly
Best for: Developers who want to run scripted checks on login and checkout journeys, not just the homepage.
Cronitor
Best for: Developers who want alerts when scheduled tasks such as backups or reports don't run.
Healthchecks.io
Best for: Developers who want a simple service that alerts them when a scheduled job stops checking in.
HetrixTools
Best for: Small website and server owners who want uptime checks, server monitoring and status pages.
OneUptime
Best for: Teams who want open-source monitoring, status pages and incident management they can host or use online.
StatusCake
Best for: Small businesses who want uptime checks plus page speed and domain monitoring.
Upptime
Best for: Developers who want an open-source uptime monitor and status page that runs on GitHub.
Uptime Kuma
Best for: Technical owners who want a free, self-hosted monitor with a friendly dashboard.
UptimeRobot
Best for: Small website owners who want simple uptime checks and alerts set up in minutes.
What Google advises about downtime
Here's why fast alerts matter for your search traffic. Google Search Central's guidance on pausing an online business says disabling a whole website is an extreme measure that should only last a very short time, a few days at most, because it will otherwise have significant effects on how the site appears in Search. For an urgent one or two day outage, it suggests returning an informational error page with a 503 status code.
So an unplanned outage that runs for days can hurt you more than lost sales. A free monitor that texts you within minutes gives you the chance to fix the problem, or at least serve a 503 maintenance page, before search engines start treating the site as gone.
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What to monitor beyond the homepage
- Checkout or booking page: where money and enquiries happen.
- Contact form: a broken form loses leads silently.
- SSL certificate: expiry warnings before browsers show errors.
- Domain expiry: a lapsed domain takes everything down.
- Scheduled jobs: backups and emails that should run daily.
Setting up monitoring in ten minutes
- Sign up and add your homepage as the first monitor.
- Add your most important page, such as checkout or contact.
- Choose alerts by email and a second channel such as text or chat.
- Add a second person to the alerts so nothing waits for you.
- Create a simple status page you can share with clients.
When the alert arrives
- Check from another device: confirm it's not just your connection.
- Look at your host's status page: the problem may be theirs.
- Check recent changes: a plugin update or DNS change is a common cause.
- Tell customers: a short note on social media buys patience.
Once the site is stable, my website growth strategies help you make the most of the traffic you're protecting.
Keep a short log of every outage: when it started, what caused it and how you fixed it. Patterns show up quickly, and so do hosts that keep letting you down.
Do you make uptime monitoring tools? Tool makers can ask to be considered for a featured place on this list.
My plain advice on free uptime monitoring
Set it up today, even if your site has never gone down. Monitoring is like insurance: it's boring until the day it saves you, and the free plans cover what most small sites need.
And make sure alerts reach someone who can act. An alert in an inbox nobody checks at weekends isn't monitoring, it's a record of what went wrong.
Frequently asked questions
What is uptime monitoring?
It's a service that checks your website regularly and alerts you when it stops responding or returns errors.
Is there free uptime monitoring?
Yes. Several hosted services have free plans, and open-source monitors are free to run yourself.
How often do free monitors check my site?
It varies by tool. Free plans often check less frequently than upgraded plans.
Does downtime affect SEO?
Google says disabling a site should only last a very short time, a few days at most, or it will significantly affect how the site appears in Search.
What is a 503 status code?
It tells visitors and search engines the site is temporarily unavailable, which Google suggests for short urgent outages.
Can I get text message alerts?
Many tools offer text or chat alerts, sometimes limited on free plans.
What is a status page?
It's a public page showing whether your site or service is working, which saves clients emailing to ask.
Do I need to monitor SSL certificates?
It's worth it. An expired certificate shows visitors a warning that scares them away.
Can I monitor a website I don't host?
Yes. Uptime monitors check from outside, so they work with any public website.
What's the difference between uptime and cron monitoring?
Uptime monitoring checks a page responds, while cron monitoring checks scheduled jobs ran on time.
