Website Monitoring Tools Guide: Uptime, Performance, and Error Tracking
Website monitoring is the foundation of online business stability. A complete monitoring system includes uptime, performance, error tracking, and log management.
1. Uptime Monitoring
1.1 Features
- HTTP/HTTPS check (200 OK)
- Multi-location checks
- SSL certificate expiry alerts
- Response time tracking
- Alert notifications
1.2 Tool Comparison
| Tool | Free Tier | Paid From | Features |
|---|---|---|---|
| UptimeRobot | 50 monitors, 5min | $7/month | Simple, easy |
| Better Uptime | 1 monitor, 1min | $20/month | Status page + phone |
| Pingdom | 1 monitor, 1min | $12/month | Established, reliable |
| Checkly | 5 monitors | $30/month | Playwright browser checks |
2. Performance Monitoring
2.1 RUM vs Synthetic
| Type | Description | Tools |
|---|---|---|
| RUM | Real user data | GA, Datadog RUM |
| Synthetic | Simulated browsers | Lighthouse CI, Checkly |
2.2 Tools
- Google PageSpeed Insights: Free, real user + lab data
- WebPageTest: Free, multi-location deep testing
- GTmetrix: Free + $15/month, waterfall charts
- Lighthouse CI: Free, CI/CD integration
3. Error Tracking
3.1 Why Error Tracking?
Auto-capture runtime errors to help developers quickly identify and fix issues.
3.2 Tool Comparison
| Tool | Free Tier | Paid From | Features |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sentry | 5,000 events/month | $26/month | Open source, most features |
| Bugsnag | 2,000 events/month | $19/month | Stable, reliable |
| Rollbar | 5,000 events/month | $19/month | Good deployment tracking |
3.3 Sentry Integration
import * as Sentry from "@sentry/react";
Sentry.init({
dsn: "https://[email protected]/12345",
environment: process.env.NODE_ENV,
tracesSampleRate: 1.0,
});
4. Log Management
| Tool | Free Tier | Features |
|---|---|---|
| Papertrail | 100MB/month | Simple log search |
| Logtail | 1GB/month | Modern log platform |
| Grafana Loki | Self-hosted free | Prometheus integration |
5. Recommended Stack
Small sites ($0/month): UptimeRobot (free) + PageSpeed Insights + Sentry (free)
Medium sites ($50-100/month): Better Uptime + Sentry + Papertrail
Large sites ($200+/month): Datadog or Grafana stack
6. Alert Configuration
- Downtime → Immediate (phone/SMS)
- Response time > 5s → 5 min (Slack)
- Error rate > 1% → 10 min (Slack)
- SSL expiring → 30 days (email)
7. Summary
Start with uptime monitoring (UptimeRobot), add performance monitoring (Web Vitals) and error tracking (Sentry) gradually. A good monitoring system lets you sleep well.