Set Up in Less Than 5 Minutes

No technical skills needed. Just follow these simple steps and you'll be monitoring your website in minutes.

What You'll Need:

  • Your website URL (e.g., https://yourwebsite.com)
  • An email address
  • 5 minutes of your time

That's it. No coding, no server access, no complicated setup.

Step-by-Step Setup

1

Create Your Free Account

Head over to UptimeRobot and click "Sign Up Free." You'll need to provide:

  • Your email address
  • A password
  • Your name (optional but recommended)

No credit card required. Verify your email, and you're in.

Create Account Now →
2

Add Your First Monitor

Once logged in, click the "+ Add New Monitor" button. You'll see a simple form:

Fill in these fields:

Monitor Type:

Choose "HTTP(s)" (this works for most websites)

Friendly Name:

Something you'll recognize (e.g., "My Store Homepage")

URL:

Your full website address (https://yourwebsite.com)

Monitoring Interval:

Leave at "5 minutes" (free plan)

Click "Create Monitor" and you're done with the basics. Your website is now being monitored.

Pro tip: Start with your homepage, then add other important pages like your checkout, login, or contact pages as separate monitors.

3

Set Up Alerts

You need to configure how you want to be notified. Go to "My Settings" → "Alert Contacts."

Email Alerts (Default)

Your signup email is automatically added. You'll get an email when your site goes down or comes back up.

SMS Alerts (Optional)

Add your phone number if you want text alerts. Good for critical websites.

Other Channels (Pro Plan)

Slack, Discord, Telegram, webhooks, and more are available on paid plans.

Important: After adding an alert contact, you need to verify it (check your email/phone for the verification link).

4

Optional: Create a Status Page (Recommended)

Status pages let your customers check your website's uptime history. It builds trust and reduces support tickets.

How to create one:

  1. 1. Go to "Status Pages" in the sidebar
  2. 2. Click "Add Status Page"
  3. 3. Choose which monitors to display
  4. 4. Customize the design (colors, logo, text)
  5. 5. Get your unique URL (e.g., status.uptimerobot.com/yourname)

Share this URL with customers or link it in your footer. Shows you care about transparency.

What Happens Next?

When Everything's Fine

UptimeRobot quietly checks your site every 5 minutes. You won't hear from it unless something goes wrong. Your dashboard shows green status.

🚨

When Something Goes Wrong

You'll get an instant alert via your chosen method (email, SMS, etc.). The alert tells you what's wrong and when it happened. Fix it, and you'll get an "up" notification.

📊

Check Your Dashboard

Log in anytime to see your uptime percentage, response times, and incident history. Great for spotting patterns or trends.

📈

Add More Monitors

Once you're comfortable, add more monitors for other pages, APIs, or even competitors' sites (for comparison).

Tips for Success

💡 Start Small, Scale Up

Begin with your most important page (usually the homepage). Once you're comfortable, add checkout pages, login pages, and APIs.

💡 Name Your Monitors Clearly

Use descriptive names like "Store Checkout Page" instead of "Monitor 1." Makes alerts easier to understand at 3am.

💡 Test Your Alerts

After setting up, you can trigger a test alert to make sure notifications are working. Better to test now than find out during a real outage.

💡 Monitor Your Competitors

Use spare monitors to track competitors' uptime. You might discover they have more issues than you think.

💡 Review Weekly

Spend 5 minutes each week checking your uptime stats. Look for patterns like "site is slow on Mondays" or "downtime always happens at night."

Common Questions

Why am I getting false alerts?

If you get an alert but your site is actually up, it might be a momentary glitch. UptimeRobot checks from multiple locations, so false positives are rare. Double-check your URL is correct.

Can I monitor a site behind a login?

Yes, but you'll need to set up authentication in the monitor settings. UptimeRobot supports basic auth, custom headers, and more.

What if my site is slow but not down?

UptimeRobot tracks response times. Check your dashboard for slow response times, even if the site is technically "up."

How do I monitor multiple websites?

Just add multiple monitors. Each website gets its own monitor. You can organize them with tags or folders (Pro feature).

Ready to Start?

You now know everything you need. Time to set up your monitoring—it really does take less than 5 minutes.

Create Free Account

Questions? Get in touch