No matter how good your host is there is still the potential for your website to go offline. A failed update, a database connection error or a hosting issue. All of these can cause your perfectly crafted site to come crashing down.
But how would you even know about it? This is where uptime monitoring is such a useful tool, but they can be expensive.
While I’ve been using both Uptime Robot and Better Uptime, I still like to try out new options to see if they add anything new. Today, we’ll be exploring Uptimia – a website monitoring service that provides some useful features beyond simply monitoring uptime.
Uptime monitoring and more
Uptimia provides you with monitors that you can pick and choose to use on any website domain. Some will require additional code to be added to your website, others will work by simply monitoring the domain itself.
Uptime Monitoring: By creating an uptime monitor, you add your website URL and then pick from a selection of monitoring types: Web, Network or Email.
What didn’t work so well?
Well, this is where the bad news comes in and why I currently can’t recommend Uptimia over a tool like Better Uptime. With any monitoring tool, it’s only as good as its reliability and for me, this wasn’t so great. I simulated a couple of issues with a copy of WordPress. one of which was a database connection issue. Obviously, this is a serious problem and can occur in WordPress for a multitude of reasons.
In Uptimia, nothing was reported. I tested it on several occasions, leaving the error in place for up to 20 minutes with notifications and checks being set for 1-minute intervals and still nothing. I did the exact same test using Better Uptime and got notified almost immediately of an issue.
I did run an alternative test where I completely deleted a website that was connected to Uptimia and that did result in a warning notification. This leaves me with a certain level of unease in placing my trust in a product or service that isn’t 100% reliable.
Technical Support Findings
With the above issues I reached out to technical support for them to look into this issue and they are responsive and offered to help. It has so far been 3 days, a couple of emails back and forth and no clarification or solution to the issue. This long wait time to get to the bottom of a problem with their platform doesn’t inspire confidence.
In my opinion, there is a definite need for a live chat/tech support option and not just email support. It’s too slow and inefficient and doesn’t inspire confidence.
Uptimia
Summary
While the feature set of Uptimia is good, the interface is modern and the setup is painless. It’s let down by slow technical support and issues with notifications of some pretty important website downtime issues. Until this is rectified and support improved, I can’t recommend the platform if you need a reliable, efficient and solid uptime monitoring service. Right now, you’d be better off with either Better Uptime or Uptime Robot’s free plan.