Getting started with OctoPing
What OctoPing monitors, how alerts and status pages fit together, and the terms the rest of the documentation uses.
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OctoPing watches websites and scheduled jobs, and tells you when one of them breaks or changes. This documentation describes how each part behaves: what is checked, how often, what counts as a failure and what you get told.
If you want to set something up step by step, start with Add your first site, alert and status page. If you want to know exactly how something behaves, use the Concepts pages in the sidebar.
What OctoPing monitors
A site gets 8 checks: uptime, SSL certificate, DNS nameservers, DNS MX records, page content, robots.txt, IP & hosting and WHOIS. All of them are included on every site, whatever plan the workspace is on. SSL certificate and WHOIS are on when you add a site. The other checks start switched off, and you turn on the ones that matter for that site.
Jobs that have no URL, such as backups, cron jobs and pipelines, use heartbeats instead. A heartbeat gives the job a URL to call when it finishes, and OctoPing raises an alert when the call doesn't arrive on time.
The checks reference lists every check with its defaults and intervals.
How you get told
Alerts go out through Email, Slack, Discord, Webhook and Browser push. Each channel is configured per site or heartbeat as a notification, with its own failure threshold, repeat interval and set of triggers. Adding a site creates a default email notification for you.
Key terms
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Workspace | The container for one company or agency. Sites, heartbeats, status pages, notifications and team members all belong to a workspace. |
| Site | One URL that OctoPing checks. example.com and example.com/checkout are two sites, and so are the www and apex versions of the same domain. |
| Group | A named folder for sites inside a workspace. An agency can use one group per client. A group filters the dashboard and doesn't change how a site is checked. |
| Heartbeat | A monitor for something that should call OctoPing on a schedule instead of being called. |
| Notification | One alert channel attached to one site or heartbeat, with its recipients, thresholds and triggers. |
| Status page | A public page that shows the current status and 90 days of daily history for the sites you choose to display, and 90-day uptime for heartbeats. |
| Maintenance window | Planned work. While a window is running, up and down alerts pause and the time is left out of uptime. |
Roles
Each member of a workspace has one of four roles: Owner, Admin, Member or Viewer. A Viewer can read everything in the workspace and change nothing. Because a Viewer sees every site in the workspace, a Viewer login is meant for your own team. To show a client their sites, give them a status page.
Accounts and trials
Creating an account at the sign-up page starts a 14-day trial with no card. You can sign in before you verify your email, but adding a site or a heartbeat needs a verified email address. Plan limits and prices are on the pricing page.
Related
- DocsAdd your first site, alert and status pageAdd a site, get a first alert through the default email notification and publish a status page, using the app's own labels.
- DocsChecks referenceWhat each of the eight checks and heartbeats measures, whether it is on by default, how often it runs and what counts as a failure or a change.
- PricingPricing: one price per site, every check includedUptime, SSL, domain expiry, DNS, hosting changes, robots.txt and content monitoring on every plan, from four vantage points. From $19/month. 14-day free trial, no card required.