Why was Upwatch created?
Welcome to UpWatch! Imagine waking up one day to find your business website offline or flagged as insecure—without any warning. UpWatch was built to ensure this never happens to you.
It is a service that I have worked hard to create and is the culmination of years of work, frustration and searching for help myself. It also is built upon 15 years of experience owning, building and managing websites, both for myself and for other businesses.
The concept essentially is about combining services I have slowly built up myself. Whilst managing websites, I have discovered the importance of website uptime monitoring - tools to alert me when a website becomes unavailable. You don't want to find out by accident or via someone else's complaints that your business' website is not working. But does it stop at just knowing if a website is up or not?
Until a few years ago I only really worried about whether a website uptime monitor told me whether the site was up or not. Then, I had experiences of those services not picking up unusual situations. I've had websites where the DNS records have been altered and the website reverted to a domain provider's 'Coming soon' page. As far as the uptime monitor was concerned, the website was still 'up' because the 'Coming soon' page loaded, so a website was there.
On the back of that, I learnt to utilise DNS change monitoring and visual change monitoring, tools that would tell me if the DNS records changed and if the website suddenly looked an awful lot different!
Also, I have experienced websites where the browser tells me the website is unsecure and my anti-virus alerts me to a security issue. All because the website's SSL certificate has expired. I've even recently experienced this on websites owned by the UK Government.
Why website monitoring matters
Whilst managing websites for clients, I have had clients not understand that they need to pay to renew their domain. They have let it expire without knowing the consequences and then seen their website go offline.
Over time, I’ve encountered websites that began loading slower or experiencing health issues, leading to a decline in performance and customer trust.
Over the years I have experienced all of these issues with websites and at every turn I have amassed an arsenal of tools to help me avoid the pain again. I've learnt to use multiple uptime monitors because one is not often accurate enough, I have set up DNS change monitoring, SSL expiration alerts, domain expiration monitoring and visual change monitoring. I have found tools that help me monitor for changes in page speed and site health. I have offered all of these tools to my own clients via my web design agency, but I now want to provide them to everyone.
Who is UpWatch for?
The aim of UpWatch is to provide a comprehensive and robust set of website monitoring services for every small business. I don't expect Apple, Facebook or Amazon will sign up for UpWatch. The aim is to empower every small business owner so they can sleep at night assured that their website is working. If it wasn't, I'd have let them know!
What's more, I want to provide a more human experience for small businesses. Being told via an automated email that your website is offline doesn't fix the problem. I want to bring the 'human factor' to website monitoring.
The human factor: Why UpWatch stands out in website monitoring
Technology is evolving faster than ever, and we’re on the brink of a shift as impactful as the internet boom of the 90s. As great and as powerful as AI and computer-led systems are, sometimes the human factor is more effective.
In my years of managing websites and using website monitoring tools, I have probably had at least 10 times as many 'false positives' as I have actual reports of downtime. So many times I have been whipped into a sense of panic by an alert that a website is down only to find it is actually ok and the monitor is having a funny moment.
Where 'the human factor' comes into UpWatch is that we will be whipped into a panic due to an alert, manually check the validity of the alert, and only inform you when we are sure it is correct. We don't want you to worry unnecessarily when we can take an extra minute just to be certain of the need to bother you.
Also, what's the point of being told your website is down if you don't know how to resolve it? The other human factor we are bringing is we will endeavour to provide helpful feedback when we report an issue to you. Rather than "your website is down", we will aim to message you that "your website is down due to maintenance on the hosting server". We would advise you to contact your hosting provider."
The final way we support you personally is via our site health reporting. Depending on which of our paid tiers you choose, we offer periodic website site health reporting. The report will outline any steps you can take to improve your website and to keep it working well and ranking well in Google. However, much like the downtime alerts, what's the point in being told "You need to fix the use of semantic headings on your About page" if you have no idea what that means? With our site health reporting, you can reach out and ask for help and even step-by-step instructions to help you make those improvements.
By adding in the human factor we can provide more accurate and impactful reporting. All of these ensure an even greater level of support and reassurance for you and your business.
What are the key benefits of UpWatch?
UpWatch is designed to provide a group of small business website tools. These include:
24/7 uptime monitoring
Alerts for domain expiration and SSL issues
Visual and DNS change detection
Personalized site health reporting with actionable insights
"Human factor" support to ensure accuracy and guidance
What are the costs and why?
The package of monitors we provide features seven distinct monitors (website uptime monitoring, domain expiration, SSL, DNS, visual, speed, and health). Because I believe that every small business website needs all seven, we do not limit the number of these monitors you have on lower-tier pricing plans.
We provide three plans, Basic, Standard and Premium. All feature the seven core monitors. The main key difference is how often the monitors are run. With the Basic plan, the uptime is monitored every 30 minutes and the other monitors provide you with checks every few days. The Standard plan checks your uptime every 5 minutes and the other checks happen more frequently. At the Premium level, your website's uptime is checked every 30 seconds and all other checks happen with similar increases in frequency.
On top of the core seven monitors, with Standard and Premium, you will also get blacklist monitoring. This will check to see if your domain is being blocked by services like Google due to reports of spamming or malware. The Premium plan will also help track some of your keywords to see how well they are performing in terms of SEO.
The final key difference is in terms of reporting methods. You will get notified of an issue via email with all plans. With Standard, you also get an SMS notification. With Premium, you have email, SMS, Slack and WhatsApp notifications (although you can say no to any of those if you don't use them or don't want four simultaneous alerts!).
With every plan you choose, you get UpWatch's core offering—seven excellent website monitors and rich, detailed issue reporting.
How can I get started?
Ready to safeguard your website and sleep soundly at night? Visit our Pricing page to choose the plan that fits your needs, and let us handle the rest.
If you have any questions that remain unanswered, please get in touch today. We can help you get the best monitoring service for you and your business.
