Uptime.com Blog

Features to Look for in Synthetic Monitoring Tools

In December 2020, Google experienced a massive global outage affecting Gmail, YouTube, and most other services apart from Search. In the first 30 minutes of the 45-minute incident, the company’s systems failed to notify either the developers or the customers that the company’s authentication tool was down. During that time, countless users could not access applications, demonstrating that even the world’s tech giants aren’t invulnerable to downtime.

While Google’s net worth of $2.344 trillion can afford to take the hit of up to $5,600 per minute, the same likely doesn’t apply to most site owners. That’s why it’s so important to invest in synthetic monitoring tools that boast a comprehensive suite of features able to stress test applications and identify potential issues before your profits take a hit.

What is synthetic monitoring you ask? Synthetic monitoring checks simulate a user’s actions on your website or application, and provides data back to you to asses website performance and reliability.

Before choosing a synthetic monitoring tool, take the time to investigate the features they offer so you can keep your digital services running smoothly for all users.

1. Multi-Step Transaction Monitoring

The synthetic monitoring tool you choose should simulate a complex, realistic user journey: logging in, searching for a product, adding it to the cart, completing the purchase, etc. This feature is the only way to ensure that all critical paths and processes in your web application function correctly.

Otherwise, you risk not catching issues until they result in a support ticket from a real user, which means decreased customer satisfaction and increased disruptions to the overall functionality.

2. Varied Browser & Device Simulation

About 25 years ago, online usage was basically limited to Internet Explorer accessed via a desktop or laptop, but that’s no longer the case. Modern users access websites from a multitude of browsers and, increasingly, from their mobile devices, which make up more than 58% of global internet traffic.

With this level of variability, your site must be able to intuitively respond to the particular set of tech specs and user behaviors that naturally accompany a particular device, each of which dictates a specific set of circumstances and behaviors. If your synthetic monitoring tools cannot simulate interactivity across this range, your site will lack the appropriate data for real-world usage.

3. Global Monitoring Locations

When scaling your business to a global audience, you want every user to get the same consistently excellent experience. Global monitoring capabilities grant you insights into your site’s performance from various geographical points so you can address latency and regional issues and deploy optimization fixes like CDNs or server placements.

Uptime.com’s UPro! Services recently expanded its global observability capabilities, making the platform the industry leader worldwide, boasting over 75 Probe Server Locations.

4. Custom Scripting Capabilities

Out-of-the-box tests might work when sites are small and simple, but you must get a little more creative as the complexity grows. Custom scripting allows you to design and implement tailored tests that fit your needs, whether simulating different user scenarios like logging in or ensuring each page component loads during general site browsing.

Look for tools with a built-in editor that caters to both sides of the coin. You’ll want code field suggestions with simple commands and easy-to-read statements for simple tasks. To get more granular, it should also allow you to create advanced assertations and element validation checks to ensure end-to-end page completion.

5. Proactive Issue Identification With In-Depth Reporting

To provide the best possible user experience, you must be able to leverage your data to directly address the areas in the transaction process where functionality is lacking, and that requires a tiered check alerting system that acts as a catch-all system for any infrastructure issues.

Uptime.com’s monitoring system puts the power in your hands with minimum interval settings that run according to recommended metrics, including:

• One-minute HTTPS intervals to catch outages before a Transaction Check’s five-minute interval
• One-minute HTTPS intervals to catch outages before an API Check‘s three-minute interval
• SSL and DNS checks once per day for easily avoidable outages

When the checks catch an error, we provide an advanced root-cause analysis, complete with screenshots, so you can take action to correct failed steps in the transaction.

6. User-Friendly Interface

Nobody likes unnecessary complications, so tools with a sharp learning curve result in much frustration and lower adoption rates. For the best shot at successfully implementing your chosen synthetic monitoring platform in a meaningful, efficacious way, it must be easy enough for you and your team to use without too much difficulty.

7. Integration With DevOp Tools

You rely on many different project and service management software to keep your workflow moving along, so you should also prioritize a synthetic monitoring tool that slots easily into that system. With Uptime.com’s Zapier partnership, you have more than 3,000 potential integrations available to create a streamlined experience that shortens the time it takes to track, manage, and resolve issues while creating fewer information silos.

Uptime.com: All the Features You Need to Keep Your Site Functioning Flawlessly

Synthetic monitoring is one of the most critical tools for detecting failures and optimizing performance before they impact users.

Uptime.com has made it our mission to make setting up simulated user journeys a minutes-long process that meets all of our clients exactly where they are.

Ready to get started with our industry-leading website monitoring platform? Test out our Premium Plan for 14 days.

With 200 Basic Checks, 15 Transaction Checks, unlimited user accounts, and more, it’s everything a growing company needs to keep its website up and running.

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