Uptime.com Blog

What is Uptime?

What is uptime anyway? Behind any successful online operation is a resilient infrastructure and a team with a well-honed operational discipline dedicated to ensuring uptime metrics consistently meet the benchmarks required to fulfill service commitments.

However, brief downtime can have serious repercussions when infrastructure falters or servers are pushed past their limits. For large organizations, the financial impact is staggering — up to $9,000 per minute — as is the erosion of customer trust and potential regulatory penalties. These are the real-world challenges that uptime solutions and website monitoring tools seek to solve.

Site reliability engineers, developers, and IT teams searching for methods to achieve better uptime have landed on the right resource. We cover everything uptime, from measurement to maintenance, providing the insights you need to protect your bottom line with a reliable online presence.

Key Terms and Metrics

Before we dig too deeply into the more granular aspects of uptime, let’s first review some of the most important concepts related to the topic.

• API uptime,or API availability, measures the percentage of time an application programming interface (API) is operational. API monitoring tools can log API uptime and provide insights into how to deliver more consistent and reliable service across both in-house and third-party integrations.
• Application uptime tracks the percentage of time a web application is available to users and functioning as expected. Real-user monitoring and synthetic monitoring provide website monitoring metrics that measure application performance from the user’s perspective.
• Availability metrics are a subset of essential website performance metrics that account for all instances of uptime and downtime. Vendors include their guarantees for their system uptime/service uptime and downtime metrics in their uptime service-level agreement (SLA).
• Monitoring involves continuously tracking system performance, such as response times, error rates, and uptime. Effective website monitoring helps detect usability issues before they become a larger concern for users and possibly impact their satisfaction with the website.
• Network uptime is a website monitoring metric that refers to the percentage of time that your network infrastructure, like servers and routers, remains fully functional. Component failure can lead to partial or complete service disruptions, preventing users from accessing your web applications or services.
• Observability broadly refers to aggregating all IT data — logs, traces, and metrics — to proactively detect and resolve issues impacting multilayered infrastructure.

Because many of these terms are similar to one another, it’s also worth fleshing a few of them out in more detail:

Uptime vs. Downtime

Uptime is the percentage of time a system is fully operational and accessible to users, indicating its reliability. Downtime refers to periods when the system is unavailable due to unexpected failures or planned maintenance.

One cannot address uptime without considering downtime because the two metrics are inversely related: A system with high uptime has low downtime, and vice versa.

Monitoring vs. Observability

Though sometimes used interchangeably, observability vs. monitoring serves two distinct purposes in managing system performance.

Monitoring continuously collects data on uptime, errors, response rates, and other key metrics and then sets predefined thresholds that trigger alerts when specific metrics deviate from the norm. It’s particularly crucial for monitoring high-traffic websites, where even minor performance issues can have long-term repercussions.

On the other hand, observability aims to determine why and how errors occur based on inferences about internal system states and analyzing system outputs. IT teams use advanced technologies and methodologies to create an overall picture of the environment and then use that knowledge to take proactive action against performance issues.

Uptime vs. Availability

The uptime metric measures the percentage of time a site, browser interface, API, etc., is functional over a set period. However, it only accounts for unplanned downtime.

Availability includes unplanned downtime but also considers planned maintenance and upgrades when calculating the percentage of time the website functions as intended.

Why Is Website Uptime Monitoring Important?

When systems go offline, the consequences can strike at the heart of your operations and revenue streams.

Website uptime monitoring safeguards your site and business from the potentially devastating effects of downtime:

• Downtime directly affects revenue, especially for businesses that depend on online transactions. Even a brief outage can result in substantial financial losses without system/service uptime monitoring and alerting.
• 88% of online shoppers report that they won’t return to a site after a poor experience, meaning frequent service interruptions can quickly erode customer confidence. Continuous website monitoring empowers you to provide a reliable user experience and optimize uptime.
• Search engines penalize websites that frequently experience downtime, as revealed by Moz in a study on the impact of intermittent 500 internal server errors on search engine optimization (SEO) rankings.
• With mobile traffic claiming 53.4% of all traffic, downtime can disproportionately impact mobile users. The expectations for mobile website monitoring are high; users demand fast, always-on access, and you need reliable tools to provide it.
• In many industries, like the medical and financial sectors, business operations hinge on high application uptime to avoid disruptions and maintain operational flow.
• Failing to meet service requirements outlined in an SLA can lead to financial penalties and strained client relationships.

How To Calculate Uptime

Calculating uptime involves finding the percentage of time your website or service is fully operational within a specific period. The formula is:

Uptime % = [(Total Time – Downtime) / Total Time] x 100

The “Total Time” is the duration you measure, typically a month or a year. This calculation yields a percentage commonly referred to as “nines,” where each additional nine signifies a higher level of reliability with correspondingly less allowable downtime.

• 99.9% uptime (3 nines): 43.8 minutes of monthly downtime
• 99.99% uptime (4 nines): 4.38 minutes per month
• 99.999% uptime (5 nines): 26.3 seconds per month
• 99.9999% uptime (6 nines): 2.6 seconds per month

These levels should serve as benchmarks for evaluating quality uptime services, as they directly impact the reliability and availability of your systems. You can test a website’s uptime to help you assess your service’s performance or use an uptime calculator to determine whether your vendor complies with the terms outlined in your SLA.

What Is a Good Uptime?

For small businesses, 99.9% uptime — often called “three nines” — is considered the acceptable baseline performance for service providers.

However, sectors with mission-critical service availability, such as healthcare, finance, or large-scale cloud services, typically aim for better uptime guarantees of 99.99% (“four nines”) or higher.

Ultimately, a good uptime meets or exceeds the demands of your industry and business model, providing a reliable service experience that builds trust with your users.

What Is an Uptime SLA?

When contracting with a particular vendor or service provider, the agreement will include an uptime SLA, which guarantees its users a certain amount of uptime within a particular period. Should the service fail to meet this agreed-upon uptime, the provider may face penalties, such as financial compensation or service credits.

This uptime SLA metrics guarantee holds service providers accountable for maintaining high availability so end-users experience consistent and reliable service regardless of planned or unplanned downtime. As such, they also conduct regular SLA reporting to demonstrate their ongoing value and efficacy to their users.

How To Improve Uptime

Two general sets of solutions for improving availability are improving uptime and decreasing downtime.

Achieving better uptime requires increasing the percentage of time that your site is fully operational by preventing disruptions from occurring in the first place. Some methods are to:

• Leverage the abilities of comprehensive uptime solutions and tools that offer customizable, real-time alerts and longitudinal performance metrics to optimize your systems.
• Deploy a content delivery network (CDN) to cache content across multiple geographically distributed servers to reduce latency and offload traffic from your origin server.
• To prevent security vulnerabilities, perform routine maintenance and keep all software/hardware updated.
• Invest in auto-scaling features that automatically adjust resources based on demand. Your server capacity will increase or decrease in response to traffic patterns so that you can prevent performance bottlenecks.
• Use redundant servers, network paths, power supplies, and failover mechanisms that can take over for another failed component without causing downtime.
• Distribute traffic across multiple servers, a strategy known as load-balancing, to prevent any single server from being overwhelmed. Then, even during peak usage times, you can keep your site or web application running smoothly.

How To Decrease Downtime

While achieving better uptime involves preventing issues before they occur, reducing website downtime focuses on mitigating the duration and impact of any disruptions that do happen. The objective is to identify and resolve issues that will restore normal operations as quickly as possible.

• Get familiar with common causes of website downtime — server overload, widespread domain name system (DNS) outages, an incompatible content management system (CMS), hardware failures, etc. — so you can address them proactively.
• Regularly test your recovery plan to restore services during a major outage or security breach.
• Automate the failover process so a backup system can automatically take over if a primary system fails.
• Deploy regular stress tests and incident management simulations to drill response roles and processes before a case of real-world downtime.

How To Set Up Uptime Monitoring

Getting started with uptime monitoring requires identifying and configuring the relevant Checks for your particular URL or IP address. While the specific process varies depending on the tool, these general guidelines apply:

1. Determine the specific assets to monitor. These should include all vital components of the IT infrastructure, such as the primary site domain and any third-party APIs.
2. Select the appropriate monitoring checks. Most uptime monitoring tools offer a variety of check types, from DNS checks to monitor the resolution of a domain name to TCP/UDP port checks for specific network services. Start with an HTTP(S) check to monitor your site’s core availability.
3. Adjust alert sensitivity and escalation settings as needed, such as sending an alert if a service is down for a specific period or if multiple checks fail simultaneously. Customize maintenance windows to avoid false alerts during scheduled maintenance.
4. Regularly review and update the checks as the website or service evolves. Add new checks as necessary to provide all infrastructure with

Uptime Monitoring Services & Tools

Depending on your website or app’s specific needs, you’ll want to choose the best tool based on its available features. Below, we offer uptime solutions across various categories to help you jumpstart your research.

Best Uptime Monitoring Solutions

For high-caliber, quality uptime services, these tools are leaders in the field:

• Uptime.com is a comprehensive website monitoring service that offers a suite of tools, such as synthetic monitoring, real user monitoring (RUM), API monitoring, and more. It’s the leading choice for businesses needing detailed monitoring that provides real-time alerts and advanced reporting.
• Uptime Robotis an excellent option for those who need basic monitoring and customizable alerts without the complexity of more in-depth services.
• Uptrend’s platform offers uptime, transaction, and API monitoring. Additional services include system status pages and integrations for a customized experience.

Self-Hosted Uptime Monitoring Tools

• Uptime Kuma tracks the uptime of multiple services with customizable notifications and multiple monitoring methods.
• Zabbix excels in distributed environments, supporting everything from network devices to virtual machines for large-scale deployments.
• Icinga is a powerful, open-source monitoring system that supports various protocols across its stack. Its features include automated infrastructure and cloud monitoring with visually appealing metrics and analytics.

Open Source Uptime Monitoring Tools

• Prometheus works well for environments that require multidimensional data collection and querying, making it a go-to choice for organizations that need robust time-series databases.
• Cabot integrates seamlessly with other tools like Prometheus and Graphite, making it useful for teams that need customizable alerts and straightforward uptime monitoring.
• Sensu provides open-source uptime monitoring across distributed systems. It is highly flexible thanks to its extensive plugin and integration compatibility.

Uptime Monitoring Services for AWS

• Amazon CloudWatch provides detailed metrics, customizable dashboards, and automated alarms to help you maintain high availability across your Amazon Web Services (AWS) ecosystem.
• Better Stack integrates well with AWS as a monitoring and incident management platform designed for real-time performance tracking.
• Site24x7 supports websites, cloud platforms, servers, networks, and applications, making it particularly strong in environments with diverse assets.

GCP Uptime Monitoring Services

• Google Cloud Monitoring provides real-time insights into Google Cloud Platform (GCP) resources and applications. It offers detailed logging, metrics collection, and alerting, all within a unified interface that integrates seamlessly with other Google Cloud services.
• Datadog integrates uptime monitoring with other observability metrics, offering robust analytics and support for cloud environments like GCP.
• Pingdom’s simplicity and ease of setup make it a good entry-level option for those wanting basic uptime monitoring with a few additional features.

Uptime Monitoring Services for Azure

• Azure Monitor aggregates data from across your Azure environment, on-premises servers, and other cloud platforms into a unified dashboard to monitor all system components’ performance and availability.
• Catchpointtouts comprehensive Azure integration with RUM, synthetic monitoring, and border gateway protocol.
• LogicMonitor supports Azure environments and has the features necessary for enterprises to manage complex infrastructures.

Ready to boost your uptime? Sign up for a free trial and start experiencing seamless, reliable performance with top-notch monitoring tools and insights!

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