Monitoring guide

Website and service monitoring types: what should you use?

Website monitoring detects a missing response. API, SSL, DNS, and user-flow checks reveal where the problem is and who it affects. Compare 12 methods and choose the ones that protect the critical parts of your service.

Compare monitoring typesSee the rollout plan

Monitoring types compared

Each method answers a different question. Start with availability, then add checks for the causes and effects of an outage.

Availability and trust

Checks for service response, certificates, domains, and the network layer.

FoundationWebsite monitoringChecks website availability and response time from external locations.Website monitoringBackendAPI monitoringDetects unavailable endpoints, errors, and rising backend response times.API monitoringTrustSSL monitoringChecks certificate validity and warns before expiration.SSL monitoringAvailabilityDNS monitoringDetects DNS record and domain resolution problems.DNS monitoringContinuityDomain monitoringTracks domain renewal and changes that affect availability.Domain monitoringServicesPort monitoringChecks network services and separates a service outage from an application failure.Port monitoring

Product behavior

Tests for performance, appearance, and critical user-facing processes.

User experienceReal User MonitoringMeasures frontend performance and errors in real user sessions.Explore RUMActive checksSynthetic monitoringRuns scheduled tests independently of real website traffic.Synthetic testsVisual proofVisual ChecksCompares an approved view with a new capture and highlights visual changes.Visual checksCritical pathsUser journey monitoringChecks multi-step processes such as sign-in or order completion.User journeys

Problem source

Monitoring for external providers and resources outside the public internet.

Outage contextProvider status monitoringShows whether an incident may come from an external provider outage.Provider statusInternal environmentsPrivate infrastructure monitoringCovers private networks, local resources, and services that are not publicly accessible.Private monitoring

Where to start with monitoring

Choose the path that matches your service, or define the requirements before configuring monitors.

Online store and revenue protection

Monitor the website, checkout, and purchase flow when every outage can mean a lost order.

Ecommerce monitoring

Guides and rollout planning

Define scope, check frequency, and rollout order before adding monitors.

Read the guides

Supporting tools

Check SSL, downtime cost, SLA, and provider status without configuring a monitor.

See the tools

Monitoring type questions

Short answers to help you choose your first set of checks.

Which monitoring type should I start with?

Start with website, SSL, and domain monitoring. Then add a check for the process that is critical to the business, such as checkout, an API, or a background job.

How is synthetic monitoring different from RUM?

Synthetic monitoring runs scheduled tests without users. RUM measures real sessions, devices, and network conditions. Together they show the state of a process before traffic arrives and during actual use.

Which monitoring types does an online store need?

A basic set covers the website, SSL, domain, and checkout. A synthetic test should run through the purchase path, while RUM reveals problems affecting real customers.