Self-hosted uptime monitoring + a beautiful public status page.
Small businesses get nickel-and-dimed by per-user pricing on helpdesks, forms, signatures and scheduling. One-time software makes the toolset a capital expense instead of a creeping payroll line.
The tool this job usually means renting is UptimeRobot, at $8/mo — roughly $96 a year, every year. Upwatch does the job for a one-time $99 — running on infrastructure you control.
URL, interval from 30s to 15m, expected status code, optional keyword match.
For small business owners, HTTP(S) monitors pays off without adding another line to the monthly overhead — and it's covered by the same one-time $99, not metered per month.
No cron, no workers, no Redis — one Node process does everything.
For small business owners, in-process checker loop pays off without adding another line to the monthly overhead — and it's covered by the same one-time $99, not metered per month.
Check history with automatic 90-day retention pruning. One file to back up.
For small business owners, SQLite storage pays off without adding another line to the monthly overhead — and it's covered by the same one-time $99, not metered per month.
One-time $99 for the packaged, zero-config version with updates and priority support.
Desktop app for personal use, or docker compose up on a $5 VPS for a public status page.
HTTP checks every 30s, webhook/email pings the second something breaks — and again when it recovers.
Upwatch is $99, once. UptimeRobot at $8/mo — roughly $96 a year, every year. Pays for itself vs UptimeRobot in about a year — then it's free forever.
Pays for itself vs UptimeRobot in about a year — then it's free forever. Upwatch costs $99 once; UptimeRobot charges $8/mo — about $96 a year. For small business owners, that fixed cost is the whole point: the tool is a one-time line item, not a monthly one.
Yes — MIT source at github.com/bensblueprints/uptime-monitor-mvp, always. The paid version is pure convenience: packaged installer, updates, priority support.
Not necessarily. Desktop mode runs the whole app in an Electron window. For a public status page or 24/7 monitoring you'll want a $5 VPS — which is still cheaper per year than one month of most competitors' higher tiers.