Downdetector Alternative: Monitor Your Own Site, Not Crowd Reports
Looking for a Downdetector alternative to watch your own site? Downdetector cannot do that job: it shows a problem when user reports about a popular service rise well above normal, and your site is probably not on its list. An active monitor can. Test your URL with the check above (Moscow, Germany and US East), then press Monitor this to keep checking it on a schedule after a free sign-up.
The two tools answer different questions. Downdetector tells you whether many people say a big service is broken. A monitor tells you whether your server answers, from where, and how fast.
Enterno.io vs Downdetector
| Feature | Enterno.io | Downdetector |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free · paid from $5/mo | Free to browse; Explorer and API via sales, no public price |
| Free plan | 10 monitors of your own URLs at 5 min | Public outage pages for popular services |
| API | REST API v4 on every plan, 200 calls/day on free | Downdetector API for business customers |
| What it watches | Your own sites, APIs, certificates, DNS, cron jobs | Thousands of consumer services in 72 countries |
| Detection | Active checks on a schedule | User reports well above the normal level |
| Alerts | Email, Telegram, Slack, Discord, Teams, PagerDuty, Jira, webhooks on every plan | Explorer: email, RSS, push notifications, API |
| Status page | Public status page on every plan | Communicate: business updates on the company page on Downdetector |
Free online tool — HTTP header checker: instant results, no signup.
What Downdetector actually is
Downdetector, part of Ookla, collects user problem reports and watches other online sources for thousands of services in 72 countries. It shows a possible issue when reports for a service are significantly higher than the typical level for that service. People use it to see whether services such as internet providers, social media and banking are having problems.
For businesses, Downdetector Explorer adds dashboards, alerts by email, RSS and push, an API, historical data and a way to post updates on the company page on Downdetector. Pricing is through business enquiries, not published.
Where Downdetector is better
- It sees user impact. Reports can surface problems your probes miss: a broken login flow, a regional ISP outage, an app that loads but does not work.
- It covers services you do not own. Is it you, or is your internet provider, bank or mobile carrier having a bad day? The public pages answer that for free.
- Scale and history. It processes more than 25 million reports a month, and business customers get historical data for trend analysis and benchmarking.
Where a monitor is the right tool
- Any site, any size. A monitor checks your URL whether one person visits it or a million. Reports-based detection depends on enough people reporting.
- It fires before users complain. Enterno checks every 5 min on the free plan and every 1 min from Navigator, and alerts by email, Telegram, Slack, Discord, Microsoft Teams, PagerDuty, Jira or webhook on every plan.
- It shows the cause. Status codes, response time per region and certificate expiry instead of a report count.
- Your own status page. Every plan includes a public status page you control.
Use both
A sensible setup: Enterno monitors for your own sites, APIs, certificates and cron jobs, with a heartbeat monitor for each scheduled task; Downdetector or the vendor status page for third-party services you depend on. When your monitor is green and Downdetector shows a spike for your ISP or CDN, you know where to look.
When reports and checks disagree
- Your monitor is red, nobody reports anything. Normal for a small site, an internal API or an outage at night: report-based detection needs enough people to notice and complain.
- Reports spike, your monitor is green. The server answers, but something users touch does not: a login flow, a mobile app, a payment provider or an ISP. Add a keyword or API monitor on that exact endpoint so the next one turns red too.
- Both light up. Post an update on your status page first; that is where your users will look.
A quick checklist for your own site
- Add an HTTP monitor for the home page and one for a critical endpoint such as login or checkout, with a keyword check so an error page that returns 200 still fails.
- Add an SSL monitor so an expiring certificate alerts you weeks ahead.
- Add a heartbeat for each backup or cron job.
- Publish a status page and link it from your support pages, so users have somewhere to look other than Downdetector.
Learn more
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Frequently Asked Questions
Can Downdetector monitor my website?
No. Downdetector lists the services it tracks, mostly large consumer brands, and detects problems from user reports. For your own site use an active monitor that requests your URL on a schedule.
Is Downdetector data available through an API?
Yes, for business customers. The Downdetector API and Explorer dashboards are sold through business enquiries; prices are not published.
Why does Downdetector show an outage while my monitor is green?
Reports measure what users experience, including their ISP, app and login flow. A green monitor means your server answers. Check the regional result above and the services between you and your users.
How do I get alerted when my own site goes down?
Sign up free, add the URL as a monitor and choose an alert channel. The Scout plan includes 10 monitors at 5 min with email alerts.
Can a company post outage updates on Downdetector?
Yes, through Downdetector Communicate, part of the business offering. Updates appear on the company's Downdetector page, which still works when the company's own site is down.
Try the live tool that powered this guide
Free plan — 10 monitors, checks every 5 min, no card required. Upgrade for 1-minute interval and multi-region monitoring.