If your website won’t load or if its response time is slow, your website could be down. Repeat downtime can seriously harm your online presence.
So how do you check if your website is down for everyone or just you?
An online website checker tool will give you status updates to help you figure out whether your website is down. With some online uptime monitoring services, you can track downtime to work out if there is a continuous issue with your website.
Learn how to check if a website is down with 21 of the best online tools available today.
Check Out Our Video Guide On How To Check if a Website Is Down:
Think Your Website’s Down? Try These 7 Steps
You head to your socials for a quick check on your follower count, but you can’t log in. Is the site down or is there something wrong on your end?
Here are a few steps to check if a website is down and help you diagnose why.
Step 1: Head to a different website and see if that’s down too. If it is, the chances are that there’s a problem with your internet.
Step 2: Use a Virtual Private Network (VPN) to check whether these websites are down in other locations as well. If not, try reconfiguring your VPN.
Step 3: If it’s not a VPN issue, check for (Hypertext Processor) PHP errors. When you get a blank screen where the content doesn’t load, this usually signifies that there’s a PHP issue. If you don’t know how to check if a website is down for PHP reasons, you can follow this guide on how to find your error logs.
Step 4: If you’re a Java user and you’re still getting nowhere, you need to know how to check if a website is down in Java. All you have to do is carry out a ping test.
When you ping an IP address, you send a ‘signal’ to it. If the IP address responds, you know it’s up and running. You should get multiple responses quickly, with a time next to each. These times signify the latency of the connection.
Step 5: Still having problems? Use a tool to check the website’s status. Some websites have proprietary tools that immediately tell you their status, such as Kinsta’s status checker.
For those that don’t, take a look at the list below to see the top website status checkers and how to use them. Obviously, if the website checker tool also won’t load, it’s clear that you’re the source of the problem.
Step 6: It could be a Domain Name Server (DNS) issue, where the browser struggles to connect to the internet.
Try checking that:
- Your internet connection is working
- Your browser is up-to-date and installed correctly
- Your DNS is configured properly
If you’re still seeing an error message, head to this guide on how to fix a DNS issue.
Step 7: If you haven’t yet found the source of your trouble, you could have a maintenance error.
If you see a ‘scheduled maintenance’ message on your website that shouldn’t be there, your site might be stuck in maintenance mode. Here’s how you solve it.
How To Check if a Website Is Down- 21 Tools You Need To Know
A website that experiences repeated downtime will have a high bounce rate. Nobody stays on a website that doesn’t work.
Below are 21 tools that show you how to check if a website is down for everyone or just you.
1. Is It Down Right Now?
Is It Down Right Now? is a free website down checker to check the status of any site.
Simply enter the URL and click the “CHECK” button.
The results page will give you the current status, response time, and downtime information. You can also see a handy graph of the website’s downtime history, as well as troubleshooting instructions to help fix the issue yourself.
If you like this tool, add the Website Status Checker Bookmarklet to your bookmarks bar to look up website statuses straight from your toolbar.
2. Atatus
Atatus is a full-service SaaS suite to monitor your applications, infrastructure, logs, users, and more.
On the website, you’ll find a basic free uptime checker that tells you if your site is up and how quickly it responds.
Just add your URL into the box and click Test Now.
3. Montastic
Montastic is a free, open-source web status checker. If you’re looking for a super basic tool to look up a website’s status quickly, this is a good choice.
You just add your domain and click GO!
You’ll get a message straight back telling you the website is up and running or it’s down.
4. Down for Everyone or Just Me
Another free tool, Down for Everyone or Just Me, tells you whether you’re the only one experiencing downtime issues or if everyone has a problem.
Just type your website into the URL box and press the or just me? button.
There’s also a list of quick links on the homepage to check popular sites for banking, gaming, messaging, shopping, etc. You can also see important real-time updates on current outages.
If you’re worried about the status of your WordPress site, you can also run free performance and security tests with this tool, but you’ll have to sign up.
5. Host-Tracker
Host-Tracker is a full-service website monitoring service.
There’s a free uptime tool that’s super easy to use. Just click the web(http) tab, enter your URL into the box, and click the Check button.
You’ll see the website’s status and response times on 50 servers across five continents. You can also use this tool to test page speed, ping, and trace.
If you sign up, you benefit from around-the-clock monitoring and reports of uptime and response time, as well as maintenance scheduling and database monitoring alerts.
6. uptrends
While uptrends main product is a paid-for suite of automatic performance testing and monitoring tools, it also offers a free website uptime test.
You need to sign up for a free account to use this service. Once logged in, enter your domain and choose a location from the dropdown menu. Click the Start Test button to see your website’s response time.
Not only can you check response times across 33 global locations, but you can also share the results with your team with one click.
7. Website Planet
Website Planet’s free tool is called “Site Down or Not.”
It’s straightforward to use. Pop your URL in and click the Check button.
You’ll get information on service status, response time, and response codes.
There’s also a whole array of other tools available on this website. There’s a share link creator, image compression tool, QR code generator, and more.
8. Downdetector
Downdetector is a UK-based tool for checking the status of popular websites.
Note that you can’t check individual sites. You can only look up the status of the popular websites and apps listed.
If you want to find out whether a popular site is down, Downdetector has a very comprehensive list. You’ll find sites like AT&T, YouTube, Spotify, Twitter, Netflix, Amazon, UPS, and more.
9. Downinspector
Downinspector is a real-time web service outage tracker.
On the homepage, there are quick links to check the status of popular websites. There’s also a quick overview of the most reported websites and their issues.
To find out if your site is down or not, you can use the free uptime checking tool. Add your URL to the box and click the Check button.
Down Inspector will tell you whether your website is reachable, alongside a graph of past reported issues.
10. Site24x7
While Site24x7 is a paid-for website performance management SaaS suite, there are many free performance tools on its website.
Besides its uptime tool, there’s a blacklist check, service location finder, domain expiry checker, and more.
If you only want to check a website’s status, use the free website availability tool. Add your domain name in the URL box and click Test Now.
You’ll see the load time, along with a graph showing the website’s availability results over time.
11. Doj.me
Doj.me, which stands for “Down or Just Me,” is a website to test uptime.
The free uptime tool tells you whether a website is up right now. If it is, then the issue is just with you.
Enter your URL into the box and click Check Now. Doj.me gives you data on HTTPS status and ping success.
12. UpTime Robot
UpTime Robot is a website monitoring tool that gives you 50 free “monitors” — 50 automatic uptime checks, each five minutes apart. This enables you to monitor a website’s uptime over a four-hour period.
If you want to continue monitoring a site, you’ll have to switch to a paid package.
To use the free website uptime monitoring tool, you’ll need to sign up. Once you’ve logged in, follow these instructions:
- Click Add New Monitor
- Choose HTTPS in the dropdown menu for Monitor Type
- Add the name and URL of the website
- Choose how often you want it to be monitored
- Add an email address to send alerts
This will give you real-time updates on uptime and allows you to track incidents automatically.
13. GTMetrix
GTMetrix is a site performance testing tool. Its paid-for suite helps you monitor your website’s performance, discover why it’s slow, and learn how to optimize it.
If you just want to learn about a site’s status, use the free tool. Enter your URL and click Test your site.
The results page doesn’t just tell you whether the site is up, but it’ll also show you its performance grade, speed, and performance issues.
Uptime tests are automatically done on GTMetrics’ Canadian server. If you want to test their other six locations worldwide, you’ll have to sign up for a free account.
14. HideMy.name
HideMy.name is a VPN service that offers a bunch of free tools to check ping, port, IP address, and more.
To check if your website is up, you can use the free Port Scanner tool.
Add your domain into the box, select Found on proxy servers from the dropdown menu, and click Start scanning.
The test results will tell you whether the host is up and how fast the response time is.
15. Service Uptime
Service Uptime has done nearly 8 million website checks.
It’s really easy to use — just pop your URL in the box and click the Check Your Website Now button.
You’ll get results from five servers, four in the USA and one in France. You can see if your site is up, how quickly it loads, and how well it’s performing. There’s also a graph charting network statistics and a resource summary.
16. Semonto
Semonto is a SaaS tool to monitor websites and servers that automatically notifies you when there are issues.
While it doesn’t offer a free tool, there’s a free trial of the paid-for software. If you’re just checking one site, this tool will do the trick.
Once you’ve signed up, click the Add a website button on the dashboard.
You’ll see tests for uptime status, SSL certificate validation, broken links, and mixed content.
To set how often these tests occur, click on the website you’ve added, and press the Reliability Status button.
Then, hit Configure reachability tests and adjust the settings to your needs.
17. Dotcom-Monitor
Dotcom-Monitor is a website monitoring and performance testing SaaS solution. It enables you to check a website’s performance and uptime over time.
You can use the free trial of the paid-for product to check the status of a website by signing up. You’ll need a business email address and a verifiable phone number to access this tool.
Once signed up, you simply add your domain name and the tool will show you the website’s status and speed, as well as any current issues.
18. Freshping
Freshping is a free website monitoring tool by Freshworks, a marketing and management SaaS suite.
You’ll have to sign up to use the free uptime tool.
Once you’ve logged in, you can check the availability and response time of your website in real-time.
Set up continuous downtime monitoring to track your website’s downtime over time. You’ll see the number of minutes your website has been down, the longest downtime duration, and the number of incidents you’ve experienced.
19. Blogvault
Blogvault is a WordPress plugin for backups, security, migrations, and monitoring.
To check the status of a website, you can sign up for a free trial of its advanced website monitoring feature.
Once you’ve signed up, you’ll need to install the plugin.
Not only do you get uptime testing, but you can also take advantage of visual regression testing, performance monitoring, and slack notification integrations for the duration of the trial.
20. Google PageSpeed Insights
Google PageSpeed Insights is predominantly a tool to test page speed. However, you can also use it to check your uptime status.
If you suspect your website is down, head to Google PageSpeed Insights, type your URL in the box, and click Analyze.
If the results of the tests show up in red, your website is down. Green results indicate that your website is up.
21. StatusCake
StatusCake is a website monitoring suite that tracks uptime, page speed, domains, servers, and more.
With 48 servers across 28 countries, StatusCake makes it easy to check your uptime worldwide.
To use this tool, you’ll have to sign up for a free account. At signup, you’ll be asked to enter the first website you’d like to monitor. Once you’re logged in, you’ll see your website on the dashboard.
Click the domain to see if the website is up. You’ll get information about status periods and downtime root causes.
The tool will run a status test every 900 seconds, which enables you to track uptime over a period of time to see if there are any continuing issues.
How To Check If a Website Is Blocked in a Country
Sometimes it may appear that you’re having DNS issues when you’re actually trying to access a website that’s blocked in your location.
Some countries, such as China and Iran, censor certain websites. This means you won’t be able to access them directly if you’re in these countries. You can bypass this problem by using a VPN.
A VPN is a service that provides a private network to route your data through so that the VPN server becomes the data source for your online browsing. By encrypting the data, a VPN hides your IP address so that your Internet Service Provider (ISP) can’t see which websites you’re looking at. Since the ISP can’t see what you’re browsing, it can’t put an automatic block on a disallowed site.
If you’re worried that your website might be blocked in certain locations, you’ll need to know how to check if a website is down by geographic location. Use an uptime tool that checks on different servers around the globe.
For example, Host-Tracker runs checks across global servers in Africa, Asia, Australasia, East Europe, Iran, North America, Russia, South America, and West Europe.
If your website is up in some places but down in others, these countries are likely blocking your domain.
You can also check specific block-checking websites, such as:
- Blockedinchina.net – checks blocks for websites in China
- Blocked.org.uk – checks UK ISPs for blocks
Can You Prevent Website Downtime With a Reliable Host?
To prevent downtime, you need to know what’s causing it.
The main reasons for downtime include:
- Low-quality hosting, so the host has loads of downtime
- Security issues, such as DDoS attack
- WP plugin/theme compatibility problems
- Traffic overload
A high-quality hosting solution can help reduce all of these issues and prevent downtime.
Firstly, top hosts like Kinsta have stable servers, meaning more reliable uptime. Plus, they proactively maintain their servers and deal with downtime issues quickly and efficiently.
By choosing a host with multiple server locations, you benefit from the speed and even less downtime. For example, Kinsta has 25 servers across the globe, helping to establish stability for every single website it hosts.
Regarding security, a breach or hack could result in a long period where your website is offline. A solid hosting provider will have water-tight security measures to protect against these attacks.
For example, not only is Kinsta backed by CloudFlare, but it also has DDoS protection and SSL security.
If you’re having compatibility issues, your host should be able to help you iron out these kinks. For those using Kinsta, there’s a complimentary APM tool to help you identify problematic plugins and performance issues.
Lastly, a tip-top hosting provider will offer you technical support where and when you need it. For Kinsta customers, we offer 24/7 live support, documentation, and a full library of self-help resources.
Summary
If you suspect your website is down, you’ll need to check using one of the suggested tools.
Try tracking your downtime to work out if you have a recurring issue as this can affect your online presence and SEO rankings.
If you find that you’re experiencing frequent downtime, it might be time to switch to a more reliable hosting solution. For industry-leading WordPress, application, or database hosting, check out Kinsta.
Hello,
Thank you for such a great post. I have been facing this issue for the past 2 months and tried some methods to rectify it. But I failed all the time. Now I got clarity. I’ll surely check my website using one of your suggested tools.
Thank you.