Is my website down? How to check and find out why
4 min read · Updated October 21, 2026
When a customer says your site is down, the first question is whether it is down for everyone or only for them. The quickest way to find out is to request the address from a server and read what comes back. This guide shows how, what the answers mean and how to stop finding out from customers. It uses a quick request in the Uptime Monitor.
Check it in 30 seconds
- Add the address as a monitor: sign in, create a monitor with a title and the full address of your site.
- Run a quick request: in a few seconds you see the status code, the response time and the size of the answer, measured from our server and not from your own network.
- Compare with your own view: if the check passes but you see an error, the problem is your browser, your connection or a cache. If the check fails too, the site really is unreachable.
What the status code means
- 200: the page answered normally.
- 301 or 302: the address redirects somewhere else, which is normal for a move from http to https or from www to the bare domain.
- 403: the server refused the request, often a firewall or a bot rule.
- 404: the address is wrong or the page was removed.
- 500, 502, 503 or 504: the server or something behind it failed. This is the usual sign of a real outage.
- No answer or a timeout: the server is down, overloaded or unreachable from the network.
Find where the time goes
A site can be up and still painfully slow. Run a detailed request to see the DNS lookup, the connection, the TLS handshake and the time to the first byte as separate numbers, plus the redirects it followed and the date your SSL certificate expires. An expiring certificate is the most common cause of a site that suddenly shows a scary warning to every visitor.
Hear about it first next time
Checking by hand only helps after somebody complains. Turn on a daily check, or an hourly or per-minute check on a higher plan, and the monitor keeps a 30-day history of every result. To keep customers informed during an outage, link the monitor to a status page.
If you monitor an API instead of a web page, the guide to monitoring an API endpoint covers methods, headers and expected status codes.
Try it yourself
Start free: new accounts get credits, and the free plan tops them up every week.
Questions about this guide
- Why does my site work for me but not for others?
- Common causes are a cached copy in your browser, a DNS change that has not reached everyone yet, a regional network problem or a firewall that blocks some visitors. A check from a server shows what an outside visitor sees.
- Does a quick request cost credits?
- Every check costs a few credits, and the price is shown before you run it. New accounts start with free credits.