See it on a real storeBots, pages and people sent by AI on an example store. No sign-up.Monitoring, run by several monitoring companies.
What is an uptime monitor? Uptime checks from UptimeRobot, Pingdom, StatusCake and others. It can't be verified beyond its name.
Run by several monitoring companies.
Purpose: Monitoring. A visit means a monitoring service, usually one you or a vendor set up, is checking that your site responds.
No single robots.txt name. Block it at your server instead.
Name only: no published list to check a visit against.
At a glance, the facts in one table.
Uptime monitor at a glance. Taken from SenseGap's open bot directory, the same data that sorts every visit in the dashboard.
All bots| Uptime monitor | |
|---|---|
| Operator | Several monitoring companies |
| Purpose | Monitoring |
| User agent contains | UptimeRobot, Pingdom, StatusCake, Better Uptime, Site24x7 |
| robots.txt name | None |
| Verification | Name only |
| Documentation | None listed |
Purpose, what it does and why it came.
What an uptime monitor does. SenseGap sorts every visit by purpose. An uptime monitor is in the Monitoring group.
This entry covers uptime services such as UptimeRobot, Pingdom and StatusCake, which request pages on a schedule to see whether a site is up.
What a visit means
A visit means a monitoring service, usually one you or a vendor set up, is checking that your site responds.
Detection, the header SenseGap matches.
How SenseGap recognizes an uptime monitor. By its User-Agent header. A separate check then decides whether the visit is real.
Every request carries a User-Agent header naming the software that sent it. SenseGap counts a request as an uptime monitor when that header contains any of UptimeRobot, Pingdom, StatusCake, Better Uptime or Site24x7, in any letter case. The header is plain text, so any script can copy it. Matching the name is where recognition starts, not where trust starts.
/UptimeRobot|Pingdom|StatusCake|Better Uptime|Site24x7/iVerification, how to tell a real visit from a fake.
An uptime monitor can't be fully verified. SenseGap knows of no published IP ranges or DNS names for it, so the name is all there is.
How we verify botsNot beyond the user agent. SenseGap knows of no published IP ranges or DNS names for an uptime monitor, so anyone can send its name. SenseGap marks these visits Unverified rather than calling them real.
robots.txt, rules you can copy.
How to block an uptime monitor. It has no single robots.txt name, so a rule at your server or CDN is the dependable way.
robots.txt is a request, not a lock. To enforce a block, match the User-Agent header at your server or CDN. In nginx:
# nginx, inside a server block
if ($http_user_agent ~* "UptimeRobot|Pingdom|StatusCake|Better Uptime|Site24x7") {
return 403;
}SenseGap reads your robots.txt and shows, bot by bot, what you allow and which bots fetched pages you disallowed. See what you get.
Trade-off, what blocking changes.
Should you block an uptime monitor? It depends on what you want from these services. Here is what each choice means.
If you allow it
Your monitoring keeps working and alerts you when the site goes down.
If you block it
Your own uptime alerts may stop working or report false outages.
FAQ, an uptime monitor in short answers.
An uptime monitor, answered plainly
What is an uptime monitor?
This entry covers uptime services such as UptimeRobot, Pingdom and StatusCake, which request pages on a schedule to see whether a site is up.
Who runs these monitors?
Several monitoring companies, usually on behalf of the site owner or a vendor they hired.
What does a visit from an uptime monitor mean?
A visit means a monitoring service, usually one you or a vendor set up, is checking that your site responds.
What user agent does an uptime monitor use?
Its User-Agent header contains one of "UptimeRobot", "Pingdom", "StatusCake", "Better Uptime" or "Site24x7". SenseGap matches any of these regardless of letter case.
How do I block an uptime monitor?
An uptime monitor has no single robots.txt name, so the reliable way is a rule at your server, CDN or firewall that matches its user agent.
Can I verify that a visit is really an uptime monitor?
Not beyond the user agent. SenseGap knows of no published IP ranges or DNS names for an uptime monitor, so anyone can send its name. SenseGap marks these visits Unverified rather than calling them real.
What happens if I block an uptime monitor?
Your own uptime alerts may stop working or report false outages.