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Is Your Website Down? How to Check (and Get Notified) in 2026
Step 1: Is it actually down — or just for you?
Before you panic, rule out these common false alarms:
- Your local network. Open another website. If nothing loads, the problem is your connection, not your site.
- DNS propagation. If you recently changed DNS records or hosts, some visitors may see the old (broken) setup while others see fine. DNS can take up to 48 hours to fully propagate.
- Browser cache. Try a private/incognito window or a different browser.
- A specific page, not the whole site. A 404 on one URL doesn't mean the site is down. Test the homepage directly.
The quickest technical check is a status code request:
curl -I https://yoursite.com
You want to see HTTP/2 200. Anything in the 5xx range (500, 502, 503, 504) means the server itself is failing. A timeout with no response at all usually means the server is offline or unreachable.
Step 2: What do the error codes mean?
| Status | Meaning | Who fixes it |
|---|---|---|
| 200 | All good — page served normally | — |
| 301 / 302 | Redirect (normal, but check where it points) | — |
| 403 | Access forbidden — often a firewall or permissions issue | You or your host |
| 404 | Page not found — broken link, not downtime | You |
| 500 | Server error — code crashed | You or developer |
| 502 / 504 | Bad gateway / timeout — backend not responding | Host or developer |
| 503 | Service unavailable — overloaded or in maintenance mode | Host |
Step 3: What to do while it's down
- Check your hosting provider's status page first — if it's their outage, there's nothing to fix on your side.
- Contact support with evidence: the timestamp, the URL, and the exact status code or timeout.
- Put up a maintenance page if the outage will last — even a static page preserves trust better than an error.
- Note when it recovered. Total downtime duration matters for SLA claims with your host.
Step 4: The real fix — know before your customers do
The average small-business website owner finds out about downtime from an angry email or a dip in sales. Monitoring services exist precisely to close that gap — but they're sold as subscriptions that scale badly:
| Approach | Cost after year 1 | Catch |
|---|---|---|
| UptimeRobot free tier | $0 | 5-minute checks, 50 monitors, upsells |
| Pingdom | $144+/yr | Priced per check |
| Better Stack | $300+/yr for real use | Free tier is very limited |
| Desktop monitor (DeskUptime) | $0 | Checks run while your machine is on |
A desktop monitor checks from your own machine, so there are no servers to pay for — which is why it can be free forever and check every 30 seconds if you want. The honest trade-off: it can't watch your site while your computer is asleep. For freelancers and agencies working on client sites during the day, that's exactly the window that matters.
Start monitoring in 10 seconds — no account, no install beyond Node:
npx github:mahope/deskuptime check https://yoursite.com