HTTP/HTTPS Monitoring

Overview

HTTP/HTTPS monitoring is the most common monitor type, used to check the availability and performance of websites, APIs, and web services. UptimeIO makes HTTP requests to your endpoint and validates the response.

UptimeIO automatically detects whether to use HTTP or HTTPS based on your URL. Both protocols are supported under the “HTTP” monitor type.

Use Cases

Website Monitoring

Ensure your website is accessible and loading correctly

API Health Checks

Monitor REST API endpoints for availability

E-commerce Sites

Track checkout pages and payment gateways

Authentication Endpoints

Monitor login and authentication services

Creating an HTTP Monitor

Basic Configuration

Name: Production API
URL: https://api.example.com/health
Type: HTTP/HTTPS
Check Interval: 60 seconds
Timeout: 30 seconds

Select Monitoring Regions

Choose regions to monitor from:

Auto: Intelligent selection (2 regions)
Manual: Select specific regions

For global services, select regions where your users are located.

Configure HTTP Settings

Customize the HTTP request:

HTTP method
Expected status codes
Request headers
Request body
Authentication
Redirect behavior

HTTP Methods

UptimeIO supports all standard HTTP methods:

Method	Use Case	Body Allowed
GET	Retrieve data, health checks	No
HEAD	Check headers without body (faster)	No
POST	Submit data, trigger actions	Yes
PUT	Update resources	Yes
PATCH	Partial updates	Yes
DELETE	Remove resources	No
OPTIONS	Check supported methods	No

Use HEAD for faster checks when you only need to verify the endpoint is responding. It’s identical to GET but doesn’t download the response body.

Expected Status Codes

Configure which HTTP status codes indicate success. By default, UptimeIO expects 2xx and 3xx status codes.

Common Configurations

Default (2xx, 3xx)
Strict (200 only)
Custom Range
Maintenance Mode

Expected Status Codes: 200-299, 300-399

Accepts any successful response or redirect. Best for most websites and APIs.

Expected Status Codes: 200

Only accepts HTTP 200 OK. Useful when you want to ensure exact success without redirects.

Expected Status Codes: 200, 201, 204

Specify exact status codes. Useful for APIs that return specific codes for different operations.

Expected Status Codes: 503

Temporarily expect 503 during planned maintenance to avoid false alerts.

Request Headers

Add custom headers to your HTTP requests for authentication, content negotiation, or custom requirements.

Common Headers

Authorization: Bearer eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9...
X-API-Key: your-api-key-here

Never include sensitive credentials in monitor configurations. Use environment-specific API keys or tokens that can be rotated if compromised.

Request Body

For POST, PUT, and PATCH requests, you can include a request body.

JSON Body Example

{
  "action": "health_check",
  "timestamp": "2024-01-15T10:30:00Z",
  "source": "uptimeio"
}

When you provide a request body, UptimeIO automatically sets Content-Type: application/json unless you override it in the headers.

Authentication

UptimeIO supports two authentication methods for HTTP monitors:

Basic Authentication
Digest Authentication
Bearer Token

Type: Basic
Username: your-username
Password: your-password

Sends credentials in the Authorization header using Base64 encoding:

Authorization: Basic dXNlcm5hbWU6cGFzc3dvcmQ=

Type: Digest
Username: your-username
Password: your-password

More secure than Basic auth, uses challenge-response mechanism. Automatically handles the authentication handshake.

Use custom headers instead:

Authorization: Bearer your-jwt-token-here

Add this as a custom header in the Headers section.

Redirect Handling

Control how UptimeIO handles HTTP redirects:

Setting	Behavior	Use Case
Follow Redirects: ON	Follows up to 5 redirects	Normal websites, APIs with redirects
Follow Redirects: OFF	Treats redirects as failures	Ensure no unexpected redirects
Max Redirects: 1-10	Custom redirect limit	Fine-tune redirect behavior

Enable redirect following for most websites. Disable it if you want to detect when your site starts redirecting unexpectedly (e.g., to a maintenance page).

SSL/TLS Verification

UptimeIO automatically verifies SSL certificates for HTTPS endpoints:

Certificate Validation

Checks certificate validity
Verifies certificate chain
Validates hostname matches
Checks expiration date

SSL Expiry Alerts

Configure warnings before certificate expiration:

30 days before expiry
7 days before expiry
1 day before expiry

Separate incidents are created for SSL expiry warnings.

Disable SSL Verification

For development or self-signed certificates, you can disable SSL verification.

Only disable SSL verification for testing environments. Never disable it for production monitoring.

Slow Response Alerts

Monitor response time performance and get alerted when your service slows down:

Enable slow response monitoring

Slow Response Alert: Enabled
Threshold: 2000ms (2 seconds)

Incident creation

When response time exceeds the threshold, a separate “Slow Response” incident is created (distinct from downtime incidents).

Automatic resolution

The incident resolves when response time drops below 80% of the threshold for 3 consecutive checks.Example: With 2000ms threshold, incident resolves when response time is below 1600ms for 3 checks.

Slow response incidents are separate from downtime incidents. Your monitor can be “UP” but have an active slow response incident.

Response Time Breakdown

UptimeIO provides detailed timing information for each check:

Total Response Time: 245ms
├── DNS Resolution: 12ms
├── TCP Connection: 45ms
├── TLS Handshake: 78ms
└── Server Response: 110ms

This breakdown helps you identify where delays occur:

DNS Resolution: DNS lookup time
TCP Connection: Time to establish TCP connection
TLS Handshake: SSL/TLS negotiation time
Server Response: Time for server to generate and send response

Cache Buster

Important for monitoring cached content: If your site uses caching (CDN, reverse proxy), UptimeIO might monitor the cached version instead of your actual server.

To bypass caches and monitor your origin server:

Query String Method
Custom Header Method
Unique Path Method

Add a random query parameter to your URL:

https://example.com?nocache=${timestamp}

Most caches treat different query strings as unique URLs.

Add cache-busting headers:

Cache-Control: no-cache, no-store, must-revalidate
Pragma: no-cache

Create a dedicated health check endpoint that bypasses cache:

https://example.com/health-check-no-cache

Learn more about cache busting strategies in our blog post.

Best Practices

Use dedicated health check endpoints

Create lightweight /health or /ping endpoints that:

Return quickly (< 100ms)
Check critical dependencies (database, cache)
Return meaningful status codes
Don’t perform heavy operations

Set appropriate timeouts

Fast APIs: 5-10 seconds
Standard websites: 15-30 seconds
Heavy operations: 30-60 seconds

Avoid timeouts longer than 60 seconds.

Monitor from multiple regions

Always use at least 2 regions to avoid false positives from regional network issues. For global services, monitor from 3-4 regions.

Use HEAD requests when possible

HEAD requests are faster and consume less bandwidth. Use them for simple availability checks where you don’t need the response body.

Example Configurations

Name: Company Homepage
URL: https://example.com
Method: GET
Expected Status: 200-299, 300-399
Timeout: 30s
Follow Redirects: Yes

Troubleshooting

Getting timeout errors

Increase timeout value
Check if your server is slow to respond
Verify no firewall is blocking UptimeIO’s IP ranges
Check if SSL handshake is taking too long

Unexpected status codes

Verify expected status codes match your endpoint’s behavior
Check if authentication is required
Ensure no redirects are occurring if you’re not following them
Verify the URL is correct

SSL certificate errors

Ensure certificate is valid and not expired
Check certificate chain is complete
Verify hostname matches certificate
For self-signed certs, disable SSL verification (testing only)

False positives

Enable multi-region monitoring (at least 2 regions)
Increase timeout if server occasionally responds slowly
Check if your server blocks repeated requests (rate limiting)
Whitelist UptimeIO’s user agent if needed

Next Steps

Keyword Monitoring

Check for specific content on pages

Set Up Notifications

Configure alerts for HTTP monitors

API Reference

Create monitors via API

Status Pages

Show HTTP monitor status publicly

Getting Started

Monitor Types

Essentials

Notifications

Status Pages

Integrations

Plans & Billing

HTTP/HTTPS Monitoring

Overview

Use Cases

Website Monitoring

API Health Checks

E-commerce Sites

Authentication Endpoints

Creating an HTTP Monitor

HTTP Methods

Expected Status Codes

Common Configurations

Request Headers

Common Headers

Request Body

JSON Body Example

Authentication

Redirect Handling

SSL/TLS Verification

Slow Response Alerts

Response Time Breakdown

Cache Buster

Best Practices

Example Configurations

Troubleshooting

Next Steps

Keyword Monitoring

Set Up Notifications

API Reference

Status Pages

Getting Started

Monitor Types

Essentials

Notifications

Status Pages

Integrations

Plans & Billing

​Overview

​Use Cases

Website Monitoring

API Health Checks

E-commerce Sites

Authentication Endpoints

​Creating an HTTP Monitor

​HTTP Methods

​Expected Status Codes

​Common Configurations

​Request Headers

​Common Headers

​Request Body

​JSON Body Example

​Authentication

​Redirect Handling

​SSL/TLS Verification

​Slow Response Alerts

​Response Time Breakdown

​Cache Buster

​Best Practices

​Example Configurations

​Troubleshooting

​Next Steps

Keyword Monitoring

Set Up Notifications

API Reference

Status Pages

Overview

Use Cases

Creating an HTTP Monitor

HTTP Methods

Expected Status Codes

Common Configurations

Request Headers

Common Headers

Request Body

JSON Body Example

Authentication

Redirect Handling

SSL/TLS Verification

Slow Response Alerts

Response Time Breakdown

Cache Buster

Best Practices

Example Configurations

Troubleshooting

Next Steps