# Best Website Monitoring Software ## How Many Website Monitoring Software Products Does G2 Track? **Total Products under this Category:** 244 ### Category Stats (Jul 2026) - **Average Rating:** 4.57/5 (↑0.01 vs Jun 2026) The average rating of products in this category, based on all submitted ratings - **Top Trending Product:** UptimeObserver (+1.75%) - Among all products in this category, UptimeObserver recorded the largest rating increase compared to last month _Last updated: July 25, 2026_ ## How Does G2 Rank Website Monitoring Software Products? **Why You Can Trust G2's Software Rankings:** - 30 Analysts and Data Experts - 8,800+ Authentic Reviews - 244+ Products - Unbiased Rankings G2's software rankings are built on verified user reviews, rigorous moderation, and a consistent research methodology maintained by a team of analysts and data experts. Each product is measured using the same transparent criteria, with no paid placement or vendor influence. While reviews reflect real user experiences, which can be subjective, they offer valuable insight into how software performs in the hands of professionals. Together, these inputs power the G2 Score, a standardized way to compare tools within every category. ## G2 Grid® for Website Monitoring Software ![G2 Grid® for Website Monitoring Software plotting products by satisfaction and market presence](https://www.g2.com/categories/website-monitoring/grids.png?focus%5B%5D=13665&focus%5B%5D=5346&focus%5B%5D=70896&focus%5B%5D=3824&focus%5B%5D=27540&focus%5B%5D=124535&focus%5B%5D=1242114&focus%5B%5D=2056) Highlighted products: Site24x7, UptimeRobot, Uptime.com, Datadog, IBM Instana, Better Stack, Pulsetic, and Dynatrace. Underlying data: [Grid® JSON](https://www.g2.com/categories/website-monitoring/grids.json?focus%5B%5D=site24x7&focus%5B%5D=uptimerobot&focus%5B%5D=uptime-com&focus%5B%5D=datadog&focus%5B%5D=ibm-instana&focus%5B%5D=better-stack&focus%5B%5D=pulsetic&focus%5B%5D=dynatrace) **Sponsored** ### Sentry Sentry is an application monitoring and error tracking platform that helps developers identify, debug, and resolve software issues in production environments across web, mobile, desktop, game, and AI-powered applications. The platform captures errors, crashes, and performance problems in real time, providing developers with stack traces, user context, and diagnostic data needed to reproduce and fix bugs. Sentry supports over 100 programming languages and frameworks, including JavaScript, Python, Java, Ruby, PHP, Go, React, Django, and mobile platforms like iOS and Android. Core monitoring capabilities: - Error tracking groups similar errors into issues, showing frequency, affected users, and the exact code location where problems occur - Performance monitoring traces requests through distributed systems to identify slow database queries, API bottlenecks, and code-level performance problems - Session Replay records user interactions leading up to errors, capturing clicks, network activity, and console logs for easier reproduction - Logs captures structured log data from your applications alongside errors and traces, enabling search and filtering by message content, severity level, and custom attributes - AI observability provides visibility into LLM applications, AI agents, and Model Context Protocol servers, tracking prompts, model calls, tool usage, and token consumption Developers integrate Sentry by installing an SDK and adding a few lines of code to their application. The platform automatically captures unhandled exceptions, while developers can manually track custom errors and performance metrics. Sentry processes events in real time, sending alerts through Slack, email, PagerDuty, or other notification channels when issues occur. Additional features and capabilities: - AI-powered debugging through Seer, which analyzes errors to identify root causes and suggest code fixes with high accuracy - Distributed tracing that follows requests across microservices, serverless functions, and third-party APIs to pinpoint failure points - Custom dashboards and alerts for monitoring specific metrics, error rates, or performance thresholds important to each team - Profiling tools that provide code-level visibility into where time is being spent in production, identifying slow functions, call stacks, and performance regressions across backend services and frontend/mobile user flows - Workflow integrations with GitHub, Jira, GitLab, Azure DevOps, and other development tools to create tickets or link errors to commits automatically The platform serves development teams at organizations ranging from individual developers to large enterprises. More than 100,000 organizations use Sentry, processing billions of error events daily. Sentry offers both cloud-hosted and self-hosted deployment options, with pricing tiers based on event volume. A free tier supports small projects and individual developers. [Visit website](https://www.g2.com/external_clickthroughs/record?secure%5Bad_program%5D=ppc&secure%5Bad_slot%5D=category_product_list&secure%5Bcategory_id%5D=1688&secure%5Bchosen_at%5D=2026-07-28T15%3A01%3A49Z&secure%5Bdisplayable_resource_id%5D=1688&secure%5Bdisplayable_resource_type%5D=Category&secure%5Bmedium%5D=sponsored&secure%5Bplacement_reason%5D=page_category&secure%5Bplacement_resource_ids%5D%5B%5D=1688&secure%5Bprioritized%5D=false&secure%5Bproduct_id%5D=17313&secure%5Bresource_id%5D=1688&secure%5Bresource_type%5D=Category&secure%5Bsource_type%5D=category_page&secure%5Bsource_url%5D=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.g2.com%2Fcategories%2Fwebsite-monitoring&secure%5Btoken%5D=d31bfdb618cadc537d41e9887fa6192b5fb15c04c81163309347f313de79beb2&secure%5Burl%5D=https%3A%2F%2Fsentry.io%2Fproduct%2Fuptime-monitoring%2F%3Futm_source%3Dg2%26utm_medium%3Dreview-site%26utm_campaign%3Duptime-fy27q1-evergreen%26utm_content%3Dstatic-ad-website-monitoring-trysentry&secure%5Burl_type%5D=custom_url) [ Site24x7 ](https://www.g2.com/products/site24x7/reviews) By [Zoho](https://www.g2.com/sellers/zoho-b00ca9d5-bca8-41b5-a8ad-275480841704) [ 4.6/5(441) ](https://www.g2.com/products/site24x7/reviews) What do users say? Users consistently praise the product for its ease of use and reliable alerts, which help them monitor their systems effectively. The intuitive interface and comprehensive monitoring capabilities allo Pros and Cons [ Ease of Use (72) ](https://www.g2.com/products/site24x7/reviews?qs=pros-and-cons)[ Alert Issues (22) ](https://www.g2.com/products/site24x7/reviews?qs=pros-and-cons) [ UptimeRobot ](https://www.g2.com/products/uptimerobot/reviews) By [Uptime Robot](https://www.g2.com/sellers/uptime-robot) [ 4.7/5(299) ](https://www.g2.com/products/uptimerobot/reviews) What do users say? Users consistently praise the product for its ease of use and reliable monitoring, making it a go-to solution for tracking website uptime. The intuitive setup process and timely alerts help users quic Pros and Cons [ Notifications (71) ](https://www.g2.com/products/uptimerobot/reviews?qs=pros-and-cons)[ Inadequate Notifications (20) ](https://www.g2.com/products/uptimerobot/reviews?qs=pros-and-cons) [ Uptime.com ](https://www.g2.com/products/uptime-com/reviews) By [Uptime.com](https://www.g2.com/sellers/uptime-com) [ 4.6/5(378) ](https://www.g2.com/products/uptime-com/reviews) What do users say? Users consistently praise Uptime.com for its reliable monitoring and easy setup, which allows teams to quickly implement checks and receive timely alerts. The intuitive interface and responsive custom Pros and Cons [ Ease of Use (85) ](https://www.g2.com/products/uptime-com/reviews?qs=pros-and-cons)[ Complex Configuration (19) ](https://www.g2.com/products/uptime-com/reviews?qs=pros-and-cons) [ Datadog ](https://www.g2.com/products/datadog/reviews) By [Datadog](https://www.g2.com/sellers/datadog) [ 4.4/5(726) ](https://www.g2.com/products/datadog/reviews) What do users say? Users consistently praise real-time monitoring and the intuitive dashboards that simplify tracking application performance and infrastructure health. The platform's ability to consolidate logs, metric Pros and Cons [ Ease of Use (145) ](https://www.g2.com/products/datadog/reviews?qs=pros-and-cons)[ Expensive (92) ](https://www.g2.com/products/datadog/reviews?qs=pros-and-cons) [ Better Stack ](https://www.g2.com/products/better-stack/reviews) By [Better Stack](https://www.g2.com/sellers/better-stack-3c077b8c-37c5-4d79-9e19-15cf3bd1960b) [ 4.8/5(331) ](https://www.g2.com/products/better-stack/reviews) What do users say? Users consistently praise the ease of use and intuitive interface of Better Stack, highlighting how quickly they can set up monitoring and receive real-time alerts. The platform's ability to centraliz Pros and Cons [ Ease of Use (118) ](https://www.g2.com/products/better-stack/reviews?qs=pros-and-cons)[ Expensive (22) ](https://www.g2.com/products/better-stack/reviews?qs=pros-and-cons) [ IBM Instana ](https://www.g2.com/products/ibm-instana/reviews) By [IBM](https://www.g2.com/sellers/ibm) [ 4.4/5(480) ](https://www.g2.com/products/ibm-instana/reviews) What do users say? Users consistently praise IBM Instana for its real-time monitoring and automatic service discovery, which significantly reduce setup time and enhance visibility into complex environments. The tool's a Pros and Cons [ Ease of Use (126) ](https://www.g2.com/products/ibm-instana/reviews?qs=pros-and-cons)[ Expensive (43) ](https://www.g2.com/products/ibm-instana/reviews?qs=pros-and-cons) [ Pulsetic ](https://www.g2.com/products/pulsetic/reviews) By [Pulsetic](https://www.g2.com/sellers/pulsetic) [ 4.8/5(208) ](https://www.g2.com/products/pulsetic/reviews) What do users say? Users consistently praise the ease of use and reliable monitoring provided by Pulsetic, highlighting its intuitive interface and quick setup process. Many appreciate the immediate alerts for downtime, Pros and Cons [ Ease of Use (40) ](https://www.g2.com/products/pulsetic/reviews?qs=pros-and-cons)[ Limitations (5) ](https://www.g2.com/products/pulsetic/reviews?qs=pros-and-cons) [ Dynatrace ](https://www.g2.com/products/dynatrace/reviews) By [Dynatrace](https://www.g2.com/sellers/dynatrace) [ 4.5/5(1,366) ](https://www.g2.com/products/dynatrace/reviews) What do users say? Users consistently praise Dynatrace for its AI-driven insights and ease of deployment, which streamline monitoring and troubleshooting across complex environments. The platform's ability to provide co Pros and Cons [ Ease of Use (84) ](https://www.g2.com/products/dynatrace/reviews?qs=pros-and-cons)[ Learning Curve (43) ](https://www.g2.com/products/dynatrace/reviews?qs=pros-and-cons) [ Freshping by Freshworks ](https://www.g2.com/products/freshping-by-freshworks/reviews) By [Freshworks](https://www.g2.com/sellers/freshworks) [ 4.6/5(993) ](https://www.g2.com/products/freshping-by-freshworks/reviews) What do users say? Users consistently praise the product for its ease of use and fast notifications, making it simple to monitor website uptime effectively. The intuitive interface and reliable alert system allow users [ Sentry ](https://www.g2.com/products/sentry/reviews) By [Sentry](https://www.g2.com/sellers/sentry) [ 4.5/5(220) ](https://www.g2.com/products/sentry/reviews) What do users say? Users consistently praise Sentry for its real-time error tracking and detailed stack traces, which significantly streamline the debugging process. The ability to quickly identify and fix issues before Pros and Cons [ Ease of Use (21) ](https://www.g2.com/products/sentry/reviews?qs=pros-and-cons)[ Pricing Issues (7) ](https://www.g2.com/products/sentry/reviews?qs=pros-and-cons) [ Checkmk ](https://www.g2.com/products/checkmk/reviews) By [Checkmk](https://www.g2.com/sellers/checkmk) [ 4.7/5(305) ](https://www.g2.com/products/checkmk/reviews) What do users say? Users consistently praise Checkmk for its flexibility and ease of use, allowing for comprehensive monitoring across various IT infrastructures. The ability to create custom checks and dashboards enhan Pros and Cons [ Ease of Use (26) ](https://www.g2.com/products/checkmk/reviews?qs=pros-and-cons)[ Learning Curve (17) ](https://www.g2.com/products/checkmk/reviews?qs=pros-and-cons) [ Xurrent IMR ](https://www.g2.com/products/xurrent-imr/reviews) By [Xurrent](https://www.g2.com/sellers/xurrent) [ 4.5/5(191) ](https://www.g2.com/products/xurrent-imr/reviews) What do users say? Users consistently praise the intuitive interface and quick alerting capabilities of Xurrent IMR, highlighting its ease of use and seamless integration with existing tools. Many appreciate the platfor Pros and Cons [ Ease of Use (50) ](https://www.g2.com/products/xurrent-imr/reviews?qs=pros-and-cons)[ Missing Features (12) ](https://www.g2.com/products/xurrent-imr/reviews?qs=pros-and-cons) [ LogicMonitor ](https://www.g2.com/products/logicmonitor/reviews) By [LogicMonitor](https://www.g2.com/sellers/logicmonitor) [ 4.5/5(644) ](https://www.g2.com/products/logicmonitor/reviews) What do users say? Users consistently praise the product for its comprehensive monitoring capabilities and ease of use, allowing for quick deployment and effective oversight of IT infrastructure. The platform's ability Pros and Cons [ Ease of Use (20) ](https://www.g2.com/products/logicmonitor/reviews?qs=pros-and-cons)[ Learning Curve (9) ](https://www.g2.com/products/logicmonitor/reviews?qs=pros-and-cons) [ Dash0 ](https://www.g2.com/products/dash0/reviews) By [Dash0](https://www.g2.com/sellers/dash0-d8c455c3-cd78-4a96-904e-add5fd91946b) [ 4.8/5(43) ](https://www.g2.com/products/dash0/reviews) What do users say? Users consistently praise Dash0 for its ease of use and responsive support, highlighting how the platform's OpenTelemetry integration simplifies setup and data management. The intuitive interface allo Pros and Cons [ Ease of Use (30) ](https://www.g2.com/products/dash0/reviews?qs=pros-and-cons)[ Limited Features (10) ](https://www.g2.com/products/dash0/reviews?qs=pros-and-cons) [ Robotalp ](https://www.g2.com/products/mantiksal-robotalp/reviews) By [Mantiksal](https://www.g2.com/sellers/mantiksal) [ 4.8/5(55) ](https://www.g2.com/products/mantiksal-robotalp/reviews) What do users say? Users consistently praise the ease of use and comprehensive monitoring capabilities of Robotalp, highlighting its intuitive setup and real-time alerts that help maintain website uptime. Many appreciat Pros and Cons [ Easy Setup (9) ](https://www.g2.com/products/mantiksal-robotalp/reviews?qs=pros-and-cons)[ Connectivity Issues (2) ](https://www.g2.com/products/mantiksal-robotalp/reviews?qs=pros-and-cons) - ‹ Prev‹ Prev - 1 - [2](/categories/website-monitoring?order=g2_score&page=2#product-list) - [3](/categories/website-monitoring?order=g2_score&page=3#product-list) - [4](/categories/website-monitoring?order=g2_score&page=4#product-list) - [5](/categories/website-monitoring?order=g2_score&page=5#product-list) - … - [16](/categories/website-monitoring?order=g2_score&page=16#product-list) - [17](/categories/website-monitoring?order=g2_score&page=17#product-list) - [Next ›Next ›](/categories/website-monitoring?order=g2_score&page=2#product-list) Spotlight Categories [Online Reputation Management Software](https://www.g2.com/categories/online-reputation-management) [Payment Processing Software](https://www.g2.com/categories/payment-processing) [Sales Intelligence Software](https://www.g2.com/categories/sales-intelligence) [Sales Enablement Software](https://www.g2.com/categories/sales-enablement) [Data Science and Machine Learning Platforms](https://www.g2.com/categories/data-science-and-machine-learning-platforms) Similar Categories - [AI Agent Observability](/categories/ai-agent-observability) - [Application Performance Monitoring (APM)](/categories/application-performance-monitoring-apm) - [Cloud Infrastructure Monitoring](/categories/cloud-infrastructure-monitoring) - [Database Monitoring](/categories/database-monitoring) - [Enterprise Monitoring](/categories/enterprise-monitoring) - [Hardware Monitoring](/categories/hardware-monitoring) - [Log Monitoring](/categories/log-monitoring) - [Network Monitoring](/categories/network-monitoring) - [Observability Pipeline](/categories/observability-pipeline) - [Observability Software](/categories/observability-software) - [Other Monitoring](/categories/other-monitoring) [Browse Website Monitoring Themes](/categories/website-monitoring/themes) ![Tian Lin](/assets/transparent-ad5be28fbcd25b7b08d2cebe1d957125437fb5407d75ee717965ad22c8808791.gif "Tian Lin") TL Researched and written by [Tian Lin](https://research.g2.com/insights/author/tian-lin) Updated April 9, 2026 Website monitoring software facilitates the monitoring, testing, alerting, and reporting of website downtime, speed, health, and reliability, enabling website and IT administrators to quickly uncover and diagnose performance issues from a site's external or internal network, servers, email, forms, and flows. ### Core Capabilities of Website Monitoring Software To qualify for inclusion in the Website Monitoring category, a product must: - Monitor and track web availability metrics such as HTTP, DNS, SMTP, SSH, and PING - Monitor and track page loading speed metrics such as page load time and time to interactive - Establish downtime, speed, and performance-related baseline metrics and alert administrators when performance degrades - Provide visual data and reporting for users to better understand their website downtime and performance metrics ### Common Use Cases for Website Monitoring Software Website and IT administrators use monitoring tools to maintain reliable uptime and strong performance for business-critical sites. Common use cases include: - Setting up continuous availability monitoring and instant alerts for site downtime or response time degradation - Tracking page load speed metrics to identify and fix performance bottlenecks - Generating performance reports to inform infrastructure decisions and demonstrate reliability to stakeholders ### How Website Monitoring Software Differs from Other Tools Website monitoring solutions complement [digital experience monitoring (DEM) software](https://www.g2.com/categories/digital-experience-monitoring-dem), which focuses on optimizing the broader end-user experience. They are also closely related to [application performance monitoring (APM) software](https://www.g2.com/categories/application-performance-monitoring-apm), which tracks the performance of software or web applications in more technical depth, including code-level diagnostics and distributed tracing that website monitoring tools typically do not provide. ### Insights from G2 on Website Monitoring Software Based on category trends on G2, real-time downtime alerts and visual performance dashboards stand out as the most valued features. Faster incident response and improved uptime stand out as primary outcomes of adoption. Top Tools at a Glance | | Proactive uptime monitoring with global alerting | User Review "Single Dashboard Monitoring That Makes Infrastructure Management Effortless" | | | External uptime monitoring with instant downtime alerts | User Review "Simple, Reliable Monitoring with Instant Alerts—A Daily Essential" | | | External synthetic monitoring with global probe coverage | User Review "All-in-One Monitoring Platform: Uptime, Synthetic & API Checks, Alerts, Reports, and RUM" | | | Full-stack observability with correlated traces and logs | User Review "Faster incident detection and root-cause analysis, leading to better customer experience." | | | Multi-region uptime monitoring with phone escalation | User Review "Essential Free Tool for Effortless Website Monitoring" | | | Full-stack tracing across microservices and cloud-native apps | User Review "Comprehensive Monitoring, Steep Learning Curve" | | | Multi-location uptime monitoring with instant phone alerts | User Review "Effortless Setup and Easy Monitoring with Pulsetic" | | | AI-powered root cause analysis for application performance | User Review "Comprehensive Observability, Excellent AI, but Complex Pricing" | | | External uptime monitoring with free generous tier | User Review "Can't believe how much access you get for free!" | * * * Show More * * * ## How Do You Choose the Right Website Monitoring Software? ### What You Should Know About Website Monitoring Software ### What is Website Monitoring Software? Website monitoring software allows users to consistently track performance metrics for websites in real time. These metrics can be displayed as reports or on a visual dashboard. Baseline performance metrics can be customized to meet the minimum requirements of maintaining the uptime and performance of websites. A quality web page is usually the first line of contact customers, partners, and prospective employees have with a company. It can be a reliable resource for anyone wanting to know more about a company or an organization and legitimize a brand to a potential consumer. However, if a company’s web page has any issues, it creates a negative experience that leads to missed sales opportunities and a damaged reputation. Website monitoring tools are designed to ensure this second scenario never happens and that web performance remains consistent for all website visitors. The term “uptime" means a website is running as expected, with a steady flow of data between the web server and the site’s users. Conversely, “downtime" means any interruption, when incoming web traffic can’t access a complete website. Website performance monitoring software maximizes uptime and minimizes downtime, so new and repeat visitors can enjoy a website as intended, whether learning about a company or engaging with a company’s content. Depending on a company’s network, the complexity of its site, and the level of web activity they experience, website speed, load time, and other performance metrics can vary by the hour. In some cases, a site can crash entirely without warning. The tools in this category actively monitor a company’s site by web API and transaction monitoring, test it from all angles, and offer real-time alerts when there are outages so companies can quickly address the issue. Some tools in this category generate valuable insights from user activity monitoring that help adjust strategy and web offerings for optimal results. Performance dashboards in certain products offer complete visibility into a website (or websites), so companies can identify potential issues before they arise and continually improve the user experience, which translates to desirable business outcomes across an organization. #### What Types of Website Monitoring Software Exist? **Free edition** Many website monitoring software offer free plans. These solutions check customers’ website uptime from a couple of times a day to every couple of minutes. They have a basic performance dashboard and can alert IT staff when the website goes dark. However, they might not offer advanced features such as root cause analysis on what is causing the outage. For small businesses, this is a true bargain if they don’t require an online presence. **Paid edition** Paid website monitoring software provides frequent uptime checks from every couple minutes to under a minute. They also provide comprehensive monitoring services including real user monitoring (web user analytics), website content monitoring (unexpected changes on website content), and multiple location checks (server performance in another geo). These features help companies quickly identify key performance errors which reduces downtime. Any companies that have online shopping transactions or digital-centered strategies are recommended to use the paid edition to ensure a consistent online user experience. #### What are the Common Features of Website Monitoring Software? The following are some core features within website monitoring software that can help users in tracking website performance, observing traffic and user data, and alerting users of technical issues plus their underlying cause: **Uptime monitoring:** Uptime monitoring or availability monitoring is tracking a website’s live and accessible feed. An uptime robot tests the website at consecutive intervals with web APIs. These tests simulate attempted sessions from users in various locations or different channels. Following tests by an uptime robot, these programs generate uptime reports detailing a website’s availability. Depending on the platform used, uptime robots might test complete web pages including HTML, CSS, scripts, and images, with corresponding data for how these components load for users. Certain tools also help companies understand their site’s performance as it relates to different browsers, platforms, and countries. Uptime tests may be pre configured in a website monitoring service, or companies may be able to customize and manage tests to meet their preferred specifications. **Downtime alerts:** Downtimes are gaps in a website’s uptime, and they usually last from a couple of seconds to hours. Downtime can happen at inconvenient hours or during high-traffic moments. Depending on the situation, it may require immediate attention to get the site back to its regular functionality. Several platforms offer downtime alerts or notifications that ping the appropriate users when a site or certain content becomes unavailable, regardless of the underlying cause. Every second that a site is down is translated to missed sales opportunities or negative user experiences. Downtime notifications instantly call attention to these situations, so administrators can work to quickly find a solution. Downtime alerts may be customizable so the most appropriate actions can be taken. This can include varying levels of urgency based on the extent of site disruption, different data points related to the problem, or automatic escalations to specific users based on situation details. Downtime alerts don’t fix websites, but they draw attention to performance issues instantly, and in some cases, draw conclusions about the cause. With real-time information, teams can make informed decisions to remedy the problem with as little downtime as possible. Some vendors also set up site public status pages and social media posts to alert customers when the website is down. **Performance data:** Along with uptime and downtime, it benefits web administrators to monitor the overall performance of company websites. With certain tools in this category, users collect data such as page speed, element load times, and network data flow, which helps deepen their understanding of the site and user experience. A great website is never complete and requires continued effort to run smoothly. If a company has multiple active web pages, it can benefit from as much data as possible. It’s important to consider various metrics that might help a team maintain each web page at the highest level, and to keep this in mind when researching the features in a possible web monitoring solution. **Real user monitoring (RUM):** Digital businesses use RUM to analyze customers’ digital experiences by looking at how online visitors are interacting with a website. It analyzes everything from page load events to HTTP requests to bounce rates. Advanced website monitoring package includes RUM to correlate website performance to revenue generation. If customers start leaving the website and there is no performance issue, companies can identify content issues attributed to a high bounce rate. Since RUM tracks revenue generation on each site, it also allows users to optimize the areas on site that will bring the most revenue down to an accurate dollar amount on every page. ### What are the Benefits of Website Monitoring Software? **Increase website performance:** Downtime is inevitable, but website monitoring solutions can significantly reduce downtime by alerting users, pinpointing the cause of downtime, and offering suggestions to fix the problem. This will allow IT teams to fix the downtime quickly and keep customers from leaving the sites because of performance issues. **Save money:** Average website uptime is around 99.5% and that costs businesses more than $50,000 on average in revenue. That also means the website is down for nearly 43 hours a year. On the other hand, website monitoring cost from free to a couple of hundred dollars a month. There is no reason not to use website monitoring software since they are so inexpensive compared to the benefit they bring.  **Increase end-user satisfaction:** A quick turnaround on performance issues leads to happier consumers. Website monitoring solutions assist in identifying stress points and bottlenecks within sites to focus on troubleshooting exactly where it is needed. They also provide public status pages to tell end users when there is an outage.  ### Who Uses Website Monitoring Software? **IT teams:** Traditionally, a company’s IT department or IT specialists are tasked with launching, monitoring, and maintaining its web properties. These are the ideal users for web monitoring and testing tools. If there are any performance issues, IT specialists should be the first to know, as they have the skills to fix the problem. The data generated by these platforms is beneficial for IT departments to understand and continuously improve user experience. Additionally, user monitoring features help teams get a clear picture of their audience and their unique interactions with the brand as a whole. [ITSM tool implementation, consulting, and managed services providers](https://www.g2.com/categories/itsm-tool-implementation-consulting-and-managed-services): For smaller companies without a designated IT team, companies may outsource website building and maintenance to website design companies or other third-party agencies. Third-party agencies will buy website monitoring software to use on the clients’ sites. While agencies might not be as dedicated as permanent employees, they are cost effective for startups and small businesses.  #### Software Related to Website Monitoring Software The following are related solutions that can be used together with website monitoring software to help IT teams track their performance, collect valuable data, and keep things organized throughout the business lifecycle: [Application performance monitoring software](https://www.g2.com/categories/application-performance-monitoring-apm): If a company offers any sort of web application it will need to consistently monitor its uptime and performance separately from its primary web page. Application performance monitoring software, or APM software, offers activity monitoring for web applications in a similar fashion to a website monitoring service. Just like a website, application performance varies wildly throughout the day based on several factors, from server connections to user activity, and random events can trigger downtime or other complications. Implementing an APM tool helps teams monitor active applications and their respective uptimes so they can take ongoing action toward maintaining and improving applications. [Network monitoring software](https://www.g2.com/categories/network-monitoring): The performance and reliability of IT networks are important for modern businesses, without which they could not run and maintain websites or applications, let alone perform essential job functions. Network monitoring software helps IT departments monitor entire computer networks, track baseline metrics, and be notified of performance issues so they can quickly remedy them. Network monitoring is crucial for larger businesses concurrently running hundreds of computers and executing various programs for internal and external use. A small hiccup in network performance causes substantial problems for an interconnected company and its customer base. These tools provide a holistic view of IT network performance and activity, with infrastructure monitoring and employee monitoring for anyone connected to a primary network. [Website security software](https://www.g2.com/categories/website-security): As a company establishes its internal process to monitor websites, it is important to stay conscious of viruses and other cyber threats that could corrupt a website and endanger a company and its customers alike. Website security software is a natural complement to website performance monitoring efforts, helping to protect sites from threats such as data theft and malware. Website monitoring tools may offer certain features of these tools, such as vulnerability monitoring or virus detection, but can not provide comprehensive protection on their own. There are thousands of internet-based threats and more are created each day; website security tools help monitor suspicious activity and build a line of defense against intrusive behavior targeting a company’s web properties. ### Challenges with Website Monitoring Software Software solutions can come with their own set of challenges.  **Inefficient optimization strategy:** Website monitoring provides performance data but that is usually not enough for businesses to effectively improve customer satisfaction. There is always room for optimization so companies need to determine which sites are the most important for customers and revenue generation. Companies should contextualize network performance to business metrics. For example, a customer might be experiencing slow page speed and load time for two specific sites. One site might have a low bounce rate while the other a high one. The IT team should prioritize the high bounce rate sites that contribute to revenue loss. Instead of trying to fix every problem, businesses need to have a website monitoring strategy that tackles high-impact problems.  **Unplanned user growth:** Website monitoring doesn’t always predict future growth.  How a website is performing now with 100 users will be different with 10,000 users. Enterprises need to project what the state of their network will be in the future, especially when there is a marketing campaign or new product launch.  **Multiple location checks:** Companies need to keep in mind that website performance checks are done by API server interactions between one server to another server in different locations. If a US east coast server passes a good performance check, that only shows users on the east coast will experience a good network connection. Companies can’t assume that users on the west coast will have the same experience. Companies should identify where their target customers are located and perform server checks in these locations. This ensures that end users from different locations will experience the same web performance. ### How to Buy Website Monitoring Software #### Requirements Gathering (RFI/RFP) for Website Monitoring Software When searching for website monitoring software, companies should first look at their specifically desired data and metrics. For example, the user may be most interested in monitoring and improving performance for response time within their website. Buyers should make a ranked list of the website metrics that most directly address the problems they’re trying to solve, then reference G2 reviews to find the right fit. If the requirement is low, then free tools might even be the best choice. Prioritizing the desired feature set can help narrow down the potential pool of website monitoring solutions, allowing teams to then apply further considerations for budgets, ease of integration with other systems, security requirements, and more. This holistic approach empowers buyers to move forward with a focused checklist, which can be used in conjunction with G2 scoring to select the best website monitoring product for the business. #### Compare Website Monitoring Software Products **Create a long list** Buyers should start with a large pool of website monitoring software vendors. Keeping the desired must-have features in mind, buyers must perform consistent inquiries during demos by which they can effectively compare the pros and cons of each software. **Create a short list** It helps to cross reference the results of initial vendor evaluations with G2 reviews from other buyers, the combination of which will help to narrow in on a short three to five product list. From there, buyers can compare pricing and features to determine the best fit. **Conduct demos** As a rule of thumb, companies should make sure to demo all of the products that end up on their short list. During demos, buyers should ask specific questions related to the functionalities they care most about; for example, one might ask to be walked through a typical performance issue from alerting to remediation within the tool.  #### Selection of Website Monitoring Software **Choose a selection team** Regardless of a company’s size, it’s important to involve the most relevant personas when beginning the software selection process. Larger companies may include individual team members from e-commerce teams, digital teams, and IT professionals and developers working with the software most closely. Smaller companies with fewer employees might overlap roles.  **Negotiation** Many companies offer full monitoring platforms that go beyond website monitoring to include network monitoring, infrastructure monitoring, and more. While some companies will not budge on the configurations of their packages, buyers looking to trim costs should try to negotiate down to the specific functions that matter to them to get the best price. For example, a vendor’s pricing page for website monitoring functionality might only be included with a robust all-in-one monitoring package, whereas a sales conversation may prove otherwise.  **Final decision** After this stage, it is important to perform a trial run if possible with a small selection of IT professionals or developers. This will help to ensure that the website monitoring software of choice integrates well with an IT administrator’s systems setup or a developers’ day-to-day work. If the website monitoring tool is well liked and well utilized, the buyer can take that as a sign that their selection is the right one. If not, reevaluation of the options may be necessary.