website issue monitoring
Your API Broke. Your Dashboard Still Says OK.
A 200 response can still violate the contract. Monitor public API endpoints with configurable requests, response assertions, timing, TLS evidence, and scheduled DNS history.
Paid plans start at $15/mo. Your first check is free, then try a plan for 7 days (card required) or subscribe now.
definition
What Is API Monitoring?
API monitoring is scheduled testing of a public HTTP or HTTPS endpoint from outside the application. A useful check verifies an allowed status, records response time, and evaluates the response assertions that represent the contract. Visual Sentinel supports configurable methods, headers, request bodies, expected statuses, and API or GraphQL response assertions. Response-content monitoring requires Starter or higher. TLS trust and hostname authorization run with the uptime request, while DNS history follows a separate six-hour schedule. This is single-endpoint synthetic monitoring, not a private-network agent or scripted multi-step transaction runner. Business and Agency use 1-minute uptime checks from Europe and the United States; Solo and Starter use 5-minute checks. Paid alert-channel availability depends on the selected plan.
what you get
What this monitor checks
Response Time Tracking
Monitor TTFB and total response time with historical trends. Get alerted when your API slows down before users complain.
Checks as Fast as 1 Minute
Business checks your API every 60 seconds from Europe and the United States. Solo and Starter run every 5 minutes.
Content Validation
On Starter or higher, evaluate configured response rules or API and GraphQL assertions. The monitor only catches the contract conditions you define.
SSL & DNS Monitoring
Check TLS trust, hostname authorization, and expiry with the uptime request. Keep selected DNS record history on a separate six-hour schedule.
Response-Time Thresholds
Set a response-time threshold per monitor and review the recorded trend. Alerts reflect the threshold you configure, not an inferred baseline.
10 Alert Channels
Route API alerts to Slack, Discord, PagerDuty, OpsGenie, email, WhatsApp, Telegram, Teams, webhooks, or Prometheus.
Webhook Integration
Trigger automated responses when your API fails. Connect to your incident management workflow via custom webhooks.
how it works
Set up in three steps
Add Your API Endpoint
Enter a public API URL and configure the method, headers, request body, expected statuses, response-time threshold, and eligible assertions.
Configure Alert Channels
Choose the notification channels available on your plan and set the monitor sensitivity, delay, and repeat interval.
Monitor 24/7
Choose a 5-minute Solo or Starter cadence, or 1-minute Business checks from Europe and the United States.
Frequently asked questions
Can I monitor authenticated API endpoints?
Yes. You can configure custom headers including Authorization tokens, API keys, and Bearer tokens. Visual Sentinel sends these with every check request so you can monitor authenticated endpoints.
What types of API checks are supported?
Visual Sentinel supports public HTTP and HTTPS endpoints with GET, POST, PUT, DELETE, PATCH, HEAD, or OPTIONS requests; expected status codes; custom headers and request bodies; response timing; TLS trust checks; and response assertions. Response-content monitoring requires Starter or higher. DNS history is collected on its separate six-hour schedule.
How is this different from Pingdom or UptimeRobot for APIs?
UptimeRobot and Pingdom both support more than basic status checks, including response or content validation on eligible plans. Visual Sentinel combines configurable status and body checks with SSL certificate monitoring, DNS history, performance trends, linked server context, and up to 10 alert channels in one monitor.
Can I set different alert thresholds for different APIs?
Yes. Each monitor has independent configuration for check intervals, response time thresholds, alert sensitivity, and notification channels. Critical APIs can have 1-minute checks with PagerDuty alerts while non-critical endpoints use 5-minute checks with email.
What is API monitoring?
API monitoring is scheduled testing of an endpoint from outside the application. A useful check can verify an allowed status, response timing, and configured body assertions instead of treating every 200 response as correct. TLS evidence, scheduled DNS history, and an optionally linked server can provide separate context, but they do not replace contract-specific assertions.
What API monitoring best practices should I follow?
Check your APIs from multiple geographic regions to catch location-specific failures. Validate the response body, not just the status code, to detect empty or malformed payloads. Track performance trends over time so you spot gradual degradation before it becomes an outage. Set up multi-channel alerts, Slack, PagerDuty, email, so the right team is notified immediately regardless of the time of day.
Can Visual Sentinel monitor REST and GraphQL APIs?
Yes, when the service exposes a public HTTP or HTTPS endpoint that the monitoring regions can reach. Configure the method, headers, request body, expected status codes, and supported response assertions to match the endpoint contract. Visual Sentinel does not run a private-network agent or a scripted multi-step transaction.
start with a first check
Check Your API Free on your own site.
Paid plans start at $15/mo. Your first check is free, then try a plan for 7 days (card required) or subscribe now.
- free first check
- 7-day trial, card required
- 14-day money-back guarantee