Website Down Checker - Is My Site Down or Just Me?
Check website availability from 300+ locations. Type any address and we test it live from independent checkpoints across HostTracker's worldwide network, showing exactly what each one saw.
One vantage point can't tell you anything
When a website won't load, the first question is whether the problem is on your end or the server's end - and a single failed page load has at least six plausible explanations, only one of which is "the site is down."
It could be a stale DNS cache on your machine, a blocked route at your ISP, a firewall between you and the server, an expired certificate, or a browser extension quietly killing the request. Refreshing from the same computer on the same network cannot separate them, because you are always testing one path.
Testing from many independent networks at the same moment turns one ambiguous data point into a pattern. HostTracker's checker runs from 300+ worldwide locations: if every location times out or errors, the outage is real and global; if only a handful fail while the rest load normally, the problem is regional - a network route, a blocked IP range, or a routing hiccup rather than your site actually being offline. That distinction changes what you do next.
The response usually names the cause
The server received the request but failed to answer it properly - often an overloaded application, a crashed process, or a bad deployment.
Your domain isn't resolving to an IP address at all, so visitors get "site can't be reached" even though the server itself may be perfectly healthy. This follows a botched DNS record change, a lapsed nameserver, or a registrar problem.
Modern browsers block the page outright with a security warning even though the site still loads over plain HTTP - a checker that validates certificates catches this before customers do.
An expired domain registration takes the whole site offline instantly, with no error message pointing at the real cause unless you already know to check the registration date.
The server or hosting provider itself is down - this shows up as connection timeouts or refused connections across every check location at once.
The site is reachable from most of the world but not from one specific country or network, which single-location testing simply cannot detect.
What to do when it really is down
Run a multi-location check to see whether the failure is global or limited to certain regions - that single fact tells you whether to treat it as an emergency or a minor anomaly.
Many outages are on the provider's side, not your application's, and a known incident means the fix is already in progress.
Confirm the domain hasn't lapsed and DNS records still point where they should.
An expired SSL certificate or a domain that silently lapsed are two of the most common "mystery" outages.
If you need to contact your host or a developer, the response codes, error messages and affected regions from the check give them a concrete starting point instead of "the site seems down."
A one-off check tells you about the outage you already know about; ongoing monitoring tells you about the next one - often before your customers notice.
HostTracker has monitored websites this way since 2004 and is trusted by 500,000+ sites today, covering 13 check types beyond basic availability - including SSL and domain expiry, DNS blacklists, transaction flows and API endpoints. Before sending any alert it re-verifies the failure from multiple independent locations, so you hear about real, confirmed outages rather than one location's momentary blip - through any of 9 channels: SMS, email, voice call, Telegram, Slack, Viber, Discord, browser push or webhooks. The free plan monitors two sites every 30 minutes indefinitely, and a 30-day trial unlocks 1-minute checks on up to 100 monitors with no card; paid plans start at about $5 a month - compare plans and pricing.
Services we track continuously
Questions people ask during an outage
The fastest way is to test your site from locations other than your own network. If you only refresh the page from your own computer, you can't distinguish a real outage from a local problem like a stale DNS cache, an ISP routing issue, or a firewall blocking your connection. The instant check tool above tests your URL from many independent locations at the same moment, sampled from HostTracker's 300+-location monitoring network: if every location fails, the outage is real and affects everyone; if only a few locations fail while most load normally, the issue is local to those regions or networks rather than your site being fully offline. This distinction matters because it changes your response - a confirmed global outage needs immediate attention, while an isolated failure from one region often resolves on its own or points to a specific routing problem rather than a broken server. For ongoing protection rather than one-off checks, continuous multi-location monitoring catches outages automatically, any time of day.
A server error (a 5xx status code, like 500 or 503) means your server received the request but failed to handle it correctly - often caused by an overloaded application, a crashed process, a bad code deployment, or a database that stopped responding. A page that won't load at all, with no error page shown, usually points somewhere earlier in the chain: a DNS failure (the domain isn't resolving to an IP address), a hosting or server outage (the machine itself is unreachable), or a network/routing problem between visitors and your server. The difference matters for fixing it - a 5xx error means your application is reachable but broken, while a total failure to connect means the problem is at the infrastructure or DNS level. A down checker that reports the exact response code and reachability from multiple locations tells you immediately which category you're dealing with, instead of leaving you to guess.
Yes, and these are two of the most common causes that get mistaken for a "real" outage. An expired SSL certificate doesn't take your server offline, but modern browsers block the page outright with a security warning, so visitors experience it exactly like a down site even though the server is healthy. An expired domain registration is more severe: once a domain lapses, the site can disappear from the internet entirely, sometimes with no clear error explaining why. Both are easy to miss because they don't show up in typical server logs or uptime dashboards that only check HTTP responses. HostTracker's domain and TLS checks track certificate and registration expiry dates directly and alert you before either one lapses, so you find out with weeks of notice rather than discovering it the moment your site goes dark.
Manually re-checking a site only catches outages you already suspect - it does nothing for the ones that start while you're asleep, in a meeting, or offline for the weekend. Continuous monitoring solves that by checking your site automatically at a set interval - as often as every minute on paid plans, or every 30 minutes on the permanent free plan - and alerting you the moment a failure is confirmed. Before sending an alert, HostTracker re-verifies the failure from multiple locations in its 300+-location network, so you're notified about real outages within minutes rather than hours, without being woken up by a single location's momentary blip. Alerts can reach you through any of 9 channels, including SMS, email, voice calls, and messenger apps, so the notification finds you wherever you are rather than sitting unread in an inbox.
Yes. The instant check tool on this page is completely free and requires no signup, login, or credit card - enter a URL and get real-time results from multiple worldwide locations immediately. For ongoing protection, HostTracker also offers a permanent free monitoring plan that checks two sites every 30 minutes indefinitely at no cost, and a 30-day full-feature trial that unlocks every check type, 1-minute intervals, and up to 100 monitors with no credit card required. If you decide continuous monitoring is worth it after trying the free options, paid plans start at about $5 a month for more frequent checks and more monitors. Nothing about diagnosing whether your site is down right now requires payment.
Start by confirming the scope with a multi-location check - that tells you immediately whether the outage is global or limited to specific regions, which changes how urgently you need to act. Next, check your hosting provider's status page, since many outages originate there rather than in your own application. Then verify DNS and domain status, since a lapsed domain or a broken DNS record can look identical to a server crash. Check your SSL certificate and domain expiry dates directly, since both are common causes that don't show obvious error messages. If you need to escalate to a host or developer, bring the exact response codes and affected regions from your check - concrete evidence gets a faster response than "the site seems down." Finally, if this is the kind of outage you'd rather hear about immediately instead of discovering later, set up continuous monitoring so the next one is caught automatically.
Monitor your website from 300+ locations
A one-off check finds the outage you already noticed. Monitoring finds the next one - at 3am, before a customer does.
Fait partie du logiciel de monitoring site web de HostTracker.