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Monitor Types

isthisthing.online supports seven monitor types. Each checks a different aspect of your infrastructure.

HTTP / HTTPS​

Monitors a website or API endpoint by sending an HTTP request and checking the response.

  • Use for: Websites, REST APIs, GraphQL endpoints, health check URLs.
  • What it checks: Status code (2xx = healthy), response time, response body on errors.
  • Config: URL, method (GET/POST/HEAD), custom headers, timeout, target response time.

Ping​

Checks whether a host is reachable over the network using ICMP echo requests.

  • Use for: Server availability, network connectivity.
  • What it checks: Whether the host responds to ping. Packet loss and round-trip time.
  • Config: Hostname or IP address, timeout.

TCP​

Verifies that a TCP port is open and accepting connections.

  • Use for: Database servers, mail servers, custom TCP services.
  • What it checks: Successful TCP handshake within the timeout.
  • Config: Hostname or IP address, port, timeout.

UDP​

Sends a UDP datagram and waits for a response to confirm the port is reachable.

  • Use for: DNS servers, VoIP services, game servers, custom UDP services.
  • What it checks: Response received from the UDP port.
  • Config: Hostname or IP address, port, timeout.

MySQL​

Connects to a MySQL database, authenticates, and optionally runs a query.

  • Use for: MySQL and MariaDB servers.
  • What it checks: Successful connection and authentication. If a query is configured, it also validates query execution.
  • Config: Host, port (default 3306), database name, username, password, optional query, timeout.
  • Plan: Starter and above.

PostgreSQL​

Connects to a PostgreSQL database, authenticates, and optionally runs a query.

  • Use for: PostgreSQL servers.
  • What it checks: Successful connection and authentication. If a query is configured, it also validates query execution.
  • Config: Host, port (default 5432), database name, username, password, optional query, timeout.
  • Plan: Starter and above.

Choosing a monitor type​

GoalMonitor type
Check if a website is upHTTP / HTTPS
Check if an API returns 200HTTP / HTTPS
Check if a server is reachablePing
Check if a database port is openTCP
Check if a DNS server respondsUDP
Check if MySQL is accepting connectionsMySQL
Check if PostgreSQL can run queriesPostgreSQL

Common settings​

All monitors share these settings:

SettingDescription
NameA friendly label for your monitor.
Check intervalHow often the check runs. Minimum depends on your plan.
TimeoutMaximum wait time per check (default 30s).
Confirmation thresholdNumber of consecutive failures before creating an incident (default 2).
Target response timeIf exceeded, the check is marked as degraded (default 1000ms).

See also​