Frequently asked questions
How we check websites, what the results mean, and how the service works.
Checking websites
What does Is It Up Or Not? do?
It tells you whether a website is down for everyone or just for you. Our server checks 56 popular websites every 2 minutes, and you can test any public website on demand from the home page.
How do you decide if a website is down?
We request the site's homepage from our server. Any answer from the site's server, even a redirect, a "page not found" error or a login wall, means the site is up. If the request times out after 10 seconds, the connection is refused or reset, the domain can't be found, the security certificate is invalid, or the server returns a 5xx error, we mark the site as down.
What does "slow" mean?
The site answered, but took longer than 3 seconds. Slow responses are often the first sign of an outage or very heavy traffic.
How often are websites checked?
Every site in our popular list is checked every 2 minutes. When you check a site yourself, we test it immediately. Checks of the same site within 30 seconds of each other share one result.
Can I check any website?
Any public website, yes. For safety we don't check private or local network addresses such as localhost, 192.168.x.x or your router, and each visitor can run up to 20 checks per minute.
Understanding results
A site is up here but won't load for me. Why?
Then the problem is somewhere between you and the site: your browser cache, DNS settings, internet connection, VPN, firewall, or the app on your device. Work through the fixes on our home page.
A site works for me, but you show it as down. Why?
We check from our own server's network. A site may block automated requests, be blocked in our server's country, or have problems in only one region. If a result looks wrong, please let us know.
What does the uptime percentage mean?
It is the share of our checks that found the site up (including slow) since monitoring last started. The coloured bars show the most recent 30 checks, oldest on the left.
Where do the website icons come from?
Each site's icon is loaded from Google's public favicon service. If an icon can't be loaded, we show the first letter of the site's name instead.
About the service
Can you add a website to the popular list?
Yes. Suggest it through our contact page or by emailing support@isitupornot.com, and include the website address.
Do you track me or use cookies?
No. We don't use cookies, analytics or advertising trackers, and you don't need an account. Your last few searches are saved only in your own browser. Our privacy policy has the details.
Are you affiliated with the websites you monitor?
No. Is It Up Or Not? is independent. Website names and logos belong to their owners and are shown only to identify each site.
Is Is It Up Or Not? free?
Yes, it is completely free to use.
Still have a question?
Contact us or email support@isitupornot.com and we'll get back to you.