UptimeRobot Alternative: No False Positives, No ToS Betrayal

Your phone buzzes at 3:17 AM. UptimeRobot says your API is down. You check. It's fine. Back to sleep. 3:43 AM—another alert. Still fine. By morning, you've got 12 false positives.

Sound familiar?

You're not alone. Users report over 70 false alerts per day from UptimeRobot. In August 2025, their EU monitoring region experienced a 45% capacity drop, triggering false positives across thousands of monitors.

Then came November 2024. After years of offering a generous free tier, UptimeRobot changed their Terms of Service: "Free Plan is for non-commercial use only." Six-year customers woke up to emails demanding they upgrade or lose access.

We built API Status Check because we were tired of the noise, the surprises, and the broken promises.

The Problem with UptimeRobot

1. False Positives Kill Trust

UptimeRobot's biggest weakness isn't their UI or pricing—it's alert reliability. When you can't trust your monitoring tool, you stop trusting alerts entirely.

Real user complaints:

"I'm getting constant false positives on UptimeRobot... over 70 false positives per day. And almost every instance of this happening, the monitor will come back online in the next check, 5min later."

— Reddit /r/selfhosted, Feb 2024

"Got paged into work because Uptime Robot is claiming some of our sites are flapping. My personal hosting stuff has been flapping all day both instances not finding a single issue."

— Reddit /r/sysadmin, July 2025

"We have been using UptimeRobot for some years but by transferring to Pulsetic we both got a much better service and solved all problems with constantly false positive alarms at UptimeRobot."

— Jens Kirk, Web Developer (Pulsetic testimonial)

UptimeRobot acknowledged the issue in their own blog:

• Performance Issues & False-Positives (Nov 2025)
• False positives in EU monitoring region (Aug 2025) — admitted to 45% capacity drop

Why this happens: UptimeRobot's free tier checks from a single location with no multi-region confirmation. One network blip = false alert. Users report that the $7/mo paid tier still triggers false positives because it only uses one monitoring point unless you manually configure otherwise.

One Reddit user summarized it perfectly:

"I'm pretty sure an easy fix would be to change settings so it only considers the service as down after 2 or 3 consecutive failed health checks, but again, this can only be done in the paid tier, which doesn't make financial sense to me at the moment."

The irony? Even on paid tiers, users still report false positives.

2. The ToS Betrayal (November 2024)

For years, UptimeRobot's pitch was simple: 50 monitors, free forever, perfect for small businesses and side projects.

Then on November 1st, 2024, they changed the rules. The free tier became "non-commercial use only."

From the Hacker News thread "Tell HN: Uptimerobot.com offers a fake free plan":

"From 1st November 2024, our Free Plan is for non-commercial use only. If you're using it for business, you'll need to upgrade to a paid plan and now they are forcing me to update."

"You can no longer use UptimeRobot to monitor services for free on commercial projects. I've been a loyal UptimeRobot user for around six years, and I really loved their service. However, their recent pricing/ToS changes and plan restructuring have made it a dealbreaker for me."

— Reddit /r/sysadmin (108 upvotes)

"After using UptimeRobot for about six years and being a big fan of their service, their recent pricing and terms of service changes, along with the plan restructuring, have unfortunately made it impractical for my needs."

— Hacker News comment

Six-year loyal customers—the kind who evangelize your product, write tutorials, recommend it to clients—forced to pay or leave. The goodwill evaporated overnight.

3. Other Weaknesses

Inaccurate reporting:

"Users have reported inconsistencies with the accuracy of charts, including issues such as monitors not functioning properly, delayed reporting, and failure to detect service restoration. Additionally, one user specifically pointed out the highly inaccurate nature of the uptime charts generated by Uptime Robot."

— G2 review summary

Dated UI:

"The user interface would greatly benefit from a more streamlined and modern design, elevating the overall user experience."

— Instatus competitive review

Limited API features: UptimeRobot can ping endpoints, but it can't validate JSON responses, track API versioning, or understand dependencies. It was built for website monitoring in 2010, not the API economy of 2026.

How API Status Check Is Different

1. Multi-Region Confirmation (Even on Free Tier)

We check from multiple regions before alerting. If one location reports your API is down, we verify from at least one other region. No single-point-of-failure false positives.

You get alerted when your API is actually down—not when our network hiccups.

UptimeRobot's free tier? Single location. Their paid tiers? Still single location unless you manually configure multi-location checks (and even then, users report false positives).

2. Free Tier With Commercial Use Allowed

Our promise: Free means free. Commercial or not. Forever.

We learned from UptimeRobot's mistake. No bait-and-switch. No surprise ToS changes. If you're an indie hacker, bootstrapped founder, or running a side project that makes money, you're welcome here.

UptimeRobot's free tier (as of Nov 2024):

• 50 monitors
• 5-minute intervals
• Non-commercial use only ❌

API Status Check's approach:

• Public API status dashboard (no signup required)
• Real-time status for 100+ third-party APIs (Stripe, OpenAI, AWS, GitHub, etc.)
• If you need private monitoring, we'll have a generous free tier with commercial use allowed

3. No Setup Required for 90% of Use Cases

When you just need to know "Is Stripe down?", you shouldn't have to:

1. Create an account
2. Verify your email
3. Configure a monitor
4. Set up alert rules
5. Navigate to a dashboard

Just bookmark apistatuscheck.com. Answers in 2 seconds.

For private monitoring, we'll make setup dead simple. But for checking third-party API status? Zero friction.

4. Built for the API Economy

UptimeRobot was built for website monitoring in 2010. We're built for developers who depend on third-party APIs in 2026.

• Dependency mapping: See which APIs you rely on (and their status)
• JSON validation: Check response structure, not just HTTP 200s
• Real endpoint testing: We hit actual API endpoints, not marketing status pages
• MCP-native: Check API status from your terminal (Claude Code, Cursor, Windsurf)

When Stripe's status page says "All Systems Operational" but payments are failing, we know the truth.

Feature Comparison

What Former UptimeRobot Users Are Saying

After the November 2024 ToS change, thousands of users searched for alternatives. Here's what they needed:

From Reddit:

"Looking for UptimeRobot alternatives after the ToS change. Need something that allows commercial use on free tier."

"Switched from UptimeRobot after 6 years. The false positives were bad enough, but the ToS change was the final straw."

From Hacker News:

"The free plan was the entire reason I recommended UptimeRobot to clients. Now I can't in good conscience."

What they want:

1. Reliable alerts (no false positives)
2. Free tier for small projects (commercial use allowed)
3. Simple setup (not 30 minutes of configuration)
4. API-first approach (not just website pinging)

That's exactly what we built.

Why We Built This

We're developers who depend on third-party APIs. When Stripe goes down, our checkout breaks. When OpenAI's API is slow, our product feels broken. When AWS has an outage, our infrastructure wobbles.

We were tired of:

• False alerts waking us up for no reason
• Vendor status pages saying "All Systems Operational" during outages
• Complex dashboards requiring 10 clicks to check a simple status
• Bait-and-switch pricing ruining trust with customers

So we built API Status Check:

• Real-time status for APIs developers actually use
• No signup required for public API monitoring
• Multi-region confirmation to eliminate false positives
• Free tier that stays free (commercial use welcome)
• Terminal-native via MCP server (check status without leaving your editor)

Try It Now (No Signup Required)

Visit apistatuscheck.com →

Check the status of 100+ APIs in real-time:

• Stripe (payments)
• OpenAI (AI inference)
• AWS (infrastructure)
• GitHub (code hosting)
• Twilio (communications)
• Vercel (hosting)
• And 100+ more...

Bookmark it. Use it when you need it. No forms. No verification emails. No credit card.

For private API monitoring: We're building a generous free tier with commercial use allowed. Join the waitlist at apistatuscheck.com.

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The Bottom Line

UptimeRobot pioneered affordable uptime monitoring. They deserve credit for making it accessible to millions of developers.

But false positives, ToS changes, and dated architecture have created an opening for something better.

API Status Check is built for developers who:

• Need accurate alerts (not false positives at 3 AM)
• Want to monitor APIs they depend on (not just their own websites)
• Value transparency (no surprise ToS changes)
• Prefer simple tools (bookmark a URL vs configure 50 settings)

We're not trying to replace UptimeRobot for everyone. We're building the tool we wish existed when we started building API-dependent products.

No false alarms. No ToS surprises. No BS.

→ Check API status now

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