Complete this checklist after creating your Uptime Basics account. It starts with contact and security settings, then adds one monitor and confirms that its checks and notifications work as expected.
You do not need to enable every optional feature immediately. Start with one important website, confirm the result, and then expand the account.
1. Review your account and trial
- Confirm that you can sign in with the verified signup email.
- Open Settings > Account, then select Billing.
- Review the current plan, subscription status, and renewal or trial-end date.
- Confirm that the plan provides enough monitor slots and one-minute monitor slots for your intended setup.
New customer trials begin on Starter for 30 days. A payment method is required to begin the trial, but the Starter price is not charged at signup. Unless canceled, the trial renews as the monthly Starter plan.
2. Set your account contact and time zone
In Settings > Account > Account:
- Add the full name you want Uptime Basics Support to use.
- Select a verified account contact email.
- Optionally select a verified account contact phone number.
- Choose the dashboard time zone used to display incidents, logs, and account activity.
Changing the dashboard time zone changes displayed times only. Stored event timestamps and monitoring schedules are not changed.
3. Secure the account
In Settings > Account > Security:
- Use a unique password that meets the displayed password requirements.
- Set up two-factor authentication with a standards-compatible TOTP authenticator app.
- Save the manual setup key securely while completing two-factor authentication.
Uptime Basics does not currently provide backup codes. If access to the authenticator is lost, recovery requires a support-assisted identity review.
4. Verify notification destinations
In Settings > Account > Alerts:
- Add every email address that may receive monitor or account notifications.
- Request and enter the verification code for each address.
- Add and verify a phone number if SMS alerts are needed and the destination is in Canada or the United States.
- Select the primary email and phone destinations.
- Turn the account-wide Email and SMS alert controls on or off as required.
New monitors inherit these defaults. Each monitor can later use its own verified destinations and channel settings without changing other monitors.
5. Create one representative monitor
Return to the dashboard and select New Monitor:
- Enter a recognizable site name.
- Enter the complete public URL, including
https://. - Keep the five-minute interval unless the site requires faster detection and the plan provides an available one-minute slot.
- Keep the eight-second timeout for the first setup unless the healthy website consistently needs a different value.
- Keep Follow redirects enabled for ordinary websites.
- Review the inherited Email and SMS alert choices.
- Select Create Monitor.
New monitors use GET by default. Use HEAD only when the endpoint supports it and you intentionally want a header-only request.
6. Confirm the first result
The new monitor begins as Unknown while Uptime Basics processes its first checks.
- Wait for the monitor to become Up or, after outage confirmation, Down.
- Open the monitor card and review its status, response time, and Uptime Timeline.
- Open Detailed Logs to confirm the check time, HTTP status, latency, and any failure diagnosis.
- If the result is unexpected, review the diagnosis before changing accepted status codes, authentication, or request headers.
One failed check does not automatically mean a confirmed outage. Availability incidents require three failure cycles and confirmation from at least two of three monitoring regions.
7. Test notifications
Open the monitor's Alert Channels settings:
- confirm that Email and, if used, SMS are enabled for the monitor;
- confirm that the selected destinations are verified; and
- send a test alert.
A test alert uses the normal delivery queue, but it does not change the monitor's status or create an incident. Check Alert History to confirm whether it was queued, sent, delivered, delayed, failed, or suppressed.
8. Enable optional checks where useful
Optional checks are off by default:
- Slow Response Alerts identify successful responses that remain slower than the configured threshold for consecutive checks. They create performance incidents without marking the website Down.
- SSL certificate monitoring checks the monitored HTTPS hostname approximately once every 24 hours and can warn 30, 14, or 7 days before expiry.
- Domain expiry monitoring uses registration data approximately once every 24 hours and can warn 60, 30, or 14 days before expiry.
Enable these for business-critical domains after the main availability monitor is reporting accurately.
9. Decide whether to publish a status page
All plans can create a customer public status page, and a basic page does not require ownership verification.
Enable a page only when its monitor is reporting the result you expect. Domain ownership verification is required before using custom branding, analytics, or a custom status domain.
Review every enabled section before sharing the URL. Public pages intentionally exclude account information, alert destinations, saved authentication, custom-header values, full diagnostics, and Detailed Logs.
10. Add the remaining monitors gradually
Add additional websites after the first monitor and test alert are working:
- prioritize customer-facing and revenue-critical services;
- use clear names that support staff can recognize;
- monitor the specific public URL that represents the service;
- avoid creating duplicate URL and request-method combinations; and
- use the fastest interval only where faster detection provides meaningful value.
After setup, review the dashboard and active incidents regularly. Keep account contact information, verified destinations, and payment details current.