Checks, locations & failure confirmation
How this is scored
What can be monitored and how reliably a failure is detected: HTTP(S) with status code and keyword checks, TCP and port, ping, DNS records, SSL certificate and domain expiry, cron jobs and heartbeats, multi-step API checks with assertions, browser or transaction checks of a login or checkout, the shortest check interval, the number and regions of probe locations, the re-check from a second location before an alert, timeouts and response time thresholds, and private locations inside the customer's own network.
0 — Runs no checks of its own; a status page or alerting tool that only receives signals from other monitors.
3 — HTTP checks of a URL at a fixed interval with an up or down result; keyword, SSL, cron and the probe locations are basic or not described.
5 — HTTP(S), keyword, TCP or port, ping and SSL expiry checks, cron or heartbeat monitoring, an interval of one minute or less, several named probe locations, a failure confirmed from a second location before alerting, and response times recorded per check.
8 — Multi-step API checks with assertions on headers and body, browser or transaction checks of a user flow, DNS and domain expiry checks, sub-minute intervals, probe locations listed by city with the confirmation logic documented, private locations or agents for internal services, and maintenance windows that pause checks.
10 — Coverage and accuracy a reliability team runs on: every check type above with code-based checks (for example Playwright or scripted tests) in version control, location-specific thresholds, false-positive handling and probe health published, and the detection method documented so a result can be reproduced.
The E-Commerce Operations Manager
Coverage is broad: HTTP(S) with a keyword check that counts the page as down when the string is missing, TCP, ping, DNS, SSL expiry with alerts up to 30 days out, domain expiry reminders, heartbeats, checks as often as every 30 seconds (with a constant option) from 43 locations in 30 countries selectable by continent, country or city, and a failure re-checked from additional servers before alerting — the captured pages give different figures for how many (four on the homepage, up to three in the API settings). What I found no public information on is a browser or transaction check that replays my checkout and payment flow — exactly what broke for six hours while the homepage answered 200 — or multi-step API checks with assertions and private probes inside our own network. 1 7 8 13 14