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Downdetector alternatives, compared honestly
Downdetector tells you something is down when lots of people report it at once. That is useful, but it is one signal. The sites below answer the same question in different ways: from user reports, from the official status page, from a live check of the site, or a mix. Here is what each one actually uses, taken from their own pages on 16 October 2026.
The short answer_
- One free page with every signal: Is It Up or Down reads the official status page, runs its own live check and shows user reports, with a free API and MCP server.
- Alerts about your vendors for an IT team: StatusGator, built on official status pages, with a free plan and paid plans.
- A quick ping of one website: IsItDownRightNow, or our website down checker.
- The most user reports, in the most countries: Downdetector itself.
Side by side
"Not stated" means we did not find it on the pages we checked, not that the feature does not exist.
| Is It Up or Down (this site) | Downdetector | StatusGator | IsItDownRightNow | DownForEveryoneOrJustMe | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| How it decides | The official status page where one exists, our own live check every few minutes, and reports from people. Carriers and internet providers: reports only. | User reports, compared with a baseline of typical reports for that time of day over the last six months. Status updates every four minutes. | Official status pages of the services you follow, plus "Early Warning Signals" from reported incidents, unusual traffic patterns and spikes in user activity. | A fresh check of the domain from its server, in real time, with the response time. | User reports, compared with the normal number of reports for that service at that time. |
| Official status pages | Yes, read live | Not stated | Yes, its core feature | Not stated | Not stated |
| Live check of the site | Yes, any website | Not stated | Website and ping monitors for your own list | Yes, any domain | Not stated |
| User reports | Yes | Yes, its core feature | Yes, users can submit outage reports | User comments | Yes, with problem type and country |
| Outage map | Yes, reports from the last 24 hours by state and city, plus a power outage map | Yes, a live map of problem reports | Not stated | Not stated | Not stated |
| Outage history | 90 days of daily uptime and problem periods per service, plus official incident write-ups | Problem reports over the last 24 hours | 1 month of data on the Free plan, up to 24 months on Enterprise | The last 10 automatic checks | Past outages with their duration |
| API and MCP | Free JSON API, no key (60 requests a minute), and a free MCP server with no sign-in | Business product, Downdetector Explorer, through sales. No public API stated | REST API and MCP server on every plan including Free; needs an account | Not stated | JSON API announced with a sign-up list for its launch |
| Price | Free, no account | No price shown for the public site; Downdetector Explorer for businesses through sales | Free plan (3 monitors, 10 alerts a month); paid from $79 a month, or $72 a month billed yearly | No price shown | No price shown; discloses affiliate links, sells advertising and takes donations |
Downdetector vs StatusGator
The two are built on different data. Downdetector counts problem reports from users and flags an incident when they are significantly above the usual level for that service and time of day, using a six month baseline. Its pages show a 24 hour chart of reports, the most reported problems and a live outage map, and it says it covers over 35,000 services in 72 countries. Downdetector is part of Ookla, and its business product, Downdetector Explorer, sends alerts based on customer reports.
StatusGator collects what providers publish on their official status pages, for more than 11,640 services by its own count, and adds Early Warning Signals that look at reported incidents, unusual traffic patterns and spikes in user activity. It is aimed at teams: alerts to Slack, Microsoft Teams, email and help desks, a status page of your own, a REST API and an MCP server. It has a free plan with 3 monitors and paid plans from $79 a month ($72 a month billed yearly).
In short: Downdetector shows what users are experiencing; StatusGator shows what providers say, with early warnings, and wires it into your tools.
Where this site fits
We put the signals side by side on one free page. Where a service publishes an official status page, we read it live. We also check the service ourselves every few minutes from Cloudflare's network, which gives the response time and 24 hour uptime on each page. People can report problems, and those reports drive the outage map. Mobile carriers and internet providers publish no status feeds, so their pages rely on reports and link to each provider's own outage checker.
Every service also has an outage history with 90 days of daily uptime, and major incidents get their own page in recent outages. Developers and AI agents can get the same data from the free status API and MCP server, with no key or sign-in.
Where we fall short: Downdetector covers far more services and countries, and with far more people reporting, small or regional problems can show up there sooner. StatusGator does much more for a team that needs alerts and its own status page. Use whichever answers your question fastest.
Frequently asked questions
What is a good alternative to Downdetector?
It depends on what you need. Is It Up or Down combines official status pages, live checks and user reports on one free page, with a free API and MCP server. StatusGator suits IT teams that want alerts about the vendors they depend on. IsItDownRightNow runs a quick live check of a single website. Downdetector itself is the largest, so for small regional outages its volume of reports is hard to beat.
What are some sites like Downdetector?
Sites that answer "is it down?" include Is It Up or Down, StatusGator, IsItDownRightNow and DownForEveryoneOrJustMe. They differ mainly in where the answer comes from: user reports, official status pages, live checks of the site, or a mix.
What is the difference between Downdetector and StatusGator?
Downdetector is built on user reports: it shows a problem when reports are well above the usual level for that service and time of day. StatusGator is built on official status pages: it collects what each provider publishes, adds early warnings from reports and traffic signals, and sends alerts to tools like Slack or Microsoft Teams. Downdetector shows no price for its public site, and its business product is sold through sales. StatusGator has a free plan and paid plans from $79 a month.
How does Downdetector decide something is down?
According to its methodology page, Downdetector calculates a baseline of typical problem reports for each service, based on the average for that time of day over the last six months, and only reports an incident when reports are significantly higher than that baseline. It shows one of three statuses (no problems, possible problems, problems) and updates every four minutes.
Is this site affiliated with Downdetector?
No. Is It Up or Down is independent and not affiliated with Downdetector, Ookla, StatusGator, IsItDownRightNow, DownForEveryoneOrJustMe or any service we track. Downdetector is a trademark of its owner.
Which outage checkers have a free API or MCP server?
Is It Up or Down has a free JSON API with no key and a free MCP server with no sign-in. StatusGator offers a REST API and an MCP server on every plan, including its free plan, once you have an account. DownForEveryoneOrJustMe has announced a JSON API with a sign-up list. For Downdetector, its pages describe a business product, Downdetector Explorer, sold through sales.
What is the best way to check if one website is down?
Use a live check: it requests the site right now and tells you whether it answered. Our website down checker and IsItDownRightNow both do this. A live check cannot see inside an app, so for big services also look at the official status page and recent user reports.
Why does a checker say a site is up when it does not work for me?
A live check only proves the site answered from the checker's network. It can still fail for you because of your internet connection, DNS, a VPN, your browser cache or your account. Try another device or switch between Wi-Fi and mobile data to find out.
Why do report-based checkers sometimes disagree with official status pages?
Companies often post on their status page minutes after people start noticing a problem, and some never post about small or regional issues. User reports react faster but can include problems on the user's side. That is why we show both where we can, with our own live check alongside.
Can I see past outages?
On this site, every service has an outage history page with 90 days of daily uptime and the problem periods we saw, plus write-ups of major official incidents. StatusGator keeps 1 to 24 months of data depending on the plan, DownForEveryoneOrJustMe lists past outages with their duration, and IsItDownRightNow shows its last 10 automatic checks.
Sources
Checked on 16 October 2026. Downdetector and DownForEveryoneOrJustMe showed our browser a bot check, so we read their pages through the Internet Archive copies listed. Prices are in US dollars as shown on the provider's site and may change.
- Downdetector methodology: downdetector.com/methodology/ (Archived 10 Sep 2026)
- Downdetector about us: downdetector.com/about-us/ (Archived 1 Sep 2026)
- StatusGator plans: statusgator.com/plans
- StatusGator status aggregation: statusgator.com/features/status-aggregation
- StatusGator Early Warning Signals: statusgator.com/features/early-warning-signals
- StatusGator MCP server: statusgator.com/integration/mcp_server
- StatusGator REST API: statusgator.com/integration/rest_api
- IsItDownRightNow home page: www.isitdownrightnow.com/
- IsItDownRightNow, a service page (YouTube): www.isitdownrightnow.com/youtube.com.html
- DownForEveryoneOrJustMe, a service page (Discord): downforeveryoneorjustme.com/discord (Archived 7 Oct 2026)
- DownForEveryoneOrJustMe API page: downforeveryoneorjustme.com/services/api (Archived 15 Oct 2026)
Downdetector is a trademark of its owner; this site is not affiliated. StatusGator, IsItDownRightNow and DownForEveryoneOrJustMe are the names of their respective owners' services, used here only to identify them. Is It Up or Down is independent and not affiliated with any of the sites or services mentioned.