Frequently asked questions

Short answers to the questions customers ask most often, grouped by topic. Each answer links to the page with the full details. If your question isn't here, see Getting help.

Getting started#

Is there a free plan?#

Yes. The Free plan has no time limit and doesn't need a card. It includes monitors, email and chat alerts, a status page and unlimited team members. See Plans & limits for the current limits.

Can I try SutramX before paying?#

Yes: use the Free plan. It's free forever and needs no card. Upgrade when you need more. Upgrades take effect immediately.

Do I need to install anything?#

No. SutramX checks your services from its own probe network, so you don't install an agent, SDK or code. The exception is heartbeat monitors: your job calls a SutramX URL each time it runs. See Heartbeat & cron.

Why can't I create a monitor right after signing up?#

You need to verify your email first. Enter the 6-digit code from the verification email, or click the link in it. If the code has expired (codes last 15 minutes), click Send a new code. See the Quickstart.

Can I sign in with Google or GitHub?#

Yes. Use Continue with Google or Continue with GitHub on the sign-up or sign-in page. You can see linked accounts in Account settings → Connected accounts. See Sign-in & security.

Can I move my monitors over from another monitoring tool?#

Yes. The import wizard (Settings → Import from another tool) brings monitors over from UptimeRobot (API key or CSV export), Better Stack and Pingdom (API token) and Freshping (CSV or JSON export file), with a preview before anything is created. See Migrate from another tool.

Monitors and checks#

What can I monitor?#

You can monitor:

• websites over HTTP and HTTPS, with keyword rules;
• APIs with assertions;
• multi-step API flows;
• ping (ICMP);
• TCP and UDP ports;
• DNS records;
• remote MCP servers;
• cron jobs and background workers, using heartbeats;
• scripted user journeys in a real browser, with browser checks.

Multi-step API checks and browser checks depend on your plan. See Monitors overview.

How often can SutramX check my site?#

Intervals range from every 15 seconds to every 15 minutes. The fastest interval you can pick depends on your plan, and new monitors default to every 5 minutes. See Plans & limits.

Where are checks run from?#

Checks run from SutramX probe regions, currently Frankfurt, Arizona and Mumbai. Your plan sets how many regions each monitor can use, and you choose which ones in Check from or Locations. See Regions & confirmation.

Can I monitor an endpoint that needs authentication?#

Yes. HTTP and API monitors support Bearer token and Basic auth, custom request headers and a request body. Secrets you attach to monitors are encrypted at rest. Use a dedicated test account rather than a real customer's credentials. See HTTP & keyword monitors.

Can I check the page content, not just the status code?#

Yes. Set a Required keyword that must appear in the response, and Forbidden keywords that must not appear (for example, an error page served with status 200). API monitors also support assertions on the response. See HTTP & keyword monitors and API & multi-step checks.

Can I monitor servers on my private network or localhost?#

No. For security, checks to loopback addresses, cloud metadata endpoints and private network ranges are blocked. The target must be reachable from the public internet.

How do I allowlist SutramX in my firewall or WAF?#

Checks identify themselves with a user agent containing SutramX-Monitor. The current list of probe IP addresses is published at https://sutramx.com/bot. See Troubleshooting.

How do I monitor a cron job?#

Create a Cron job heartbeat monitor and add the heartbeat URL to your job. Call it with GET, POST or HEAD each time the job succeeds. Add ?status=fail to report a failure. The monitor fails if a call doesn't arrive on schedule plus a grace period.

0 * * * * /path/to/job.sh && curl -fsS -m 10 --retry 3 https://api.sutramx.com/heartbeat/<your-token> > /dev/null

See Heartbeat & cron.

Does SutramX monitor SSL certificates and domain expiry?#

Yes, on any HTTP or API monitor, on every plan. In the monitor's Domain & SSL card, tick Email me before the certificate or domain expires and choose how many days ahead (1–90). Reminders repeat as the date gets closer. See SSL & domain expiry.

What does "Degraded" mean?#

The monitor answered, but either it was slower than your Degraded above (ms) threshold or a check failed that hasn't been confirmed. Degraded shows in amber and never opens an incident on its own. See Core concepts.

Why does my new monitor say Pending?#

Pending means no check result has been recorded yet. It usually changes within moments. To check straight away, open the monitor and click Run check now.

Alerts#

Why didn't I get an alert for a single failed check?#

SutramX confirms a failure before alerting. A failed check is retried in the same region, and it must fail as many times in a row as the monitor's Failure threshold. On paid plans, which check from more than one region, enough regions must also agree. This filters out brief network problems. See Regions & confirmation.

Which alert channels are supported?#

The following channels are supported:

• email and browser push;
• Slack, Discord, Microsoft Teams, Google Chat, Mattermost and Telegram;
• webhooks, Zapier and GitHub issues;
• PagerDuty and Opsgenie;
• SMS, WhatsApp and voice calls.

Some channels are only on paid plans. See How alerting works.

Who gets alerts by default?#

The workspace owner's verified email gets alert emails for every monitor. Chat channels you connect receive alerts for all monitors unless you change their Routing.

My teammate joined the workspace but isn't getting alerts. Why?#

Joining a workspace doesn't add you to alerts. Add the teammate in Alerts → Recipients, to a monitor group's emails, or to an escalation policy. See Email & push.

Can I send alerts to someone who isn't on my team?#

Yes. Add their address in Alerts → Recipients. They receive a confirmation email and only get alerts after they click Yes, send me alerts. Every alert email includes an unsubscribe link.

Will I be told when the service recovers?#

Yes. A recovery alert goes to the same places as the down alert, as long as the down alert was delivered. Recovery uses the Recovery threshold so one lucky check doesn't close an incident early. You can turn recovery emails off in Alerts → On-call & escalation → Notification Preferences.

Can I connect two Slack channels?#

Yes. You can connect several channels of the same kind and route each to different monitors or groups with Routing.

How do SMS, WhatsApp and voice alerts get billed?#

They use alert credits. Paid plans that include these channels come with a monthly allowance, and you can buy extra credit packs on Plans & billing → Billing. See Alert credits.

How do I stop alerts during planned work?#

Schedule a maintenance window in Incidents → Maintenance. Down alerts are held back during the window, and the time doesn't count against uptime. For recurring quiet periods, use Quiet Hours & Deployment Windows in Alerts → On-call & escalation. See Maintenance windows.

Incidents#

When does an incident open and close?#

An incident opens when a failure is confirmed. It resolves automatically when the monitor passes its recovery checks. You can also resolve it yourself on the incident page with an optional note. See Incidents.

What does acknowledging an incident do?#

It shows your team that someone is handling it and stops further escalation steps. If you use PagerDuty or Opsgenie, the acknowledgement is passed on to them as well.

Can I write a postmortem?#

Yes. Resolved incidents have a Postmortem section. On plans that include it, AI can draft one for you to edit. See AI incident assist.

Status pages#

How do I create a status page?#

Go to Status pages → New status page, enter a Page title, then add monitors under Components. New pages are published straight away. See Status pages overview.

Can I use my own domain for the status page?#

Yes, on Growth and Pro. Set it in the page's Custom domain panel. See Branding & custom domains.

Can I make a status page private?#

Yes. Password protection is available from Growth, and single sign-on protection on Pro. See Private pages & SSO.

Can visitors subscribe to updates?#

Yes. Visitors can subscribe by email (they confirm by email first) or follow the page's Atom/RSS feed. See Subscribers & updates.

Team and account#

How many team members can I add?#

As many as you like. Team seats are unlimited on every plan.

What roles are there?#

There are two roles. Owner: one per workspace, who manages members, billing, API keys, alert channels and alerting settings. Member: works with monitors, incidents and status pages. See Team members & roles.

Can I belong to more than one workspace?#

Yes. Accept an invitation to another workspace, then switch between them with Active workspace in the sidebar. See Workspaces.

Do you support two-factor authentication?#

Yes. In Account settings → Security, set up an authenticator app or email codes. You also get backup codes, and you can choose to remember a device for 30 days. See Sign-in & security.

How do I delete my account?#

The workspace owner can delete the workspace in Account settings → Danger zone. Nothing is erased for 30 days, and you can sign in and choose Cancel deletion during that time. If you don't own any other workspace, your account is deleted too.

Plans and billing#

What happens if I hit my plan's monitor limit?#

You can't create more monitors until you delete some or upgrade. SutramX doesn't charge for overage.

Can I change plans at any time?#

Yes. Upgrades take effect immediately and are prorated. Downgrades take effect at the end of the period you've paid for. See Upgrade, downgrade & cancel.

What happens when I cancel or downgrade?#

You keep your current plan until the end of the paid period, then move to the new plan, or to Free if you cancelled. Monitors over the new limit are paused, not deleted. Your oldest monitors stay active, and you can choose which ones run on Billing. Upgrading again resumes them.

How do I pay, and in which currency?#

Your currency is chosen automatically from your location: INR through Razorpay in India, USD through Dodo Payments everywhere else. There is no currency switch, and the currency is fixed after your first payment. Prices include all applicable taxes (GST, VAT and other local sales taxes). You can pay monthly or yearly. See Payments & invoices.

Data and security#

How long is check data kept?#

Raw check results are kept for 90 days on every plan. Daily uptime history is kept for 90 days on Free, 12 months on Starter and 24 months on Growth and Pro; if a paid plan ends, its longer history is kept for 30 more days. See Data, retention & security.

How are my credentials stored?#

Secrets attached to monitors and integrations are encrypted at rest with AES-256-GCM. Passwords are stored as salted hashes. See Data, retention & security.

Can I export my data?#

Yes. The workspace owner can export workspace data from Account settings → Danger zone or Team members. You can also export incidents as CSV or JSON, and a monitor's check history as CSV. See Reports & exports.

Is there a CLI, Terraform provider or MCP server?#

Yes, all three. The CLI keeps monitors in a sutramx.yml file (and runs in CI through the GitHub Action), the Terraform provider sutramx/sutramx is on the Terraform Registry, and the MCP server lets AI assistants read and manage your monitoring. Each needs an API key. Everything they do is also available from the REST API.