There's a particular kind of dread that hits when a user DMs you "hey, is your app down?" You check the URL. Yep. Down. For how long? Who knows. When did it go down? Mystery.
If you've been there, you know the feeling. And if you haven't — you will.
Uptime monitoring means you get the alert, not your users. In this tutorial, I'll show you how to set up monitoring for your Node.js app in about 5 minutes using Vigilmon — a free uptime monitoring service. We'll also wire up a webhook so you can pipe those alerts directly to Slack or Discord.
What is Vigilmon?
Vigilmon is a lightweight uptime monitor that pings your endpoints every minute and alerts you when something goes wrong. It supports HTTP/HTTPS checks, TCP port checks, email and webhook alerts, and public status pages. The free tier gets you up to 10 monitors — enough to cover most side projects and small production apps.
