IsUp is a modern uptime monitoring service designed to compete directly with UptimeRobot. We aim to provide comprehensive website, API, and infrastructure monitoring with a superior developer experience, modern UI, and competitive pricing.

Target Launch: Q2 2026 Initial Market: Developers, DevOps teams, SMBs, Agencies

Problem Statement

Website downtime costs businesses money, reputation, and customers. While UptimeRobot dominates the market with 2.5M+ users, there are opportunities to capture market share through:

Modern Technology: Better real-time updates, faster UI, improved DX
Competitive Pricing: More generous free tier or better value mid-tier
AI-Powered Features: Predictive alerts, intelligent anomaly detection
Superior Integrations: Modern tools (Linear, Notion, etc.)
Better Analytics: Deeper insights into performance trends

Target Users

Primary Personas

1. Solo Developer / Indie Hacker

Runs side projects, SaaS apps
Needs basic uptime monitoring
Price-sensitive, uses free tiers
Values simplicity and quick setup

2. DevOps Engineer

Manages infrastructure for company
Needs API access, CI/CD integration
Values reliability, detailed alerts
Uses multiple monitoring tools

3. Agency / Freelancer

Manages multiple client websites
Needs white-label status pages
Wants to resell/include in services
Requires multi-tenant management

4. Small Business Owner

Has business-critical website
Limited technical knowledge
Needs simple, reliable monitoring
Wants peace of mind

Feature Requirements

Phase 1: MVP (Core Monitoring)

P0 - Must Have

Feature	Description	Priority
User Authentication	Sign up, login, password reset, OAuth (Google, GitHub)	P0
HTTP/HTTPS Monitoring	Check website availability, status codes	P0
Dashboard	View all monitors, current status, recent incidents	P0
Email Notifications	Alert on downtime/recovery	P0
Basic Response Time	Track and display response times	P0
Monitor CRUD	Create, edit, delete, pause monitors	P0
Uptime Statistics	Show uptime percentage over time	P0
Multi-region Checks	Verify from 3+ geographic regions	P0

P1 - Should Have

Feature	Description	Priority
Ping Monitoring	ICMP ping for network devices	P1
Port Monitoring	Check specific ports (SMTP, MySQL, etc.)	P1
Keyword Monitoring	Verify content presence/absence	P1
Slack Integration	Send alerts to Slack channels	P1
Webhook Notifications	Custom HTTP callbacks	P1
Public Status Pages	Basic hosted status page	P1
Mobile Responsive	Full functionality on mobile devices	P1

P2 - Nice to Have

Feature	Description	Priority
Discord Integration	Discord webhook notifications	P2
Telegram Integration	Telegram bot notifications	P2
Custom Check Intervals	Configure per-monitor intervals	P2
Response Time Alerts	Alert when response exceeds threshold	P2

Phase 2: Growth Features

Feature	Description
SSL Certificate Monitoring	Expiration alerts
DNS Monitoring	Detect DNS record changes
Domain Expiration	Renewal reminders
Heartbeat/Cron Monitoring	Monitor background jobs
Custom HTTP Requests	Headers, methods, body
Maintenance Windows	Pause during planned downtime
Team Management	Multiple users, roles
REST API	Full API for automation
Custom Status Page Domains	CNAME support
White-label Status Pages	Custom branding

Phase 3: Enterprise Features

Feature	Description
30-second Intervals	Fastest monitoring
Advanced Analytics	Performance trends, SLA reports
Incident Management	Root cause, postmortems
SSO/SAML	Enterprise authentication
Audit Logs	Activity tracking
Custom Integrations	PagerDuty, Opsgenie, etc.
AI Anomaly Detection	Predictive alerts
SMS/Voice Calls	Phone notifications
SLA Reporting	Automated SLA tracking

User Stories

Authentication & Onboarding

As a new user,
I want to sign up with my email or GitHub account,
So that I can quickly start monitoring my websites.

Acceptance Criteria:
- [ ] Can sign up with email/password
- [ ] Can sign up with Google OAuth
- [ ] Can sign up with GitHub OAuth
- [ ] Receive email verification
- [ ] See onboarding flow to create first monitor

As a returning user,
I want to log in securely,
So that I can access my monitoring dashboard.

Acceptance Criteria:
- [ ] Login with email/password
- [ ] Login with OAuth providers
- [ ] Password reset via email
- [ ] Remember me functionality
- [ ] 2FA support (Phase 2)

Monitor Management

As a user,
I want to create an HTTP monitor for my website,
So that I get alerted when it goes down.

Acceptance Criteria:
- [ ] Enter URL to monitor
- [ ] Select check interval (1min, 3min, 5min)
- [ ] Choose alert contacts
- [ ] Configure expected status codes
- [ ] Set timeout threshold
- [ ] Optional: Add custom headers
- [ ] Optional: Add keyword to check

As a user,
I want to see all my monitors in a dashboard,
So that I can quickly understand my system health.

Acceptance Criteria:
- [ ] List view of all monitors
- [ ] Show current status (up/down/paused)
- [ ] Show uptime percentage
- [ ] Show last check time
- [ ] Show average response time
- [ ] Filter by status
- [ ] Search by name/URL

As a user,
I want to view detailed information about a monitor,
So that I can investigate issues and trends.

Acceptance Criteria:
- [ ] Response time graph (24h, 7d, 30d)
- [ ] Uptime percentage over time
- [ ] Recent incident history
- [ ] Check results from each region
- [ ] Configure monitor settings
- [ ] View/edit alert contacts

Notifications

As a user,
I want to receive email alerts when my site goes down,
So that I can respond quickly to outages.

Acceptance Criteria:
- [ ] Email sent within 1 minute of detection
- [ ] Email includes: monitor name, URL, error details, time
- [ ] Email sent when site recovers
- [ ] Recovery email includes downtime duration
- [ ] Can configure notification delay (avoid flapping)

As a user,
I want to receive Slack notifications,
So that my team is immediately aware of issues.

Acceptance Criteria:
- [ ] OAuth flow to connect Slack workspace
- [ ] Select channel for notifications
- [ ] Customize message format
- [ ] Include monitor details and status
- [ ] Link to dashboard for details

Status Pages

As a user,
I want to create a public status page,
So that my customers can check service status.

Acceptance Criteria:
- [ ] Select monitors to display
- [ ] Customize page title and description
- [ ] Public URL (isup.dev/status/[slug])
- [ ] Show current status of each service
- [ ] Show uptime history (90 days)
- [ ] Show active/recent incidents
- [ ] Mobile responsive design

Technical Requirements

Performance

Metric	Requirement
Check Execution	< 5 seconds per check
Alert Delivery	< 60 seconds from detection
Dashboard Load	< 2 seconds
API Response	< 200ms (p95)
Uptime	99.9% availability

Scalability

Metric	Initial	Growth Target
Users	1,000	100,000
Monitors	10,000	1,000,000
Checks/minute	2,000	200,000
Data Retention	90 days	2 years

Security

HTTPS everywhere
Password hashing (Argon2)
API key authentication
Rate limiting
CORS protection
SQL injection prevention
XSS protection
Audit logging
SOC 2 compliance (Phase 3)

Pricing Strategy

Proposed Tiers

Plan	Price	Monitors	Interval	Key Differentiator
Free	$0	10	3 min	Generous for testing
Starter	$5/mo	25	1 min	Affordable entry
Pro	$15/mo	100	1 min	Best value mid-tier
Team	$39/mo	250	30 sec	Collaboration features
Enterprise	Custom	Unlimited	15 sec	Full features + SLA

Competitive Positioning

vs UptimeRobot:

Free: 10 monitors @ 3min vs 50 @ 5min (comparable value)
Starter: $5 for 25 vs $7-19 for 10-50 (better value at low end)
Pro: $15 for 100 vs $34 for 100 (significantly cheaper)
Differentiator: Modern UI, faster updates, AI features

Success Metrics

Launch Metrics (Month 1-3)

Metric	Target
Signups	500+
Active Users	100+
Monitors Created	1,000+
Paid Conversions	5%

Growth Metrics (Month 6-12)

Metric	Target
MAU	5,000+
MRR	$5,000+
Churn Rate	< 5%
NPS	> 50

Risks and Mitigations

Risk	Impact	Mitigation
UptimeRobot dominance	High	Focus on DX, modern features
Infrastructure costs	Medium	Serverless architecture, efficient design
False positive alerts	High	Multi-region verification, smart thresholds
Scaling challenges	Medium	ClickHouse for analytics, queue-based processing
Security breach	Critical	Security audits, penetration testing