PingMonitor

Stop guessing if your services are down. Get instant alerts when they go offline.

What Is This?

PingMonitor is a straightforward uptime monitoring tool that watches your URLs and APIs around the clock. Every 60 seconds, it pings each of your monitored services, logs response times and status codes, and emails you the moment something goes wrong without spamming you with duplicate alerts.

Think of it as a lightweight alternative to paid uptime monitoring services, completely open source and ready to run on free tiers (MongoDB Atlas, Resend, Render, Netlify).

Getting Started in 5 Minutes

Clone the repo, install dependencies, and run both the backend and frontend locally:

git clone https://github.com/omjaisatya/PingMonitor.git
cd PingMonitor

# Terminal 1: Start the backend
cd server
npm install
npm run dev

# Terminal 2: Start the frontend
cd ../client
npm install
npm run dev

# Open http://localhost:5173 in your browser

That's it. You're ready to create your first monitor.

Table of Contents

• How It Works
• Features at a Glance
• Tech Stack
• Full Setup Guide
• Environment Variables
• API Endpoints
• Cron Workflow
• Data & Storage
• Contributing

How It Works

Backend: A scheduled cron job wakes up every 60 seconds, checks all your active monitors in parallel, records the results, and fires off email alerts if anything changed status from up → down.

Frontend: A clean React dashboard lets you manage monitors, view uptime, and toggle monitoring on/off without ever touching a terminal.

Features at a Glance

Secure Authentication: JWT-based login with bcrypt password hashing
Real-Time Monitoring : Concurrent pings every 60 seconds with 10-second timeouts
Detailed Logging : HTTP status codes, response times (ms), exact timestamps
Smart Alerts : Email notifications only on status changes (no spam)
Auto Cleanup : Delete a monitor, and all its logs disappear with it
Auto Data Purge : Logs older than 7 days are automatically removed
Free & Open Source : Run entirely on free tiers; no credit card needed

Tech Stack

Component	Technology
Frontend	React.js + Vite + Axios + React Router
Backend	Node.js + Express.js + MongoDB (Mongoose)
Authentication	JWT + bcryptjs
Scheduler	node-cron
Email	Resend

All services used are free tier with no credit card required (except MongoDB Atlas, which is genuinely free up to 512 MB).

Additional technologies and frameworks will be integrated in the future. Please refer to the actual repository for the latest stack.

Full Setup Guide

Prerequisites

• Node.js v18+ - Install here
• MongoDB - Either local or free cloud via MongoDB Atlas
• Resend Account - For email alerts via Resend

1. Clone & Navigate

git clone https://github.com/omjaisatya/PingMonitor.git
cd PingMonitor

2. Set Up the Backend

cd server
npm install

Create a .env file in the /server directory (see the Environment Variables section below), then start the development server:

npm run dev

You should see:

Server running on http://localhost:<your-PORT>
Connected to MongoDB

3. Set Up the Frontend

Open a new terminal, then:

cd client
npm install
npm run dev

Navigate to http://localhost:5173 in your browser. You should see the PingMonitor login page.

4. Create an Account & Start Monitoring

• Sign up with any email and password
• Click "Create Monitor" and add your first URL (e.g., https://google.com)
• Watch the dashboard update as monitors are pinged
• You'll receive email alerts when services go down

Environment Variables

Copy .env.example to .env in each directory and fill in your values. All services are free tier.

Backend (.env)

Variable	Example	Notes
PORT	5000	Express server port
MONGO_URI	mongodb+srv://user:pass@cluster.mongodb.net/pingmonitor	MongoDB Atlas connection string
JWT_SECRET	your-random-secret-key-here	Keep this private; used to sign JWTs
RESEND_API_KEY	re_xxxxxxxxxxxxxx	Get from Resend Dashboard
SENDER_EMAIL	noreply@yourdomain.com	Must be verified in Resend
NODE_ENV	development	Set to production when deployed
FRONTEND_URL	http://localhost:5173	Where your React app runs

Email Setup: By default, PingMonitor uses Resend. If you prefer SMTP (e.g., Gmail, other mail provider), see ./docs/nodemailer-setup.md.

Frontend (.env)

Variable	Example	Notes
VITE_SERVER_URL	http://localhost:5000 or https://api.yourdomain.com	Full URL of your backend
VITE_APP_TITLE	PingMonitor	Title shown in browser tab

API Endpoints

All endpoints except /auth/signup and /auth/login require:

Authorization: Bearer <your-jwt-token>

Authentication (No Auth Required)

Method	Endpoint	Purpose
POST	/api/auth/signup	Create a new account
POST	/api/auth/login	Log in and receive JWT

Monitor Management (Auth Required)

Method	Endpoint	Purpose
POST	/api/monitors	Create a new monitor
GET	/api/monitors	List all your monitors
GET	/api/monitors/:id	Get details of one monitor
PUT	/api/monitors/:id	Update monitor settings
PATCH	/api/monitors/:id/toggle	Turn monitoring on/off
DELETE	/api/monitors/:id	Delete monitor + all logs

For request/response examples, see ./docs/apiReference.md.

Cron Workflow

The following diagram describes the backend ping cycle, which runs every 60 seconds:

Every 60 seconds
      │
      ▼
Fetch all active monitors from DB
      │
      ▼
Ping each URL concurrently (10s timeout)
      │
      ├── 2xx / 3xx  →  status: "up"
      └── 4xx / 5xx / timeout / error  →  status: "down"
                              │
                              ▼
                  Was previous status NOT "down"?
                        │               │
                       Yes              No
                        │               │
                  Send email alert   Skip (already notified)
      │
      ▼
Save log entry + update monitor status

This approach ensures you get notified immediately when something breaks, but not spammed if it stays broken.

Data & Storage

How Long Are Logs Kept?

• Retention period: 7 days
• Scope: Only ping logs are purged; monitor configurations and user accounts persist forever
• Why 7 days?: It's enough time to spot trends and patterns in uptime without consuming too much storage (important for the free MongoDB Atlas tier)

Automatic Cleanup

• Delete a monitor → All its associated logs are deleted immediately
• Logs older than 7 days → Automatically removed every day via MongoDB TTL index

This keeps your database lean and your dashboard snappy.

Deploying to Production

Backend (Render)

1. Push your code to GitHub
2. Create a new Web Service on Render.com
3. Connect your GitHub repo
4. Add the environment variables from .env
5. Deploy (Render auto-rebuilds on push)

Frontend (Netlify)

1. Build the React app: npm run build in /client
2. Deploy the dist/ folder to Netlify (drag & drop or connect GitHub)
3. Set VITE_SERVER_URL to your Render backend URL in Netlify's environment variables

Contributing

Contributions, bug reports, and feature requests are welcome. Please open an issue before submitting a pull request so the proposed change can be discussed first.

Author

Built and maintained by @omjaisatya.Licensed under MIT.