Know when an important API stops responding.
API monitoring lets PingBeacons regularly check a public API endpoint, track its availability and response time, and record incidents when a problem is detected.
Use it for endpoints your application depends on, such as health endpoints, backend services, public APIs, or other important HTTP endpoints that should remain reachable.
1. Create an API monitor
Open your dashboard
Sign in to PingBeacons and choose the option to create a new monitor.
Select Website monitoring
API endpoints use the Website monitor type. Enter the HTTP endpoint you want PingBeacons to check.
Enter a recognizable name
Use a clear name such as Production API, Authentication API, or Application Health Endpoint.
Enter the complete endpoint URL
Use the public production endpoint you want PingBeacons to monitor.
https://api.example.com/healthSave the monitor
After the monitor is created, PingBeacons can begin checking the endpoint and recording its results.
2. Configure the HTTP request
When your effective plan includes Advanced HTTP Monitoring, a Website monitor can use GET, HEAD, POST, PUT, PATCH, or DELETE, include request headers and an optional body, and require a specific response status. GET and HEAD requests cannot include a body.
Response Content Checks can require text to be present or absent. These controls appear only when the effective plan includes them. Use endpoints that are safe to call repeatedly.
3. Choose the right endpoint
The endpoint should represent something meaningful about the service you want to monitor.
Health endpoint
A lightweight public health endpoint can provide a simple target for availability monitoring.
https://api.example.com/healthImportant service endpoint
You can monitor an endpoint that represents an important part of your application when that endpoint is safe to call repeatedly.
https://api.example.com/statusA monitoring request should not create orders, send emails, process payments, delete data, or perform another action each time it is called. Prefer a safe read-only endpoint.
4. The endpoint must be reachable
PingBeacons performs the check from outside your application, so the monitored endpoint needs to be reachable over the internet.
Public endpoint
A production endpoint that can be reached normally over HTTPS.
https://api.example.com/healthLocal endpoint
Localhost or private development addresses cannot be reached from the public internet.
http://localhost:8000/api/health5. What PingBeacons tracks
Availability
See whether the latest monitoring check succeeded or a problem was detected.
Response time
See how long the monitored API endpoint took to respond during a check.
Check history
Review previous monitoring results to understand how the endpoint behaved over time.
Incidents
Problems can be recorded as incidents so failures and recoveries remain visible in your monitoring history.
6. What happens when an API fails?
PingBeacons checks the endpoint
A monitoring request is sent to the configured API URL.
A problem is detected
If the check fails, PingBeacons records the failed result and the monitor can enter a problem state.
An incident is recorded
The incident provides a record of when the API problem was detected.
Notification
Depending on your notification preferences, PingBeacons can alert you about the incident.
7. API recovery
PingBeacons continues checking the endpoint after a failure. When a later check succeeds, the service can return to a healthy state and the active incident can be resolved.
The API becomes available
The underlying application, server, database, network, or other problem is resolved.
A later check succeeds
PingBeacons detects that the monitored endpoint is responding successfully again.
The incident is resolved
The recovery becomes part of the incident history.
You can receive a recovery alert
Recovery notifications are sent according to your notification preferences.
8. What should you monitor?
You do not necessarily need to monitor every endpoint. Start with services whose failure would have a meaningful impact on your users or application.
Main backend API
Monitor a health or status endpoint for your primary production backend.
Critical services
Add separate monitors when different services can fail independently and are important to your application.
9. API monitoring vs heartbeat monitoring
These monitor types solve different problems.
API monitoring
PingBeacons sends requests to your API to check whether the endpoint is available.
Heartbeat monitoring
Your cron job, backup, or scheduled task sends a request to PingBeacons after it runs successfully.