How to Check if a Website Is Down: 7 Free Methods

A website isn't loading. Is it actually down, or is something wrong on your end? The answer depends on which method you use to check. A quick online tool works for a one-time check. Command line tools give you more detail. Automated monitoring means you never have to check manually at all.

This guide covers 7 methods, ordered from easiest to most advanced. Each one is free and takes less than a minute.

Quick Answer

If you just want a fast answer, use one of these:

For more detail on each method and when to use which one, keep reading.

Method 1: Check Status Radar for Major Websites

Best for: Checking if a popular service (Google, AWS, Stripe, GitHub, Shopify, etc.) is experiencing an outage.

Status Radar tracks the uptime of major websites and services in real time from locations around the world. Instead of checking one site at a time, you can see at a glance whether the service you depend on is having problems.

This is especially useful when you suspect a third party service outage is affecting your own application. If Stripe is down, your checkout will fail. If AWS is having issues, your hosted services might be affected. Status Radar lets you confirm this in seconds without Googling for status pages or scrolling through Twitter.

Method 2: Use a Ping Test for Any Website

Best for: Checking any URL, including your own site, a client's site, or any website not covered by Status Radar.

Our free ping test sends a request to any URL you enter and shows you the HTTP status code and response time. If the site returns a 200, it's up. If it returns an error (500, 502, 503) or doesn't respond at all, it's down or having problems.

This method is better than just loading the site in your browser because the ping test checks from an external server. If the site works from the ping test but not from your browser, the problem is on your end (DNS, network, VPN). If the ping test also fails, the site is genuinely down.

Method 3: Use an Online Status Checker

Best for: Quick "is it just me?" confirmation with a second opinion.

There are several free websites that check if a site is up or down from their servers:

These tools are useful for a one-time check but have limitations. They only check at the moment you ask, don't alert you when something goes down, and most check from a single location (so they can miss regional outages).

Method 4: Browser Checks (Rule Out Your Side)

Best for: Figuring out if the problem is your browser, cache, or local network.

Before assuming a site is down, rule out issues on your end:

Try Incognito Mode

Open a private/incognito window (Ctrl + Shift + N in Chrome, Cmd + Shift + N on Mac). This bypasses your browser cache, cookies, and extensions. If the site loads in incognito but not in your regular browser, the issue is a cached error page, a bad cookie, or a browser extension interfering.

Try a Different Browser

If the site doesn't load in Chrome, try Firefox (or vice versa). This rules out browser specific issues like corrupted local storage or extension conflicts.

Try a Different Network

Switch from Wi-Fi to mobile data on your phone and try the site. This is the most definitive browser side test. If it loads on mobile data but not on your Wi-Fi, the problem is your ISP, router, or local DNS. If it fails on both networks, the site is actually down.

Method 5: Check From the Command Line

Best for: Developers and system administrators who want detailed diagnostic information.

Command line tools give you more information than any online checker. Here are the four most useful commands.

curl: Check HTTP Response

The most direct way to check if a website responds and what status code it returns:

# Get just the HTTP status code:
curl -o /dev/null -s -w "%{http_code}\n" https://example.com

# Get the full response headers:
curl -I https://example.com

# Get status code + response time:
curl -o /dev/null -s -w "Status: %{http_code}\nTime: %{time_total}s\n" https://example.com

A status code of 200 means the site is up. Codes starting with 5xx (500, 502, 503) mean the server has a problem. A connection timeout or "could not resolve host" means the site is unreachable entirely.

ping: Check Basic Connectivity

Ping tests whether your computer can reach the server at all (ignoring HTTP):

# Send 4 pings:
ping -c 4 example.com

If you get responses, the server is reachable at the network level. If you get "Request timeout," the server is unreachable or blocking ICMP pings. Note: some websites block ping, so a failed ping doesn't always mean the site is down. Use curl to confirm.

traceroute: Find Where the Connection Fails

If a site is unreachable, traceroute shows you where in the network path the connection breaks:

# macOS/Linux:
traceroute example.com

# Windows:
tracert example.com

Each line shows a "hop" (a router between you and the destination). If the trace stops at a certain hop, the problem is at that point in the network. If it reaches the destination but the site still won't load, the issue is at the application level (web server, not network).

dig/nslookup: Check DNS Resolution

If curl returns "could not resolve host," the problem is DNS. Check if the domain resolves to an IP address:

# Check DNS with dig:
dig example.com

# Or with nslookup:
nslookup example.com

# Compare what your DNS returns vs Google's DNS:
dig example.com @8.8.8.8

If dig returns no answer or a different IP than expected, there's a DNS problem. This could be an expired domain, misconfigured DNS records, or a DNS provider outage. Check our domain expiry checker to verify the domain hasn't lapsed.

Method 6: Understand What the Error Code Tells You

Best for: When the site partially loads or shows a specific error page, and you want to know what it means.

If a website returns an error instead of loading, the HTTP status code tells you exactly what kind of problem it is:

If the site shows no error at all (just a blank page, a "can't reach this site" browser message, or a DNS error), the problem is either a DNS failure, a completely crashed server, or a network issue between you and the server.

Method 7: Set Up Automated Monitoring (The Permanent Solution)

Best for: Website owners who need to know the moment their site goes down, without checking manually.

Every method above is reactive. You notice something seems wrong, then you check. But what about the times you don't notice? What about downtime at 3 AM, on weekends, or during vacations?

Automated uptime monitoring checks your site continuously from multiple locations around the world. The moment it detects a problem, it sends you an alert. You go from "I wonder if my site is down" to "I got a text 2 minutes ago that it went down, and I'm already fixing it."

What Monitoring Gives You That Manual Checking Doesn't

• Instant alerts: Know about downtime in minutes, not hours. Get notified via email, SMS, Slack, or phone call.
• 24/7 coverage: Checks happen around the clock, including nights, weekends, and holidays.
• Historical data: See uptime percentages, response time trends, and incident history over time.
• Multi-location checks: Detect regional outages that a single-server tool would miss.
• Status pages: Give your users a public page where they can check your service status instead of emailing you. Learn more about status pages.

The progression is natural: you start by manually checking when something feels off, then you set up monitoring so you never have to wonder again.

Frequently Asked Questions