A single uptime check asks one question: does this page answer? Most of what earns money sits a few steps further in. The product page loads, but the add-to-cart form posts to an endpoint that returns an error. The login page answers 200, but the session never starts. The checkout shows, but the payment step times out. Each page looks fine on its own; the journey is broken.
A flow monitor walks the journey the way a customer does, one step at a time, and checks every step on the way.
Steps you can use
- Open page: go to an address.
- Follow link: click a link by its text, such as “Checkout”.
- Submit form: fill in and send a form on the page. Hidden fields, such as security tokens, are kept.
- API request: GET, POST, PUT, PATCH or DELETE, with headers and a body, for API sequences.
- Click: a button or anything else by its text, in the real browser.
Every step can check the status code, a text the page must or must not contain, or JSON fields. The first step that fails stops the flow, and the incident tells you which step it was and what came back.
Values from one step, used in the next
Real journeys depend on what came before. Save a value from a step, such as an access token from a login response or an order id from a cart, and use it later as {{name}} in an address, a header, a body or a form field. Cookies carry over between steps automatically, so a login stays logged in.
Passwords and other secrets are sealed: encrypted with AES-256-GCM and never shown again in full, not even to you. Use a dedicated test account, and the credentials stay as safe as the rest of your configuration.
Plain requests or a real browser
By default, a flow runs as plain HTTP requests. That is fast, and it can run as often as every minute. Some sites need more: a cart built in JavaScript, a button that is not a link, a single-page app. Turn on “Run in a real browser” and the flow runs in a browser that executes JavaScript and clicks like a visitor. When a step fails, you get a screenshot of the page as it looked.
A real browser takes far more time than a request, so browser flows run at most every 15 minutes. Use plain requests where you can, and the real browser for the journeys that need it.
A checkout flow for northwind.shop
- Open the product page and check that it contains “Add to cart”.
- Submit the add-to-cart form.
- Follow the “Checkout” link and check for the order summary.
- Check that the payment step loads. If it does not, the flow fails here, and the incident shows step 4 with a screenshot.
Stop before anything is paid or sent. A flow that checks that the payment step loads catches most checkout outages without placing real orders. The live demo has a checkout journey like this one that you can open without signing up.
Login and API sequences
For a SaaS product, the journey that matters most is often the login. A flow can open the login page, submit the form with a sealed password, and check that the dashboard shows the test user’s name. For an API, chain the requests: get a token, create a test object with it, read it back and check a JSON field. The API monitoring checklist lists which sequences are worth covering.
Alerts with the evidence attached
A failing flow is confirmed like any other check: Uptimecheck checks from Stockholm, Sweden, and confirms every failure with a second check before an incident opens. The incident shows the failing step and its response, plus a screenshot when the flow ran in a real browser. Alerts go to email, Slack, Microsoft Teams, Discord, Google Chat, Mattermost, Telegram, PagerDuty, ntfy, Pushover, webhooks and push notifications on your phone.
Where flows fit
Keep single uptime monitors for the homepage and key endpoints, checked every minute, and add flows for the journeys that make money. Each flow counts as one uptime monitor: 15 on Start, 100 on Professional and 250 on Business. Online stores usually start with the checkout; see monitoring for online stores.
Plans start at €9 per month billed yearly or €12 billed monthly, excl. VAT. Compare limits on the pricing page, or start a 14-day free trial without a card.