Frequently Asked Questions
Got questions? We've got answers. If yours isn't here, open a support ticket.
Monitoring
What is a Monitor?
A "Monitor" is any single resource Pingniner watches for you. There are seven kinds: a Site, a Server, a Workstation, a Ping (ICMP), a Port (TCP service), a Heartbeat (such as a cron job), and an IP blacklist check.
Every one of them counts toward your plan's monitor limit, whichever kind it is. A Free plan's 5 monitors might be three sites, a server and a heartbeat — the split is yours to choose. See Plans & Limits.
What are the IP addresses used for monitoring?
| IP Address | Location |
|---|---|
| 188.245.213.134 | Nuremberg, DE |
| 172.104.164.22 | Singapore, SG |
| 172.236.20.110 | London, UK |
| 5.161.199.51 | Ashburn, US East |
| 45.79.123.163 | Mumbai, IN |
| 149.28.201.242 | Silicon Valley, US West |
| 135.181.249.45 | Helsinki, FI |
| 172.105.20.205 | Toronto, CA |
| 92.87.228.68 | Bucharest, RO |
If you are behind a restrictive firewall, these addresses should be allowlisted.
TIP
Allowlist all of them, not just the location you selected. It means you can move a monitor to a different location later without it immediately reporting false downtime.
These are the addresses our checks connect from. If you run the agent, it connects to ingest.pingniner.com on port 443 instead, and needs no inbound rules at all.
How often are my monitors checked?
It depends on your plan — from every 5 minutes on the free plan down to every 30 seconds on Business and Enterprise. See Plans & Limits for the full list.
Servers report every minute and workstations every hour, regardless of plan. Heartbeats use whatever schedule you tell them your job runs on.
How long is my data kept?
Check history is kept for 24 hours on the free plan and 30 days on all paid plans.
Incident records are kept permanently on every plan, which is why uptime reports and status page uptime figures can cover a full month even on free. See Plans & Limits.
Why did I get an alert when the site looked fine?
Almost always a brief blip that had recovered by the time you looked. Each trigger has an occurrences setting controlling how many consecutive failed checks are needed before an alert fires — the default is 3.
If you are getting alerts for problems that resolve themselves, raise occurrences rather than disabling the trigger.
Can I monitor a site that returns something other than 200?
Yes. Set Expected status code on the site monitor under Advanced. Any code from 0–999 is accepted.
My site returns 200 but is actually broken. Can Pingniner catch that?
Yes — use the Contains or Does not contain triggers on a site monitor. Point Contains at a string that only appears when the page is genuinely working. This catches error pages, empty results and stale maintenance notices that all return a perfectly healthy status code.
My site got slower but I was never alerted. Why?
The Response time trigger compares against an absolute number in milliseconds, so a fast endpoint can degrade badly and still sit well under it — 40 ms becoming 900 ms is a serious regression and nowhere near a 4,000 ms threshold.
Enable the Median response time trigger instead. It compares the last 15 minutes against the monitor's own 7-day median, so "slow" means slow for that monitor. It is enabled by default on monitors created recently; older monitors have it switched off, so turn it on from the monitor's Triggers tab. Paid plans only.
How do I stop alerts during planned maintenance?
Schedule a maintenance period on the affected monitors. Checks keep running and data is still recorded, but triggers and notifications are suppressed — and the window ends by itself, so nothing stays silenced by accident.
Which notification channels are supported?
Email, in-app, Pushover, Telegram, Slack, Microsoft Teams, Google Chat, Discord and custom webhooks. See Notification Channels for setup instructions for each.
SMS is not currently available to configure. To get alerts on a phone, use Pushover or Telegram.
Can I send alerts to Discord?
Yes. Create an incoming webhook on your Discord channel and paste the URL into the Discord field on your profile. Alerts arrive as a colour-coded embed with a link to the monitor. See Notification Channels.
The agent
Is the server/workstation monitoring agent open source?
Yes. For peace of mind the monitoring agent is open source and can be found on our GitHub page, here.
Which operating systems does the agent support?
Linux, Windows, macOS and BSD, on x64 and ARM64.
Do I need to install Node.js first?
No. The installer downloads its own Node runtime into the agent's directory. Nothing else on your system is modified.
What does the agent collect?
System metrics and hardware inventory — CPU, memory, disks, network, services, processes and Docker containers, plus hardware and OS details. It does not read file contents, logs, environment variables or credentials.
See What the Agent Collects for the complete list.
Does the agent need inbound firewall rules?
No. It only makes outbound HTTPS connections to ingest.pingniner.com on port 443. Servers behind NAT, on private networks or behind strict firewalls work fine.
Does the agent update itself?
No. Run update periodically — see Managing the Agent.
How do I remove the agent?
Run the uninstall command from Managing the Agent. Delete the monitor in Pingniner first if you are decommissioning the machine, otherwise the No Data trigger will page whoever is on its contact list.
Status pages
Can I use my own domain for a status page?
Yes, on every plan including Free. Point a CNAME at status-ssl.pingniner.com and the SSL certificate is issued automatically. See Custom Domain.
Can visitors subscribe to updates?
Yes. Subscriptions are double opt-in — visitors confirm by email before they receive anything, and every message carries a one-click unsubscribe link. See Reports & Subscribers.
Will my status page update itself during an outage?
If you turn on Auto updates, yes. Pingniner publishes an update when a service goes down and another when it recovers, using wording you control. See Services & Updates.
Account and security
How secure is Pingniner?
Protecting the data you entrust to us is our top priority.
- All connections use HTTPS, and the agent only makes outbound TLS connections.
- Passwords are stored hashed, never in plain text.
- Two-factor authentication is available on every account and we recommend enabling it.
- Payments are handled by Paddle as merchant of record — card details never reach Pingniner.
- The monitoring agent is open source, so you can verify exactly what it collects rather than taking our word for it.
Monitor keys used by the agent and heartbeat pings are unauthenticated credentials in a URL. Treat them like passwords and avoid pasting them into shared documents or tickets.
Is there an API?
Yes. The management API lists monitors, reads their history, uptime and alerts, and creates, updates, pauses and resumes them. Authenticate with an API token created under Account → API tokens. See the API Reference.
Monitors cannot be deleted through the API — deleting one also destroys its history, so it stays a decision a person makes in the interface.
You can also connect Claude Code and ask about your monitoring in plain language instead of writing HTTP calls.
Separately, the heartbeat ping URL reports scheduled jobs, and outbound webhooks push alerts into your own systems.
Can I add people who only receive alerts?
Yes — add them as contacts. Contacts cannot sign in, do not count toward your plan's user limit, and are unlimited on every plan. See Team & Contacts.
How do I delete my account?
There is no self-service deletion. Cancel any subscription in Billing, then open a support ticket requesting deletion.
Billing
Can I cancel at anytime?
Yes, you can cancel anytime. No questions asked, though we would very much appreciate some feedback on your way out.
How does the 14-day free trial work?
You can sign up for free to any of our plans and enjoy the full paid benefits for free for 14 days. If you do not subscribe to any of our paid plans, your account will automatically be placed on the free plan. You can subscribe to any of our plans inside our control panel.
What happens when my trial ends?
The trial converts to a paid subscription unless you cancel first. Cancel at any point during the trial and you are not charged.
What types of payment do you accept?
Pingniner accepts credit card payments (Visa, Mastercard, American Express) and PayPal.
Can I change plans for an existing account?
Yes. You can change plans yourself inside our control panel at any time. Changes are prorated.
What happens to my data if I downgrade or cancel?
Nothing is deleted. Free-plan limits apply from that point, so retention drops to 24 hours and older history is pruned. Monitors above the new limit keep running, but you cannot add more until you are back under the cap.
Does Pingniner.com collect VAT/Sales tax?
Pingniner.com is required to collect tax in several countries around the world. This tax is generally referred to as VAT (Value Added Tax), consumption tax, or sales tax. Prices listed on our website do not include tax.
If you have a valid EU business VAT number, add it in the billing portal — the reverse charge may apply.
Can I get a refund?
Open a support ticket and we will look at it.