Getting Started

Set up your first monitor in under 2 minutes. Create an account, add a cron task, and start receiving alerts.

Create Your Account

Go to control.unsparing.dev and click Sign Up
Enter your email and choose a password
Verify your email address
You're on the Free plan — no credit card required

Your dashboard loads immediately with zero monitors. Let's fix that.

Dashboard Overview

The dashboard shows your monitoring landscape at a glance:

Metrics overview — uptime percentage, average latency, cron success rate, SSL health
Recent alerts — the latest notifications across all monitor types
Quick actions — add new monitors, view investigation timelines

Add Your First Cron Task

Cron monitoring is the easiest way to start:

Go to Cron → Tasks and click Add Task
Enter the cron expression (e.g., 0 */6 * * * for every 6 hours)
Choose a name and optionally add a description
Set the expected schedule and grace period
Unsparing generates a unique ping URL
Add the ping URL to your cron job:

# Before your job runs
0 */6 * * * curl -s https://api.unsparing.dev/api/v1/ping/YOUR_PING_ID >> /dev/null 2>&1 && /path/to/your/script.sh

Unsparing will alert you if:

The cron job doesn't fire within the expected window (dead man's switch)
The ping URL isn't called
The job runs outside its schedule

Add a DNS Watcher

Go to DNS → Watchers and click Add Watcher
Enter the domain and record type (A, AAAA, MX, CNAME, TXT, NS)
Set expected values (e.g., yourdomain.com A → 1.2.3.4)
Choose how often to check (every 1 min, 5 min, 15 min, 1 hour)

Unsparing will alert you if:

A DNS record changes unexpectedly
A record is deleted
Propagation differs across resolvers

Add an SSL Monitor

Go to SSL → Monitors and click Add Monitor
Enter the hostname to monitor
Set warning thresholds (default: 30, 14, and 7 days before expiry)

Unsparing will alert you when:

A certificate is approaching expiry
A certificate is replaced (new fingerprint detected)
The certificate chain is invalid or incomplete

Add an Uptime Monitor

Go to Uptime → Monitors and click Add Monitor
Choose the type: HTTP/HTTPS or TCP
Enter the URL or host:port
Set the check interval (1 min, 5 min, 15 min)
Optionally configure expected status codes, response body patterns, and timeouts

Unsparing will alert you when:

The endpoint returns an unexpected status code
The response time exceeds the threshold
The endpoint is unreachable from multiple locations

Configure Alerts

By default, all monitors send alerts to your registered email. To add more channels:

Email

Email alerts are enabled by default. Configure additional emails in Settings → Notifications.

Slack

Go to Settings → Integrations → Slack
Click Connect Slack and authorize Unsparing in your workspace
Select the channel for notifications
Slack alerts include actionable buttons to acknowledge or investigate

Webhooks

Go to Settings → Integrations → Webhooks
Click Add Webhook
Enter the URL and select which events to forward
Unsparing sends POST requests with a JSON payload:

{
  "event": "monitor.failed",
  "monitor_type": "uptime",
  "monitor_id": "mon_abc123",
  "monitor_name": "Production API",
  "status": "down",
  "timestamp": "2025-05-18T10:00:00Z",
  "details": {
    "url": "https://api.example.com/health",
    "status_code": 503,
    "response_time_ms": 5230
  }
}