What Is Synthetic Monitoring?
Synthetic monitoring is a method where automated scripts periodically visit your website, simulate actions like page loading, searching, or purchasing, and record results. If the site goes down or slows down, the system alerts you.
In simple terms: a bot visits your site every 5 minutes and checks everything is healthy. If there's a problem, it notifies you immediately.
Synthetic vs Real User Monitoring (RUM)
RUM: Tracks real user behavior. Data is collected only when actual users visit.
Synthetic: Simulated virtual visitors. The site is checked even if no real users are present.
Both complement each other: synthetic finds availability issues earlier, RUM shows real user experience problems.
Why Synthetic Monitoring Matters
1. Early Outage Detection
Without monitoring, it might take hours or days to notice your site is down. You lose customers and damage your brand.
2. Response Time Measurement
Even if the site is up, if it's slow, users leave. Synthetic monitoring measures page load times for key pages.
3. Logical Issue Detection
Sometimes the site is up but a form doesn't work or the checkout page errors. Synthetic monitoring can test complex flows like purchases.
4. SLA Documentation
If you commit to uptime SLAs, synthetic monitoring produces reliable reports.
Synthetic Monitoring with Didka
Didka has a dedicated synthetic monitoring module:
- Open "Synthetic Monitoring" in Didka dashboard.
- Add your key pages (homepage, product page, checkout page).
- Set the check interval (e.g., every 5 minutes).
- In case of outage, alerts are sent via email or webhook.
- View uptime and response time history in the dashboard.
Pages You Should Monitor
- Homepage: Your storefront — must always be healthy.
- Product/Service pages: Revenue-generating pages.
- Checkout page: Most sensitive — every minute of downtime is direct financial loss.
- Main API: If you have a mobile app or external services.
- Contact form: If customers reach you through this.
Summary
Synthetic monitoring is cheap insurance for your website. With Didka, you can check key pages 24/7 and get alerts before customers notice outages. Start with Didka's free plan today.