Grandma Always Said There isn't any Such Thing being a Free Lunch
Should you didn't listen to it from your grandmother you've likely heard it elsewhere. There's no such thing like a free lunch. The question you must ask yourself is, if a company has something of value that they could sell with a profit, why do they really just give it away at no cost? A lot of time, work, and investment get into quality website monitoring services and also the free ones being offered aren't listed as nonprofit organizations, so how are they making their funds? When you realize how these businesses make their cash, you realize free isn't free after all.
Oftentimes a "free" website monitoring service is a common commercially available package that the service will offer you to get you hooked. The idea is that once you find how vital the services are, but how much the "free" service is lacking, you'll upgrade with a paid service - usually in a higher price than had you started by trying to find a paid service all along.
Not every Services Are Created Equal
Now, suppose you do look for a website monitoring service that doesn't up-sell and the services really free. The real thing. A free service with no strings attached. What you should ask yourself again is, why is the service free? The facts lacking? Or what exactly is it adding? Do you want to or your website be bombarded with advertisements to aid the funding of the service? Or maybe the service is lacking in the features it provides, such as types of communication. For example, a website monitoring service that just notifies you of website downtime via email isn't going to do you much good if the email is down along with your site. You will need a website monitoring service that will alert you via not just email, but message and phone calls to appropriate personnel as well.
You also have to know how often your site will be checked for downtime whenever considering any web site monitoring service. Ideally you need your site checked every 60 seconds or less to make sure continuity of one's site's up-time. If your site is only checked for downtime every hour, in that case your site may potentially be down a complete 59 minutes until you are even made aware of a downtime issue.
Additionally, you want to make certain that website monitoring service you have has more than one server monitoring your website. If there is an electrical failure at one server location, there ought to be other server locations spread out to ensure that your site's monitoring will not be interrupted.
When you're looking at free website monitoring solutions, the possibilities that a free service provides your site with the comprehensive monitoring and level of technology required to truly protect your website from downtime are slim to none. Since website monitoring services are probably the few services that truly pay for themselves as time passes, shopping for such a service based on price alone is never a good idea. Rather than looking for something free, look for a service that will actually meet your site's needs and will monitor your site adequately.