The latest articles on DEV Community by Rehaan Khan (@rak2315). https://dev.to/rak2315 https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=90,height=90,fit=cover,gravity=auto,format=auto/https:%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Fuser%2Fprofile_image%2F3943539%2F0dff0c4d-d353-45dc-a268-c8b53856ab46.jpg https://dev.to/rak2315 en Rehaan Khan Thu, 21 May 2026 07:31:32 +0000 https://dev.to/rak2315/i-built-my-own-uptime-monitor-because-uptimerobot-felt-cluttered-heres-what-i-learned-5ed2 https://dev.to/rak2315/i-built-my-own-uptime-monitor-because-uptimerobot-felt-cluttered-heres-what-i-learned-5ed2 <h1> I built my own uptime monitor because UptimeRobot felt cluttered — here's what I learned </h1> <h2> The problem </h2> <p>I've been using UptimeRobot for a while. It works, but every time I opened it I felt like I was looking at a dashboard designed for enterprise teams. I just wanted to know: is my site up? If not, tell me. That's it.</p> <p>So I built my own.</p> <h2> What I built </h2> <p>PingBoard — uptime monitoring with public status pages. Monitors URLs on a schedule, sends alerts when things go down, and generates a clean shareable status page for your users.</p> <p>5 monitor types: HTTP, keyword, DNS, API, and heartbeat.</p> <h2> The stack </h2> <ul> <li> <strong>Next.js 14</strong> App Router + TypeScript</li> <li> <strong>Convex</strong> — backend, DB, cron jobs, realtime subscriptions</li> <li> <strong>Clerk</strong> — auth</li> <li> <strong>Resend</strong> — email alerts</li> <li> <strong>Lemon Squeezy</strong> — payments (Stripe isn't available in India)</li> <li> <strong>Framer Motion</strong> — animations</li> </ul> <h2> The interesting parts </h2> <h3> Realtime status pages without WebSockets </h3> <p>Convex's reactive queries mean the public status page updates instantly when a monitor goes down — no polling, no manual WebSocket management. Just a <code>useQuery</code> hook and it works.</p> <h3> The ping loop </h3> <p>A Convex cron fires every 30 seconds, finds monitors that are due for a check, and schedules individual check actions per monitor. Each check runs independently — one slow site doesn't block others.</p> <h3> Heartbeat monitoring </h3> <p>Instead of PingBoard pinging your service, your service pings PingBoard. Useful for cron jobs and background workers. If PingBoard doesn't hear from your job within the expected interval × 1.5, it opens an incident.</p> <h3> Payments from India </h3> <p>Stripe isn't available in India so I went with Lemon Squeezy. Acts as merchant of record — handles VAT, GST, tax compliance automatically. Checkout was live in a day.</p> <h2> What I'd do differently </h2> <ul> <li>Started with Convex from day one — initially considered Supabase but switched early and never looked back</li> <li>Underestimated how much time auth takes — Clerk saved probably 2 weekends</li> <li>Should have verified the Resend domain earlier (still in sandbox mode — alerts only reach verified addresses)</li> </ul> <h2> Where it is now </h2> <p>Live at <a href="https://ping-board-monitor.vercel.app" rel="noopener noreferrer">ping-board-monitor.vercel.app</a>. Free tier, no credit card. Built for myself, a friend convinced me to open it up.</p> <p>Would love feedback — especially from devs who've felt the same frustration with existing tools.</p> webdev nextjs buildinpublic saas