Welcome to UpSiteDown, the simple, accessible website monitoring solution without limits.
If you're a webmaster, you want to ensure that your website(s) are always running at peak performance. Website outages can be very frustrating and stressful, and for business websites, devastating to both company finances and customer reputation!
Website monitors are a great way to keep track of the status of your website(s) in real time. However, most of them require you to create an account on some online service, they can cost a lot of money if you don't want feature limits, and they can potentially be somewhat confusing or completely inaccessible to blind people; yes, blind people can run websites too!
What if there was a solution that didn't require any personal data, was completely free, could monitor an unlimited number of sites, could give status alerts in either speech or braille, and could be controlled from any program on your computer? Introducing... UpSiteDown!
UpSiteDown is a powerful, customisable, accessible, limitless website monitoring tool for Windows that can provide status alerts for any number of websites. All you need to use UpSiteDown is a Windows PC, a sound card, an optional braille display, and a text file containing a list of the sites you want to monitor.
UpSiteDown requires at least Windows 7 or higher in order to run. Both 32-bit and 64-bit Windows editions are supported. You must have a compatible screen reader and braille display for braille output mode to work. See your screen reader's documentation for compatible braille displays and setup instructions.
Here are the instructions for running UpSiteDown from its source code on Windows.
- The highest recommended Python version is 3.13; you can download it here. This installer is for a modified version of Python 3.13 that keeps Windows 7 support alive.
- Download and install Git for Windows
- Install Python by following the on-screen prompts. Python installation is not covered in this readme, however, please note that having Python added to your environment variables is highly recommended.
- Press Windows + R, type cmd, and hit Enter to open a command prompt.
- Clone this repository with git.
git clone https://github.com/seediffusion/UpSiteDown.git
- Create a virtual environment. This creates a separate workspace for the project's dependencies, isolated from your main Python install.
cd UpSiteDown
python -m venv venv
- Activate the virtual environment.
venv\scripts\activate
- To avoid library installation errors, ensure you have the highest versions of pip, setuptools and wheel.
python -m pip install --upgrade pip setuptools wheel
- Install the required libraries.
pip install -r requirements.txt
- Finally, you should now be able to run the program.
python UpSiteDown.py
The highest version of UpSiteDown is Theakston V 2.2, compiled on Monday, October 27th, 2025. The below link will allow you to download the latest pre-compiled release. UpSiteDownload
UpSiteDown is a portable program, meaning everything the program needs to run is stored inside a single folder. all you have to do is extract the UpSiteDown.zip file to a location of your choice using a zip archiver like 7-Zip. To start the program, simply launch the UpSiteDown.exe file. If Windows isn't set up to show file extensions, you won't see the .exe part.
When you launch UpSiteDown for the first time, a dialog will appear asking you to enter a website URL. This URL will be stored inside a file called sites.txt, housed in the UpSiteDown program folder. You can add more URLs to this file at any time, either by using the hotkey, Windows+Shift+Control+S by default, or by manually locating and opening the sites.txt file. You don't have to specify the protocol, such as http:// or https://, you can just put in the site's hostname. If no protocol is supplied, the program will assume HTTP and redirect accordingly.
When the program starts, you will hear 'Site monitoring is ready'. It will then sit quietly in the background, monitoring your chosen websites for any status changes. The program won't hog your system tray or task bar; you may even forget that it's running at all! That is, until one or more of your sites dies.
All your program settings are stored inside a file called opts.ini, which is generated automatically upon first launch. This file can be opened in any text editor, or by using the hotkey, Windows+Shift+Control+O by default.
There are 18 hotkeys you can use in UpSiteDown. Of course, with every Seediffusion program that uses hotkeys, you have the power to modify these hotkeys at any time. These hotkeys are global, meaning they can be used from anywhere within the Windows OS.
- Windows+Shift+Control+W: get all the websites being monitored.
- Windows+Shift+Control+U: get the sites that are up.
- Windows+Shift+Control+D: get the sites that are down.
- Windows+Shift+Control+T: toggle between 4 output modes. SAPI 5 speech, screen reader speech, screen reader speech and braille, and braille only. SAPI 5 speech is the default setting.
- Windows+Shift+Control+A: toggle on and off the program's site up, site down and error sound events.
- Windows+Shift+Control+S: open sites.txt in your default text editor.
- Windows+Shift+Control+O: open opts.ini, the program's configuration file, in your default text editor.
- Windows+Shift+Control+P: Check for updates.
- Windows+Shift+Control+V: View outage report file.
- Windows+Shift+Control+E: delete outage report file.
- Windows + Shift + Alt + K: Set your API key for Prowl notifications.
- Windows + Shift + Alt + L: Toggle Prowl notifications on and off.
- Windows + Shift + Alt + M (Mike): Set your ntfy topic and server.
- Windows + Shift + Alt + N (November): Toggle NTFY notifications on and off.
- Windows + Shift + Alt + I: Set your user key and API token for pushover.
- Windows + Shift + Alt + U. Toggle Pushover notifications on and off.
- Windows+Shift+Control+Y: restart the program. Useful if your sites or settings files have been modified.
- Windows+Shift+Control+X. Kill the program completely.
This controls how the program outputs information. Valid values for this setting are:
- SAPI 5 speech. The program pipes through SAPI 5, the text to speech synthesizer built into Windows XP and higher, using the currently selected system voice.
- Screen reader speech. The program speaks through a screen reader, such as NVDA or JAWS.
- Screen reader speech and braille. The program provides both speech and braille output through the screen reader.
- Braille only. The program only outputs to a braille display.
The default setting is 1. Note: modes 3 and 4 require a compatible screen reader and braille display for braille output to work. See your screen reader's documentation for compatible braille displays and setup instructions. Don't worry, if you use mode 3 and you don't have a braille display, you will still get speech output through the screen reader.
This is the time to wait between website checks. Set this to 0 for true realtime monitoring. Note, however, that doing this can cause heightened CPU usage. The default setting is 60 seconds.
This controls how long the program waits for a reply from a website before calling it down. The default is 15 seconds.
On by default, this setting controls whether the program plays sounds for site status changes and program errors.
When you're done modifying settings, save the file and close your text editor. If UpSiteDown is running, restart it using the restart hotkey so your new settings are applied properly.
When a site comes back up, UpSiteDown will generate a report of the outage. These reports are written to a file called outage.txt, housed within the UpSiteDown program folder. You can access this file at any time with the Windows+Shift+Control+V hotkey by default, and delete it with Windows+Shift+Control+E.
Outage reports contain the following information:
- Date and time: the exact date and time the site went down.
- Affected site: the site that went down.
- Reason: why the site was declared down.
- Outage duration: how long the site was down for.
Starting with UpSiteDown V2 Theakston, you can use the program to monitor other types of servers that aren't websites, such as FTP servers, game servers, or any other servers that don't use web ports. You can do this in 2 ways.
- Starting a URL in the sites.txt file with icmp:// will cause UpSiteDown to monitor the server by sending ping requests, similar to how you would run the ping command to send a ping to a host to check if it's working.
- URLs that start with tcp:// will cause the program to try to connect to the server on any given port via a standard TCP request. For example, tcp://hostname_or_IP_address:25255 means UpSiteDown will monitor that server on port 25255.
As well as notifying you of site status changes via speech and braille, UpSiteDown Theakston has the ability to send push notifications to your iOS device via the Prowl service. This means you can get notified of status changes even if you're away from the machine on which UpSiteDown is running. Both the Prowl app and website are very accessible with Screen readers and Prowl is very easy to set up and use.
- Visit the Prowl registration page.
- Fill in your username, your password, and optionally your email address, then click Register.
UpSiteDown uses Prowl's free-to-use API, so you will need an API key for UpSiteDown to authenticate with Prowl.
- Log into your Prowl account
- Go to the API keys page.
- Under current API keys, you will see all the API keys you have generated. To get a new API key, enter an optional note that will help you identify the key, then click Generate Key.
- Find the long string of letters and numbers that is your newly generated API key, press Shift + Down Arrow to select it, and Control + C to copy it to the clipboard.
- Launch the program if it isn't already running.
- Press Windows + Shift + Alt + K, or your chosen hotkey, to bring up a text box where you can paste your Prowl API key. If you're not focused on this text box right away, Alt Tab until you find it.
- Paste your API key into the box and hit Enter.
- Press Windows + Shift + Alt + L, or your chosen Prowl toggle hotkey, to turn on Prowl notifications. You cannot enable Prowl notifications without an API key, so UpSiteDown will first verify your API key with Prowl before enabling the feature.
- Buy the Prowl iOS app from the app store for £2.99.
- Launch the app and log in with your Prowl account credentials.
- Allow Prowl to send notifications when prompted
- You are now ready to receive push notifications to your device via Prowl!
In addition to Prowl, UpSiteDown can also integrate with a free, cross platform, open source and self-hostable push notification service called NTFY, pronounced 'notify'. NTFY works on iOS, Android and the web. Both the sending API and receiving client applications are free of charge, and anyone is allowed to host their own NTFY server.
- Launch UpSiteDown if it isn't already running.
- Press the NTFY topic hotkey, Windows + Shift + Alt + M (Mike) by default.
- In the NTFY topic text box that pops up, enter a topic of your choice. A topic is simply a channel on which notifications are sent and received. Note that NTFY topics are public, meaning anyone who subscribes to that topic can receive notifications on it. Be sure to choose a topic that only you will know and remember.
- Another text box will pop up where you can enter the URL of an NTFY server. You can simply leave this field blank to use the default ntfy.sh server. However, if you know of a custom NTFY server, or you're hosting your own, enter its URL here.
- Press the NTFY toggle hotkey, Windows + Shift + Alt + N (November) by default, to enable NTFY notifications.
- Download and launch the NTFY app from either the iOS App Store or the Google Play Store.
- On iOS, tap the 'Add' button at the top of the screen. On Android, tap the 'Add Subscription' button at the bottom of the screen.
- Enter the same topic name as you entered in UpSiteDown.
- If you're using a server other than ntfy.sh, check the 'use a custom server' box and enter the address of your NTFY server.
- On Android, be sure to check the 'Instant delivery in doze mode' box. This ensures that notifications are received without the app being physically open.
- Tap the 'Subscribe' button
You're now all set to receive site status notifications via NTFY!
If you don't like the sound of Prowl or NTFY, Pushover is your third option. Like NTFY, Pushover is cross platform, running on both iOS and Android devices. Unlike NTFY, however, it is not free, open source or self-hostable, and is somewhat more involved than both solutions. Pushover's API allows for 10000 calls a month for free, and the receiving apps cost a one-time purchase £4.99 per device platform. This means if you install the app on an iPhone, an iPad and a Samsung Galaxy, that's £9.98, or 2 payments of £4.99.
- Download the Pushover app either iOS or Android.
- When you first launch the app, you will be at the account creation screen. Enter your email address and a strong password and click create account.
- Click the link in the email sent to your email address to verify your account.
- You will be asked to enter a name for the device that will be registered to your account. Enter a memorable name for your device and click add device. You will then have 30 days to try the app and all its features for free.
UpSiteDown needs 2 pieces of data to work with Pushover, your user key and an application token. Your user key is linked to your account, but you will need to create an app on the Pushover website to get an application token. To find your user key:
- Go to the login page on the Pushover website and log into your account.
- Under the 'Your User Key' heading, focus on the text field with your user key inside it, hit Control A to select all, then Control + C to copy it to the clipboard.
- Store it in a text file or a password manager for safe keeping.
To get an application token:
- Under the 'Your Applications' heading on the Pushover website, click create an application/API token.
- Enter a memorable name for your app and an optional description.
- Optionally, enter a URL, such as https://github.com/seediffusion/UpSiteDown, for the app.
- Check the box to agree to the terms of service and click create application.
- On the view application page, focus on the text field with the API token inside it, Control A to select all and Control C to copy.
- Store the API token in a text file or password manager for safe keeping.
- Launch UpSiteDown if it isn't already running.
- Use the Pushover user key hotkey, Windows + Shift + Alt + I by default, find your user key and paste it into the textbox that appears and hit Enter.
- Find your API token, paste it into the app token textbox and hit Enter.
- Use the Pushover toggle hotkey, Windows + Shift + Alt + U by default.
- You should now start to receive notifications on your mobile device(s) via Pushover when sites go up and down.
Although UpSiteDown and all other Seediffusion programs are free of charge, donations and contributions are appreciated, as they help keep Seediffusion alive and support the development of present and future Seediffusion projects. Here are the ways you can give your support:
If you can't give financial support, sharing around also helps. :)