UptimeRobot
UptimeRobot •
Since 2010
Quick Actions
Official Docs
What is UptimeRobot?
UptimeRobot is one of the most popular website monitoring services, checking websites for uptime from multiple locations worldwide. The bot performs regular HTTP(S) requests to verify site availability and response times, alerting website owners when issues occur. With both free and paid tiers, UptimeRobot monitors millions of websites globally. The service can check different types of monitors including HTTP(S), ping, port, and keyword existence. For website owners, UptimeRobot provides peace of mind with instant notifications about downtime, helping maintain high availability.
User Agent String
Mozilla/5.0+(compatible; UptimeRobot/2.0; http://www.uptimerobot.com/)
How to Control UptimeRobot
Block Completely
To prevent UptimeRobot from accessing your entire website, add this to your robots.txt file:
# Block UptimeRobot
User-agent: UptimeRobot
Disallow: /
Block Specific Directories
To restrict access to certain parts of your site while allowing others:
User-agent: UptimeRobot
Disallow: /admin/
Disallow: /private/
Disallow: /wp-admin/
Allow: /public/
Set Crawl Delay
To slow down the crawl rate (note: not all bots respect this directive):
User-agent: UptimeRobot
Crawl-delay: 10
How to Verify UptimeRobot
Verification Method:
Check UptimeRobot's published IP addresses
Check UptimeRobot's published IP addresses
Learn more in the official documentation.
Detection Patterns
Multiple ways to detect UptimeRobot in your application:
Basic Pattern
/UptimeRobot/i
Strict Pattern
/^Mozilla/5\.0\+\(compatible; UptimeRobot/2\.0; http\://www\.uptimerobot\.com/\)$/
Flexible Pattern
/UptimeRobot[\s\/]?[\d\.]*?/i
Vendor Match
/.*UptimeRobot.*UptimeRobot/i
Implementation Examples
// PHP Detection for UptimeRobot
function detect_uptimerobot() {
$user_agent = $_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT'] ?? '';
$pattern = '/UptimeRobot/i';
if (preg_match($pattern, $user_agent)) {
// Log the detection
error_log('UptimeRobot detected from IP: ' . $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR']);
// Set cache headers
header('Cache-Control: public, max-age=3600');
header('X-Robots-Tag: noarchive');
// Optional: Serve cached version
if (file_exists('cache/' . md5($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']) . '.html')) {
readfile('cache/' . md5($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']) . '.html');
exit;
}
return true;
}
return false;
}
# Python/Flask Detection for UptimeRobot
import re
from flask import request, make_response
def detect_uptimerobot():
user_agent = request.headers.get('User-Agent', '')
pattern = r'UptimeRobot'
if re.search(pattern, user_agent, re.IGNORECASE):
# Create response with caching
response = make_response()
response.headers['Cache-Control'] = 'public, max-age=3600'
response.headers['X-Robots-Tag'] = 'noarchive'
return True
return False
# Django Middleware
class UptimeRobotMiddleware:
def __init__(self, get_response):
self.get_response = get_response
def __call__(self, request):
if self.detect_bot(request):
# Handle bot traffic
pass
return self.get_response(request)
// JavaScript/Node.js Detection for UptimeRobot
const express = require('express');
const app = express();
// Middleware to detect UptimeRobot
function detectUptimeRobot(req, res, next) {
const userAgent = req.headers['user-agent'] || '';
const pattern = /UptimeRobot/i;
if (pattern.test(userAgent)) {
// Log bot detection
console.log('UptimeRobot detected from IP:', req.ip);
// Set cache headers
res.set({
'Cache-Control': 'public, max-age=3600',
'X-Robots-Tag': 'noarchive'
});
// Mark request as bot
req.isBot = true;
req.botName = 'UptimeRobot';
}
next();
}
app.use(detectUptimeRobot);
# Apache .htaccess rules for UptimeRobot
# Block completely
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} UptimeRobot [NC]
RewriteRule .* - [F,L]
# Or redirect to a static version
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} UptimeRobot [NC]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/static/
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /static/$1 [L]
# Or set environment variable for PHP
SetEnvIfNoCase User-Agent "UptimeRobot" is_bot=1
# Add cache headers for this bot
<If "%{HTTP_USER_AGENT} =~ /UptimeRobot/i">
Header set Cache-Control "public, max-age=3600"
Header set X-Robots-Tag "noarchive"
</If>
# Nginx configuration for UptimeRobot
# Map user agent to variable
map $http_user_agent $is_uptimerobot {
default 0;
~*UptimeRobot 1;
}
server {
# Block the bot completely
if ($is_uptimerobot) {
return 403;
}
# Or serve cached content
location / {
if ($is_uptimerobot) {
root /var/www/cached;
try_files $uri $uri.html $uri/index.html @backend;
}
try_files $uri @backend;
}
# Add headers for bot requests
location @backend {
if ($is_uptimerobot) {
add_header Cache-Control "public, max-age=3600";
add_header X-Robots-Tag "noarchive";
}
proxy_pass http://backend;
}
}
Should You Block This Bot?
Recommendations based on your website type:
| Site Type | Recommendation | Reasoning |
|---|---|---|
| E-commerce | Optional | Evaluate based on bandwidth usage vs. benefits |
| Blog/News | Allow | Increases content reach and discoverability |
| SaaS Application | Block | No benefit for application interfaces; preserve resources |
| Documentation | Selective | Allow for public docs, block for internal docs |
| Corporate Site | Limit | Allow for public pages, block sensitive areas like intranets |
Advanced robots.txt Configurations
E-commerce Site Configuration
User-agent: UptimeRobot
Crawl-delay: 5
Disallow: /cart/
Disallow: /checkout/
Disallow: /my-account/
Disallow: /api/
Disallow: /*?sort=
Disallow: /*?filter=
Disallow: /*&page=
Allow: /products/
Allow: /categories/
Sitemap: https://example.com/sitemap.xml
Publishing/Blog Configuration
User-agent: UptimeRobot
Crawl-delay: 10
Disallow: /wp-admin/
Disallow: /drafts/
Disallow: /preview/
Disallow: /*?replytocom=
Allow: /
SaaS/Application Configuration
User-agent: UptimeRobot
Disallow: /app/
Disallow: /api/
Disallow: /dashboard/
Disallow: /settings/
Allow: /
Allow: /pricing/
Allow: /features/
Allow: /docs/
Quick Reference
User Agent Match
UptimeRobot
Robots.txt Name
UptimeRobot
Category
monitoring
Respects robots.txt
May not respect
Copied to clipboard!