How to know your payment and booking links still work

The free way (10 minutes a week)

1. Open your website on your phone, on mobile data.
2. Click every "Pay", "Book" or "Order" button on your home page and go as far as the payment page (don't pay).
3. Check that the address bar shows a padlock and that the amount is right.
4. Note the date. Repeat every week, and after every change to your website or your prices.

When a free uptime tool is enough

If you only need to know that your home page answers, free uptime tools such as UptimeRobot or Notifier check it every few minutes. They don't follow your payment links or report broken pages inside your site.

What Website monitoring does

Every day, from the outside: your home page and up to 100 linked pages (404 and 500 errors, broken redirects), the payment and booking links on your home page (Stripe, PayPal, Calendly, Planity, Payhip and others), and your HTTPS certificate, with an alert 21 days before it expires. You get an email the same day when something changes, in plain French and English, and a one-page report on the 1st of each month.

What it does not do: checks run once a day, not minute by minute. No access to your server or admin area, no backups, and it is not an antivirus.

Frequently asked questions

Can an uptime monitor detect a broken payment link?

Usually not. Most uptime monitors only check that a page answers with a 200 code. A payment link can be dead on Stripe's or PayPal's side while your page looks fine. You need a check that opens the payment link itself.

How often should I check my payment links?

At least once a day for an online shop or a booking site, and right after any change to your prices, your products or your website.