
Ask HN: Idea feedback on cheaper website/API uptime alerting - start123
I am currently researching the idea to build a simple uptime monitoring tool to monitors websites and APIs.<p>Features:<p><pre><code>    Up to 10 monitors.

    Sms(50 per month) Alerts, Email, Callback URLs.

    1 min interval

    Easy configuration
</code></pre>
Pricing:<p>Looking to price it around 2.99$ or less per month to undercut the competition. Though the larger players have great(and more) features, I think there is a good enough market for a lighter and more cheaper alternative.<p>Target Audience:<p>Startups, Single owner websites.
======
mtmail
Follow [https://twitter.com/sinequanonh](https://twitter.com/sinequanonh) He
sometimes posts revenue numbers of his
[https://hyperping.io/](https://hyperping.io/) service.

With the low price point you'd attract users who bail at any price increase.
It leaves little money for customer acquisition and support cost. Spending 10
minutes on a customer email ("do you plan to add feature X?") or dealing with
failed credit card transaction (month 6 fine, month 7 "insuffient funds"
error) already wipes any earnings the customer might have brought.

I'd try doing only yearly payment like
[https://servercheck.in/pricing](https://servercheck.in/pricing)

~~~
start123
Also, I have been thinking to launch with a basic plan and then, any new
additional feature will go into a new pro-plan. So, people that had signed up
will not witness a price rise but will have enough incentive to upgrade.

------
adamlangsner
I might use something like this, I have a few small sites. The cheapest
pingdom plan is $15/mo which seems like too much for what I'd need.

How did you determine that there's a market for this? I ask because I'm trying
to learn how to validate demand.

~~~
start123
I used Google docs heavily. I started with a list of 10 uptime monitoring
competitors with features, pricing, and weaknesses. I figured out that all of
them were charging ludicrous amounts of money to do a simple task like alerts
via SMS or email. While they do offer much more features - I realized, after
having built a couple of websites that I don't really need fancy features. I
also did a SWOT analysis of the idea and where my app would lie in the
spectrum, and the amount I could charge to a customer.

~~~
adamlangsner
Cool. Have you thought about acquisition channels? Maybe Heroku elements would
be a good place to distribute this

~~~
start123
Not yet, the acquisition strategy would be my next logical step I think. I am
not aware of Heroku elements, will check it out. Thanks.

