Free alternative to UptimeRobot for Shopify stores.
UptimeRobot removed commercial use from their free plan in October 2024. Beaconmon is free for Shopify stores, with no restrictions, and includes competitor monitoring that UptimeRobot never had.
Last updated: June 2026
What UptimeRobot costs now
The free plan that thousands of Shopify stores relied on is now off-limits for commercial use.
UptimeRobot
- Free plan50 monitors, non-commercial use only since October 2024
- Paid starting price~$7/mo for 50 monitors, 1-minute checks
- Competitor monitoringNone
- Shopify-specific featuresNone
- Intelligence DigestNone
- Monitor typesHTTP/HTTPS uptime checks only
Beaconmon
- Free plan10 monitors, no commercial restriction, forever
- Paid starting price$29/mo (Starter): Intelligence Digest, unlimited competitors
- Competitor monitoringYes, included free (1 competitor on free plan)
- Shopify-specific featuresYes: preset selectors, ecommerce onboarding
- Intelligence DigestYes, Starter and above
- Monitor typesUptime, SSL expiry, domain expiry, competitor content
See the full breakdown on the pricing page or the full Beaconmon vs UptimeRobot comparison.
Why Shopify stores are leaving UptimeRobot
It is not just the pricing change. UptimeRobot was built for general HTTP monitoring, not ecommerce.
The free plan is non-commercial.
UptimeRobot changed their free plan terms in October 2024. Running a Shopify store is commercial use. If you have been on the free plan, you are technically in violation and need to upgrade or switch.
UptimeRobot only checks whether your site is online.
It pings a URL and confirms HTTP 200. It cannot tell you when a competitor drops prices, runs a flash sale, or changes their homepage promotion. For Shopify stores, that missing context is a real gap.
No Shopify-specific awareness.
UptimeRobot does not know the difference between your store going down and your checkout silently failing due to a Shopify app conflict. It treats every URL the same.
No weekly digest or summary.
You receive one alert per incident. There is no weekly rollup of what changed across all your monitors, no way to see patterns without logging in and digging through alert history.
What Beaconmon gives Shopify stores instead
Built for ecommerce from the start. Not a port of a DevOps tool.
- Free plan with 10 uptime monitors and no non-commercial restriction, built for Shopify store owners
- Competitor monitoring included: track price changes, promo banners, stock status on competitor storefronts
- SSL expiry alerts at 30, 14, and 7 days, included free (UptimeRobot requires paid for this)
- Domain expiry alerts included (UptimeRobot does not offer this)
- Intelligence Digest on Starter and above consolidates every alert into a weekly Slack or email summary
- Onboarding wizard understands ecommerce: detects Shopify or WooCommerce and suggests the monitors that matter
Where UptimeRobot still wins
Beaconmon is not the right tool for every use case. Here is where UptimeRobot has a genuine edge.
- UptimeRobot's paid plan scales to 100 or more monitors at low cost. For teams monitoring many unrelated URLs, the per-monitor pricing can be cheaper than Beaconmon at volume.
- UptimeRobot has a longer track record and integrates with PagerDuty, OpsGenie, and other DevOps tooling. Teams with existing incident-management workflows may prefer staying in that ecosystem.
- If you need only HTTP uptime checks with no interest in competitor monitoring or ecommerce intelligence, UptimeRobot paid is a simple, proven tool.
Common questions
Can Shopify stores still use UptimeRobot's free plan?
No. UptimeRobot changed their free plan to non-commercial use only in October 2024. Running a Shopify store is commercial use. You need to be on a paid plan or switch to an alternative.
Does Beaconmon's free plan have any commercial restrictions?
No. Beaconmon's free plan is built for Shopify store owners. There are no non-commercial restrictions. You get 10 monitors free forever.
Does Beaconmon do more than just uptime monitoring?
Yes. Beaconmon combines uptime monitoring with competitor tracking. You can monitor when a competitor changes their prices, runs a promotion, or updates their product pages, alongside monitoring whether your own store is online. UptimeRobot only monitors availability.
Is Beaconmon harder to set up than UptimeRobot?
No. For Shopify stores, Beaconmon's onboarding wizard is faster than UptimeRobot's manual setup. You enter your store URL, the wizard detects your store type, and suggests the monitors that matter for ecommerce.
Try Beaconmon free.
10 monitors free forever. 14-day Growth trial, no card required.
Running a Shopify store? See the Shopify-specific setup →