Real-browser health checks
Each check renders the page and records HTTP, SSL, DNS, blank-page detection, broken resources, JavaScript errors, and first-party API calls — not just a status code.
Synthetic Monitoring for Websites
Synthetic monitoring proactively simulates real user activity against your site on a schedule, instead of waiting for real users to hit a problem. NorthDuty does this two ways: every health check renders the page in a real browser, and user journeys execute multi-step flows in headless Chromium — so you catch failures before customers do.
Simulate real visits on a schedule and catch failures before customers do.
Simulate the experience, don't just ping the server
A simple ping tells you the server answered. Synthetic monitoring goes further by acting like a browser — and, for multi-step journeys, like a user — so you find the failures that only appear when a page actually renders or a flow is actually attempted.
NorthDuty's health checks run in a real browser every 5 minutes by default, capturing JavaScript errors, failed resources, blank-page conditions, and the first-party API calls a page depends on. Its user journeys go a step further: headless Chromium executes structured steps such as login, search, add-to-cart, and checkout, and reports a step-by-step result.
What NorthDuty's synthetic monitoring covers
Two complementary layers: rendered single-page checks and multi-step journeys.
Multi-step user journeys
Headless Chromium runs structured flows like login, signup, search, add-to-cart, and checkout, with a step timeline and success rate.
AI-built flows, no scripting
NorthDuty AI suggests 2–5 journeys for your site; enable them in one click, or describe a flow in plain text and AI converts it into validated steps.
Self-checking selectors
Before a flow runs, NorthDuty validates every selector in a real browser and rewrites or drops steps it cannot resolve, so flows are reliable rather than brittle.
Journey results with a step timeline
Each monitored journey keeps a step timeline, last-run details, and a success rate.
Journey Results
Step-by-step journey results
See which step failed, how long the run took, and the latest success rate — so a multi-step failure is easy to understand.
Why synthetic monitoring matters
Most revenue-affecting failures are experience failures, not full outages.
- Catch broken flows that look fine on any single page
- Render pages in a real browser to surface JavaScript and API failures
- Start fast with AI-suggested journeys instead of writing scripts
- When a run fails, AI triage proposes corrected steps or a clear failure reason
- Route failures to email, Slack, Teams, Discord, webhooks, Telegram, WhatsApp, or SMS
How NorthDuty runs synthetic checks
From single-page rendering to full multi-step journeys.
1
Render every health check in a browser
Each check loads the page in real Chromium and records front-end and API behavior, not just the response code.
2
Add the journeys that matter
Enable AI-suggested journeys or describe your own in plain text; AI converts the description into validated steps.
3
Execute and validate
Headless Chromium runs each step; pre-flight validation keeps selectors honest so runs reflect real behavior.
4
Get step-level results and repair
Failed runs report the failing step; AI repair proposes corrected steps or a user-facing failure reason.
Related NorthDuty Pages
Explore pricing, feature details, solution pages, and related tools connected to this website monitoring use case.
Pricing
Pricing
NorthDuty pricing for website monitoring: a free plan through $29/mo Starter, Pro, and Business — covering uptime, visual change detection, and user journeys.
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Features
Explore NorthDuty features: website health checks every 5 minutes, screenshot-based visual change detection, and AI-suggested user journey monitoring in one project.
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Solutions
Explore NorthDuty solutions for ecommerce website monitoring, SaaS website monitoring, agency website monitoring, and startup website monitoring.
Browse SolutionsFeature
User Journey Monitoring
NorthDuty AI suggests 2-5 website journeys. Enable them in one click or describe a custom multi-step flow in plain text.
Explore User Journey MonitoringFeature
Uptime Monitoring
Monitor uptime every 5 minutes by default with HTTP, SSL, DNS, blank-page detection, broken resources, JavaScript errors, and API call tracking.
Explore Uptime MonitoringFeature
API Monitoring
NorthDuty runs scheduled API monitors that chain requests, assert on status codes, JSON, headers, and latency, reuse extracted values, and alert the moment an endpoint breaks.
Explore API MonitoringFeature
Login Monitoring
Monitor login flows with NorthDuty user journeys so authentication pages, forms, JavaScript, APIs, and account-access steps keep working.
Explore Login MonitoringFrequently Asked Questions
Answers to common questions about this monitoring feature and when teams should use it.
What is synthetic monitoring?
Synthetic monitoring proactively simulates user activity against a site on a schedule — from rendering a page in a real browser to executing a multi-step flow — so failures are caught before real users report them.
Is synthetic monitoring the same as uptime monitoring?
No. Uptime monitoring confirms the site answered. Synthetic monitoring simulates the actual experience, which catches broken pages and failed multi-step journeys that an uptime check cannot see.
Do I need to write scripts for synthetic journeys?
No. NorthDuty AI suggests journeys you can enable in one click, or you can describe a flow in plain text and AI converts it into validated browser steps.
What happens when a synthetic journey fails?
The run is marked failed at the step that broke. When repair is enabled, NorthDuty re-engages AI to propose corrected steps or write a clear failure reason.
Call To Action
Start monitoring your website with NorthDuty today.
Use NorthDuty for synthetic monitoring that renders pages and runs real user journeys — without maintaining scripts.
Start on the free plan — add your base URL and monitoring starts in minutes.