Configuring Notifications (Push & Email)
WebhookBeam sends you instant notifications when a monitored site goes down and when it recovers. You can choose to receive alerts via push notifications (on your iPhone), email, webhook URL, or any combination of the three.
Notification Types
There are two types of uptime notifications:
| Notification | When It's Sent | Example |
|---|---|---|
| 🔴 Down Alert | When a site becomes unreachable or returns an unexpected status code, after the failure threshold is reached. | "🔴 Site Down: Main API - api.example.com is unreachable (Timeout)" |
| 🟢 Recovery Alert | When a previously down site comes back online. | "🟢 Site Recovered: Main API - api.example.com is back online (was down 12 minutes)" |
Notification Channels
Each monitored link has independent notification settings. You can configure different channels for different links.
Push Notifications (iOS)
Push notifications are delivered instantly to your iPhone via the WebhookBeam app. To receive push notifications:
- Make sure you have the WebhookBeam app installed on your iPhone.
- Ensure notifications are enabled in your iPhone's Settings → Notifications → WebhookBeam.
- Log in to the app with the same account you use on the dashboard.
Push notifications are enabled by default for all new monitored links.
Email Notifications
Email alerts are sent to the email address associated with your WebhookBeam account. Email notifications include:
- The name and URL of the affected link.
- The error type (timeout, connection error, SSL error, DNS error, or HTTP error).
- The time the incident started.
- For recovery emails: how long the site was down.
Email notifications are enabled by default for all new monitored links.
How to Configure Notification Settings
- Go to Uptime Monitor in the sidebar.
- Click on the monitored link you want to configure.
- Click "Edit" to open the link settings.
- Scroll to the Notification Settings section:
| Setting | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Notify on Down | Send a notification when the site goes down. | Enabled |
| Notify on Recovery | Send a notification when the site comes back up. | Enabled |
| Notify via Push | Deliver alerts as push notifications on your iPhone. | Enabled |
| Notify via Email | Deliver alerts to your email address. | Enabled |
| Notify via Webhook | Send a JSON POST to your configured webhook URL. Requires a webhook URL set on the Integrations page. | Enabled |
| Failure Threshold | Number of consecutive failed checks before a down alert is triggered. This prevents false alarms from transient network issues. | 2 |
Understanding the Failure Threshold
The failure threshold is a critical setting that prevents false alarms. When set to 2 (the default), WebhookBeam will only send a down notification after two consecutive health checks have failed.
For example, with a 5-minute check interval and a threshold of 2:
- Check 1 fails - No notification yet. The link's consecutive failure counter increments to 1.
- Check 2 fails - Threshold reached! A down notification is sent and an incident is created.
- Check 3 succeeds - The site is back up. A recovery notification is sent and the incident is resolved.
If you want to be alerted immediately on the first failure, set the threshold to 1. If you'd prefer fewer false alarms, increase it to 3 or higher.
SSL Certificate Expiry Warnings
For HTTPS URLs, WebhookBeam can monitor SSL certificate expiration. Enable SSL monitoring on a per-link basis to receive warning notifications at 14, 7, 3, and 1 day before expiry, and daily reminders after a certificate has expired:
"⚠️ SSL Expires Soon: Main API - Certificate for api.example.com expires in 7 days"
SSL monitoring must be explicitly enabled in each link's settings. See the SSL Certificate Monitoring guide for full setup instructions and the complete notification schedule.
Webhook URL Notifications
In addition to push and email, you can send uptime alerts to any HTTP endpoint via webhook. When enabled, WebhookBeam sends a JSON POST request to your configured URL whenever a monitor goes down or recovers.
Webhooks are configured globally on the Integrations page (Status Monitor → Integrations in the sidebar), then enabled or disabled per-monitor in the edit form.
For full setup instructions, payload formats, and HMAC signature verification, see the dedicated guide:
Tips for Effective Alerting
- Use multiple channels — Enable push, email, and webhook so you get alerts even if one channel is missed.
- Set a threshold of 2 — This is the default and filters out most transient network glitches.
- Use shorter intervals for critical services — Set a 1-minute check interval for production APIs to minimize detection time.
- Keep the WebhookBeam app installed — Push notifications are the fastest way to know about downtime.
- Use webhooks for automation — Route alerts to Slack, PagerDuty, or custom scripts for automated incident response.
- Invite collaborators — Add team members via User Management so they receive alerts too, without needing access to your dashboard.