How to check if a website is down, and fix it fast (2026 guide)

Downtime is one of the biggest worries for anyone who runs a website. After all, even small outages can result in lost revenue and frustrated users. But don’t panic. Just because your website isn’t loading doesn't mean it's truly down.

There are a number of things that could have gone wrong, and it’s important to know how to determine whether an outage has actually taken place.  Even in the worst-case scenario, getting a website up and running isn’t usually too difficult.

In this blog, we’ll walk you through how to check if a website is down, and what to do if it is. Here’s what we’ll cover: 

• What to do if your website goes down
  
  

• The most common causes of downtime
  
  

• The best uptime monitoring tools
  
  

• How to prevent future outages
  

What to do if your website goes down

When there’s a website outage, the first thing you need to know is whether the problem is local, a problem with your router or web browser, or global, like a server outage, DNS failure or a DDoS attack. In short, is your website down or not?

First, cover your bases by switching from Wi-Fi to mobile and opening your website on another device. If your website is still down, you know the problem lies elsewhere. Here are some other things you can try:
 

• Restart your router or switch networks
  
  

• Open website in incognito/private mode or another browser
  
  

• Check HTTP response status codes
  
  

• Check your SSL certificate
  
  

• Use online tools
  
  

• Try ping or traceroute
  
  

• Check for brute force attacks
  
  

• Check your hosting dashboard
  
  

• Test DNS and domain settings
  
  

• Contact your hosting provider

Restart your router or switch networks

While this won’t fix a site that’s truly offline, it helps you confirm whether the problem is with your connection. Try switching from Wi-Fi to mobile data (or vice versa). If the site loads on one but not the other, the issue is local to your network, not the website.

Open browser in incognito/private mode or another browser

Clearing your browser cache. Sometimes, after a site update, your browser may still load old cached files, making the site appear broken even though it’s not.

If the issue continues, open the site in incognito mode or switch to a different browser. If the site loads there, it’s a sign the problem is browser-related.

Check HTTP response status codes

HTTP response status codes are three-digit numbers that a web server sends to your browser to show the result of a request. They give you quick insight into what’s happening with your site.

You can view these codes, along with the files, scripts, or API calls they belong to, by right-clicking on your webpage, selecting Inspect, and opening the Network tab in your browser’s DevTools. Here’s what the different codes mean:

• 200 — Site is online and working normally

• 301 or 302  — Server is active but redirecting traffic elsewhere.

• 404 Not Found or 403 Forbidden — The page can’t be accessed, doesn’t necessarily mean it’s down. 

• 5xx Server Errors (500 Internal Server Error, 502 Bad Gateway, or 503 Service Unavailable) — Server is down, usually due to overload or misconfiguration.

These codes are a good way to gauge what;s going wrong with your webpage, and what next steps you can take next to solve it.

Check your SSL certificate

Sometimes your website isn’t truly down, your SSL certificate is simply causing trouble. If your SSL has expired or isn’t installed properly, you might see your warnings saying that your site is not secure. In this case, your server may be running fine, but the browser is blocking access.

Log in to your hosting dashboard or use an SSL checker tool, such as Qualys SSL Labs or WhyNoPadlock, to confirm the status of your certificate. If it’s expired, renew it through your hosting provider or certificate authority. Most modern hosts offer free SSL certificates which renew automatically.

Use online tools

You can check whether your website is down, and even track its performance over time with online tools like UptimeRobot, DownDetector, IsItDownRightNow and Pingdom.

Just enter your website’s URL to get instant metrics like response times, uptime percentages, and even a history of past outages. You can usually view this data over different timeframes, such as the last week, month, or year.

Most monitoring tools also let you set up email or SMS alerts so you’ll know immediately if your site goes offline. They keep detailed logs of response times and other performance metrics, making it easier to spot weaknesses or recurring issues.

Try ping or traceroute

Wondering how to see if a website is down? Try using Command Line Interfaces (CLIs). They can provide precise and clear information about a website's status and performance, making them a great diagnostic tool.

They’re also more accessible than you might think, simply open Command Prompt on Windows, and Terminal on MacOS and Linux. From there, there are two commands you can use to understand why your website is down.

The first one is Ping, which can be used to check if your website’s server is reachable

The ping command is a quick way to see if a website’s server is responding. You send it a small message that basically asks, “Are you there?” If the server is online, it replies with how much data came back and how long the response took.

To try it, open your computer’s terminal and type: ping yourwebsite.com

If the site is live, you’ll see server response times measured in milliseconds. The command runs continuously until you stop it with Ctrl + C. You might get no reply doesn’t always mean the there’s a website outage, sometimes firewalls or security tools block ping requests.

While ping shows you how long it takes for the server to reply, traceroute or tracert goes even further. It shows the entire journey your data takes, breaking this path into “hops” between different servers to measure latency at each step.

This can help identify where the slowdown or blockage is happening and whether the problem is with your local network, or the website’s server.

Check for brute force attacks

It’s possible that your website is down due to a brute force attack, where an attacker or bot repeatedly tries many username/password combinations to force their way into an account or service.  Although uncommon, brute force attacks pose a significant risk to your website and should be dealt with swiftly.

You can often diagnose a brute force attack by checking your server or hosting logs for repeated failed login attempts, usually coming from the same IP address or a suspicious range of addresses.

Another sign is unusual spikes in CPU or memory usage without a matching increase in traffic. Security plugins like Imunify365, included with Spaceship Web Hosting, use IP reputation and greylisting to block repeated login attempts automatically.

Check your hosting dashboard

Your hosting provider runs core services like Apache or LiteSpeed that make your website accessible to visitors. If these services stop, it’s a server-side issue and your site won’t load until they’re restarted. Keeping them running is the provider’s responsibility, open a support request if they’re down. Most providers resolve this quickly.

You can usually check the status of these services in your hosting dashboard. For example, Spaceship Hosting Manager provides server details and integrates with cPanel, where you can see whether services like Apache or LiteSpeed are running. This helps you confirm if a server issue is the reason your website is down.

Test DNS and domain settings

If your website is down but your hosting server looks fine, the issue could be with your domain or DNS configuration. Start by checking whether your domain has expired, if it has, your site will instantly go offline until it’s renewed.

Next, consult your domain provider to make sure DNS records are set up correctly and that they’ve fully propagated. Misconfigured or outdated records can prevent browsers from finding your server, even if everything else is working.

Contact your hosting provider

If your site is still down after running through the troubleshooting steps, it’s time to contact your hosting provider. Before reaching out, gather as much information as possible: error codes, error messages, and screenshots will help diagnose the problem faster.

When contacting support:

• Confirm you’ve already tried basic troubleshooting (DNS checks, cache clears, hosting dashboard logs).
  
  

• Share any error codes or screenshots for clarity.
  
  

• Ask about your provider’s SLA (Service Level Agreement) to understand what uptime guarantees apply. For example, Spaceships guarantees 99.99% uptime for all its hosting plans.
  
  

• Be aware of your provider’s Acceptable Use Policy (AUP). Some downtime could stem from violations like resource abuse or security issues.
  

Why do websites go down? Most common causes

How to Prevent Website Downtime? (For Site Owners)

Choose reliable hosting

Preventing website down time starts with choosing a reliable web hosting provider. Choose a plans that can guarantee uptime in web hosting. For example, Spaceship Web Hosting guarantees 99.99% uptime.

Keep DNS/domain renewed and up to date

If your domain expires, your site becomes immediately inaccessible until it’s renewed which can cause hours or even days of outage if you don’t catch it in time. Similarly, outdated or incorrect DNS records mean browsers can’t find the right server to load your site, even if your hosting is running fine.

By renewing your domain on time, monitoring expiration dates, and making sure DNS records (like A, CNAME, and MX) are correct and current, you ensure that traffic always resolves properly to your site without interruptions.

Use a CDN for global availability

Use a CDN to improve uptime and reliability. CDNs cache your site across global servers, reduce strain on your hosting, and can keep your site online even during traffic surges or partial outages.

Implement failover or backups

Failover and backups are both reliable ways to secure your website. A failover is a secondary server or hosting environment that automatically takes over if your primary server goes down. They ensure that your site stays accessible with little or no interruption. Backups, on the other hand, ensure that even if something catastrophic happens, you can quickly restore your site to a previous working state.

Get your website back up and running fast

Website outages can be stressful, but most issues are temporary and fixable with the right approach. By running a few quick checks, you can confirm whether the problem is local or widespread and, if you’re a site owner, take clear steps to get your site back online.