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Uptime monitoring for your Mac

A good boy
for your servers.

Watchdog sits in your Mac's menu bar, guards your websites and APIs around the clock, and barks the moment one breaks.

Adopt it for freeSee it work

macOS 15 or later · No account · No cloud

How it works

Heads down
at 3 PM.

Headphones on, Slack muted, deep in the work. That's exactly when a site goes down, and exactly when you need to hear it. Watchdog pulls your focus to the one thing that's actually broken.

  1. 3:12 PMPayments stops answering.You're three files into a refactor. Watchdog notices on the next check and re-checks within seconds, so a blip never breaks your flow.
  2. 3:12 PMIt barks through your Focus.Time Sensitive alerts get past Focus mode. Critical servers get a siren and a panel over whatever is full-screen.
  3. 3:13 PMThe real problem, up front.No dashboard digging. “Payments: 502 Bad Gateway” is right there, with Acknowledge and Snooze.
  4. 3:16 PMFixed. Back in the zone.It says Recovered the moment Payments answers again and how long it was down. Then it goes quiet, so you can get back to work.

Features

18 tricks it
already knows

01

Sniffs out

  • HTTP & healthStatus codes, body checks, JSON health reports and response time.
  • SSL certificatesValid, trusted, right name. Reminders 30, 7 and 1 day before expiry.
  • DNSThe name resolves, and the records say what you expect.
  • Domain expiryThe registration end date, with reminder days you choose.
  • TCP & pingA port accepts connections; the host answers at all.
  • Webhooks & jobsTells you when expected events stop arriving.
02

Barks

  • Mac notificationsOne per problem, with Acknowledge and Snooze right in the banner.
  • Siren alarmA panel on every Space, even over full-screen apps.
  • Fast recoveryRe-checks every 5–60 s while down; says Recovered the moment it's back.
03

Remembers

  • Uptime history24 hours to 90 days, and a dot for every day.
  • Response timesAverage, p95, and where the time went: DNS, TLS, waiting.
  • Reasons in plain words“Server answered 502 Bad Gateway”, not an error code.
04

Fetches & sorts

  • Groups, tags, priorityFolders per client, tags for search, priority for alerts.
  • Timing per checkYour own interval, timeout and retries for every check.
  • Search & filterstag:eu status:down priority:>=high, keyboard first.
05

Stays loyal

  • Runs on your MacNo account, no cloud, no analytics. Secrets stay in the Keychain.
  • Ownership verifiedOne DNS record proves a domain is yours, once.
  • Offline-awareWi-Fi out or Mac asleep is “no data”, never downtime.

It knows the difference

It doesn't bark
at the mailman.

Hotel Wi-Fi, a captive portal, a Mac waking up: Watchdog knows it's your connection, not your server. It says so, and never counts it as downtime or wakes you for it.

Private by design

Loyal to you. Only you.

No account.

No cloud.

No tracking.

Lives on your Mac

Every check runs from your own machine. Nobody else sees your list.

Keeps secrets

Tokens and passwords stay in the Keychain, never in a file, a log or a notification.

Guards only yours

It checks a domain after one DNS record proves it belongs to you.

One DNS record. Once.

TXT_watchdog-verify.shop.com

"watchdog-verify=wdv1-q3m7k2p9x4t6v8b1"

Photos from the yard

  • Watchdog's popover under the menu bar, listing servers with status and 24-hour dotsOn duty in the menu bar
  • The alarm panel: two servers down, with Acknowledge, Snooze and Stop SoundThe bark
  • A server's detail: uptime from 24 hours to 90 days and a response time chartWhat it remembers
  • The Add Server window with address, group, tags and checksMeet a new site
  • The popover in the “You are offline” stateNot the mailman's fault
  • The ownership verification window with the DNS TXT recordOnly your yard

Adopt your
watchdog.

It's free. No leash, no account. Add your first site, prove it's yours, and let it keep watch while you sleep.

Download for MacSee all tricks

macOS 15 or later · Apple silicon and Intel