Most websites and services today depend on APIs to function and communicate with each other. Whether these APIs are internal, external, or managed by third parties, regularly tracking how they behave is essential to ensure system reliability and performance. However, there are situations when managing them can become challenging. This is the case when you’re dealing with multiple endpoints, various configurations, and complex setups.
With Uptrends, monitoring your APIs is made easier and more flexible. Uptrends offers API monitoring, which helps you check the availability, performance, and correctness of your APIs. This monitor examines the responses returned by API endpoints and verifies that they contain the expected content, without requiring any programming skills to get started.
Types of API monitors
Uptrends offers two API monitor types suitable for your monitoring needs: Multi-step API (MSA) monitoring and Postman API monitoring.
Multi-step API (MSA) monitoring
The Multi-step API (MSA) monitor is the primary API monitoring type that lets you create and execute a single API call or sequence of calls, known as steps.
Each step represents an API endpoint. You can either set up a single-step or a multi-step monitor to chain API calls together and simulate scenarios like authentication, end-to-end transaction flow, or performing data validation.
MSA monitors check your APIs by building the Request components based on your configuration. This includes having full control to set up the HTTP method, URL, request headers, request body, and other settings for each step.
Similarly, you can validate the API Response using assertions, add custom scripting to control the behavior of the request and response, as well as track and store data from previous steps through variables, and many more.
Let’s explore the features of a Multi-step API monitor. In the demo below, click Explore and learn to get started.
Now that you’re familiar with the monitor features, get started by creating a Multi-step API monitor. To set up the Multi-step API monitor, refer to the Setting up Multi-step API (MSA) monitor knowledge base article.
Postman API monitoring
The Postman API monitor uses your Postman workspace collections to check and test the performance and correctness of your APIs. This monitor takes your Postman collection of API scripts, including pre- and post-request scripts, imports them using an API URL or from a JSON file, and starts running them across the globe similar to other monitor types.
Let’s explore the features of a Postman API monitor. In the demo below, click Explore and learn to get started.
Now that you’re familiar with the monitor features, get started by creating a Postman API monitor. To set up a Postman API monitor, refer to Setting up Postman API monitoring knowledge base article.
Credits
API monitors use API credits to let you create and schedule monitors for execution. Uptrends uses credits to calculate the pricing for different monitoring services. If you create any type of API monitor, such as a Multi-step API (MSA) or Postman monitor, each HTTP request you perform counts as one credit. For more information, refer to the Credits knowledge base article.