Ping

Ping Uptime Monitor by Neat Software is a lightweight menubar app that monitors the availability and response time of any entity with an IP address: websites, APIs, servers, routers, devices and workstations. When problems are detected, it alerts you. It has a limited free tier and a pro upgrade to unlock the full feature set(one-time purchase, not subscription). You may be thinking that you don’t ned a tool to do your pinging, since that’s a command line tool that’s among the first that many of us ever learned, but bear with me, because Ping Uptime Monitor can do some useful stuff.

Features

• Heads up display via a color coded icon in the menu bar, allowing you to quickly assess the status of your website or API without keeping a browser tab open
• Local notifications when the status of a monitored address fails or exceeds a user-defined metric so that you are the first to know if an asset goes offline before its users can start complaining
• Supports HTTP and ICMP pinging so you can monitor your home router (ICMP) and a public website you want to track (HTTP)
• Supports IP4 and IP6
• Reportson slow response times, not just a binary up/down. You can determine at what speed you want to be notified so that you can mitigate anything running slow or dropping packets
• User defined ping intervals so that you don’t flood some poor endpoint. You can set different intervals for different targets and the more important a device is, the more frequently you can check it
• Excellent logging capabilitythat can be piped or streamed out. Although you don’t get a different log for every device, it is quite easy to filter the log so you can see exactly what you want to see
• Automation- Webhook capable so that it can use email, Slack or SMS to notify you when there are problems and you are AFK. It is also has AppleScript support
• Display customization so that you can select just want you want to see: icons, status colors, response times, etc.
• Privacy focused - nothing is routed through third-part devices. All communication is between your Mac and the endpoints you monitor.
• **CSV Imports **- got a spreadsheet with all the wireless access point IP addresses in your building? Import that sucker!

What’s in the Newest Version (September 2025)

• Support for macOS26 Tahoe
• Auto-restores paid pro upgrades when moved to a new machine
• Auto-restart after 1 million pings to relieve any memory pressure and improve stability

This app is not for you if...

• You need advanced or per-device logging
• You want to create different groups of addresses to reflect different sites
• You need enterprise level features such as deep analytics, long-term trend reports and other features common in more expensive monitoring suites.
• You need an audible alarm (although this is a much requested feature)

Other Tools

This is a useful tool for small workplaces, home lab and power users. It compares to the FOSS app, nping. For broader use cases, check out Uptime Kuma. An online tool that you might useful is Uptimerobot

Availability

You can get the free and paid version ($14.99) of Ping Uptime Monitor from Neat Software. It’s currently on sale for $3 for Black Friday - here.