I started a new iOS side project, code named: WebMeter.

WebMeter

WebMeter is an iOS Widget app that helps you check if your websites are reachable from your iPhone/iPad.

WebMeter is a simple utility app. You can register URLs you like to monitor with a simple list view.

And you can add those URLs as home screen widgets.

WebMeter support only 2 widget sizes:

I would add the large widget sizes with iOS 15 release ( large and very large sizes ).

Motivation

For website monitoring, there are services that check website uptime like:

And they do a pretty good job. If I had a critical website - I would recommend using them instead of WebMeter.

But, what if you need to monitor non-public websites like your website-powered coffee machine ☕️?

At home, I have devices that are behind a firewall and aren't reachable externally.

I keep a Pi-hole powered on raspberry pi zero in my home network. It has been amazing at blocking ads and trackers 🎉.

But like all devices - It sometimes becomes non-responsive and needs a quick reboot.

Thus I decided to create a small widget to monitor my home devices.

This widget sends an HTTP request periodically to Pi-Hole to check if it is running (check for HTTP 200/OK status).

Eventually, that small widget became WebMeter.

WebMeter runs locally on your phone.

So it depends on your phone's internet connectivity. If you are in a bad wifi spot or get on an airplane 🛩, WebMeter will report your sites are down.

So I wouldn't rely on WebMeter for highly critical websites.

I plan to release WebMeter in a month - September 2021.

There are still some pending tasks and decisions like:

If you would like to beta test WebMeter - please reach out to me at:


First draft version	Full screen widgets