Tool guide

Response Time Checker

Measure how fast a site responds from Europe and the US, with a phase-by-phase breakdown including time to first byte (TTFB).

Try the tool

What it does

The Response Time Checker measures how quickly a website responds — not just whether it's up, but how fast. It reports a total time and a speed band, plus a per-phase breakdown so you can see where the time goes: DNS lookup, TCP connect, TLS handshake, time to first byte (TTFB), and content download.

Use it to tell a slow backend (high TTFB — the server is thinking) from a slow transfer (large page, slow network), and to compare speed between Europe and the US.

How to use it

  1. Enter your website address and press Check.
  2. Read the speed band and total time at the top, for each region.
  3. Open the breakdown to see DNS, TCP, TLS, TTFB and download timings. A high TTFB points at the server/app; a high download points at page size.

What the results mean

Result What it means
Fast Responded in under ~0.5 seconds. Excellent.
OK Responded in roughly 0.5–1 second. Fine for most visitors.
Slow Took around 1–3 seconds. Noticeable; worth investigating.
Very slow Took 3 seconds or more. Visitors will feel this and may leave.
Blocked A bot-protection challenge intercepted the request, so the timing isn't a true reflection of the site's speed (shown in amber, not as a failure).
Failed No usable response — the site timed out, errored (5xx) or couldn't be reached. See the reason shown.

Errors & warnings explained

Message What it means
Timed out No response within the time limit — the server is very slow or unreachable from that region.
Domain could not be resolved DNS lookup failed. Check the spelling, or the domain's DNS may be down.
SSL error The secure (TLS) connection couldn't be completed — often a certificate problem.
Too many redirects The URL redirected in a loop without reaching a final page.
Connection refused The server rejected the connection — it may be down.
Server error (5xx) Reached the server, but it returned a 5xx error. Up, but failing.
Client error (4xx) The server returned a 4xx such as 404 — the address may be wrong.
Blocked (401/403) The page needs authorisation or a firewall blocked the checker.
Blocked by bot protection A challenge page (e.g. Cloudflare) intercepted the request; the real site is probably fine for visitors.
Region much slower (warning) One region was at least twice as slow (and 400ms+ slower) than the other — a sign of distance from your server or no CDN.
HTTPS→HTTP downgrade (warning) A redirect stepped down from a secure https address to an insecure http one — a misconfiguration worth fixing.

Good to know

  • Free, no login, and we don't store the URLs you check.
  • Rate limited to about 4 checks per minute per network.
  • Europe shows the full phase breakdown; the US location shows total time only (the breakdown follows once our probe is upgraded).
  • A single sample can vary run-to-run. For trends over time, monitor the site with an account — your checks then record TTFB on every run.

Related guides

Want this watched for you, around the clock?

These tools are one-off checks. A Monitrova account monitors your sites continuously and emails you the moment something breaks.