How monitoring works
A real browser uses your form the way a visitor would, once a day, and we report each step separately.
1. You connect your site
You install a small WordPress plugin and connect it to your account with a one-time code. The plugin does not contact us until you enter that code, and it adds nothing to your public pages. We then call your site back to confirm that the plugin answering at your address is the one you connected.
2. You approve clearly labelled test messages
You choose the form and the page it is on, and review the test details. They are synthetic and say that this is an automated test enabled by the site owner, with a unique check ID and no request to call back or prepare a quote. Nothing is sent until you approve it.
3. A real browser sends the form
Our browser opens the page, finds the form, fills in the test details and presses send. It reads the response the form shows. A direct call to a server endpoint would not show whether the form works for a visitor, so we do not use one as proof.
4. We follow the email
- The plugin notes whether WordPress and Contact Form 7 reported that the email was sent. WordPress itself documents that this does not prove the email was received.
- For test messages only, the plugin adds a hidden copy to a one-time address of ours. When that copy arrives, we know the email left your site.
- We never read your normal inbox. If you want, you can confirm that a test reached it; we label that as confirmed by you.
We wait up to 15 minutes for the copy. If it arrives later, we add that to the history without changing what was already reported.
5. Results and alerts
Every check ends in one of these results:
- Checked steps passed – everything we check worked. Your inbox is still shown as not verified unless you confirmed it.
- Problem found – a step we check clearly failed. We email you once when the problem starts and once when it is fixed.
- Test was blocked – for example by a CAPTCHA. We say what could not be checked.
- Result uncertain – we could not tell. We do not resend automatically, to avoid duplicate messages.
- Our service had a problem – the fault was on our side. You do not get a false alarm about your form.
A check that did not run is never shown as passed; if the last check is too old, the dashboard says so.