# Getting started > Create your up4 account, watch your first website and make sure an alert reaches you, in about ten minutes. Source: https://upfour.io/docs/getting-started In about ten minutes up4 watches your first website, and you know that an alert will reach you. Create your account with your email address. [Start free](https://app.upfour.io/register) €9 starting credit, no card, about three months of light use. After that, pay as you go from €3 a month or choose a monthly plan. - **Who:** No account needed yet - **Time:** About ten minutes - **Cost:** €9 starting credit, no card You need an email address you can open and the address of one website. You create a Company and become its Owner. If a colleague invites you instead, up4 only asks for your name. ## Steps ### 1. [Create your account](https://upfour.io/docs/getting-started#account) On the registration page, enter your address under **Work email**, accept the terms and the privacy policy, and select **Send setup link**. Open the link in the email. It signs you in, so you need no password yet. The email says how long the link stays valid. [![](https://upfour.io/docs/images/walk/en/getting-started-account.webp)](https://upfour.io/docs/images/walk/en/getting-started-account.webp) ### 2. [Say who you watch for](https://upfour.io/docs/getting-started#audience) up4 may ask first. Choose **For my own sites** for your own websites. Choose **For clients** if you monitor for other companies. The second choice turns on Clients, and the next steps then ask for a client name as well. You can turn on Clients later in the settings, whichever you choose. [Add a client](https://upfour.io/docs/add-a-client.md) shows what they are for. [![](https://upfour.io/docs/images/walk/en/getting-started-audience.webp)](https://upfour.io/docs/images/walk/en/getting-started-audience.webp) ### 3. [Tell up4 your name](https://upfour.io/docs/getting-started#profile) Enter your **First name** and **Last name**. Under **Company name** up4 suggests a name based on your email domain. Leave the field empty to use your own name. You can rename the Company later. A password is optional. The sign-in link keeps working without one. Select **Continue**. [![](https://upfour.io/docs/images/walk/en/getting-started-profile.webp)](https://upfour.io/docs/images/walk/en/getting-started-profile.webp) ### 4. [Add your first website](https://upfour.io/docs/getting-started#website) Paste the address of a website, for example `example.com`. up4 checks it every minute. A website checked that often uses about €0.39 a month. Select **Add monitor & continue**. No website at hand? Select **Skip**. Several at once? **Add several at once** takes a list, and [Import websites](https://upfour.io/docs/import.md) covers files. All options of a single website are in [Watch a website](https://upfour.io/docs/watch-a-website.md). [![](https://upfour.io/docs/images/walk/en/getting-started-website.webp)](https://upfour.io/docs/images/walk/en/getting-started-website.webp) ### 5. [Choose where alerts go](https://upfour.io/docs/getting-started#alerts) Your own email address is already selected. Slack, Telegram and the other channels can wait: [Receive alerts](https://upfour.io/docs/receive-alerts.md) shows how to add them. Select **Finish setup**. [![](https://upfour.io/docs/images/walk/en/getting-started-alerts.webp)](https://upfour.io/docs/images/walk/en/getting-started-alerts.webp) ### 6. [Send a test alert](https://upfour.io/docs/getting-started#test) Select **Open your dashboard**. The checklist **Getting started** lists **Send a test alert** as its third step. Select **Send test alert**, choose **Send test** on the card of your email channel, and look in your inbox. [![](https://upfour.io/docs/images/walk/en/getting-started-test.webp)](https://upfour.io/docs/images/walk/en/getting-started-test.webp) ## How you know it worked The test email arrives in your inbox. Back on the dashboard, the checklist is complete: the line **All set.** takes its place and ends with “the test alert arrived”. Once the first check has come back, the page of your website shows **up**. The first result usually arrives within a minute. ## If something is off The setup email does not arrive. Look in your spam folder. Then go back to the registration page and request a new link. The monitor shows down although the site works for you. A firewall may block up4's checkers. Allow the addresses listed under [where checks come from](https://upfour.io/ips). The test email does not arrive. Check the spam folder and the address of your [alert channel](https://upfour.io/docs/receive-alerts.md). More in [troubleshooting](https://upfour.io/docs/troubleshooting.md). ## What up4 does not do here - The first website is an HTTP check. Ports, ping and DNS records are set up in the advanced form: [check a server, port or DNS record](https://upfour.io/docs/check-server-port-dns.md). - If you skip the website in setup, your email address still becomes an alert channel. If you skip **Send a test alert**, up4 keeps checking and alerting, but you have not seen a message arrive. - A status change needs 3 matching results, so one failed check does not alert you. [When you get alerted](https://upfour.io/docs/how/when-you-get-alerted.md) explains the timing. - Starting credit needs no card. When it is used up before you have paid, up4 pauses your monitors and keeps your data. [Credit and plans](https://upfour.io/docs/credit-and-plans.md) shows the ways to continue, and [what costs money](https://upfour.io/docs/how/what-costs-money.md) what each check costs. ## The checklist on your dashboard A new account lands on a dashboard with the checklist **Getting started**. Its three steps are **Add a website**, **Choose who gets alerted** and **Send a test alert**. The last one stays locked until you have chosen who gets alerted. Under **Can wait** sit **Connect a scheduled job** and **Create a status page**. Next to the checklist, the tour **How up4 works** shows in five scenes what up4 does when a website goes down. Once a monitor exists, it plays with your own website and marks what is on and what you could still switch on. - **Skip.** **Skip** on the test alert and the cross on the two items under **Can wait** take them off the list. Skipping the test alert counts as finished. - **Fold.** **Hide** folds the checklist and the tour into a slim banner. **Show** opens them again. - **Hide.** The cross on the banner hides everything. When all steps are done, a line **All set.** takes the place of the checklist, with its own cross. It also disappears by itself 7 days after you finished. - **Bring it back.** Press ⌘ K (Ctrl K on Windows and Linux), type **Getting started** and press Enter. The setting is saved for you and the Company, so it follows you to other devices. Viewers do not see the checklist. ## Where to go next - [Publish a status page](https://upfour.io/docs/publish-a-status-page.md) to tell your visitors when something is wrong. - [Watch a scheduled job](https://upfour.io/docs/watch-a-scheduled-job.md) to hear about backups and imports that stop running. - [Invite your team](https://upfour.io/docs/team-and-roles.md) and decide who can change what. - [Add a client](https://upfour.io/docs/add-a-client.md) if you run monitoring for other companies. - [Build an alert plan](https://upfour.io/docs/build-an-alert-plan.md) to escalate when nobody reacts.