How to get started with Globalping

Over the last few years, our global network measurement platform, Globalping, has grown greatly. Today, we serve more than 2 million tests per day on 3k+ probes hosted around the globe. We’ve seen an increase in users and community members, and we also have various integrations and tools built by our team and the community.

As Globalping offers more ways to run tests, getting started can seem overwhelming for newcomers. If you want to start using Globalping, are unsure whether it is the right tool for you, or don't know which tools to use, this blog post is for you.

In this guide, you can find a list of typical use cases, along with our recommended tools and integrations for each. First, we introduce you to the core tools that are useful to almost anyone in most situations. Afterward, pick your own adventure: find the use case that sounds most like you to get started with Globalping.

The core tools

Some Globalping tools and integrations are valuable to all users, regardless of their requirements. Let's have a look at these tools and what makes them great.

Web tool

Visit our website at globalping.io to find our web tool at the top of the page. Here, you can create and configure tests by filling out the form. The “magic” location field helps you pick probe locations to run tests from, with a suggestion box that updates as you type (note that there will be no suggestions when you use filters). Click the cog icon to find advanced and test-specific configuration options.

You run the test directly on our website and get the results displayed below a map showing the probes used for your measurement.

The web tool is ideal for quick, one-off tests or when you don’t want to install anything on your machine. All you need is an internet connection to run free tests on our website.

Command-line interface

If you’re comfortable with the terminal and use it in your daily work, the Globalping CLI is likely a great choice. It is useful for running single or repeated tests and integrating tests into scripts or development workflows.

With the CLI, you can run all test types and see results in a human-friendly format. The CLI offers additional options (flags) and can be used in your automation scripts, making it more flexible and efficient than the web tool for technical users or frequent test runs.

You can find more details, as well as setup instructions for Linux, macOS, and Windows, in our GitHub repo.

Globalping Dashboard

If you want to get more out of Globalping or host and manage your own probes for the network, the dashboard is the tool for you.

Globalping gives you 250 free tests per hour (at the time of writing) by default, which are counted against your IP address. If multiple users run tests from the same IP address, they share the same allowance.

Creating a free account with your GitHub user increases your hourly tests to 500 (at the time of writing) and counts usage against your account rather than your IP address. Just authenticate in your chosen tool, such as the CLI tool, to start using your account’s free tests.

If you need more, you can earn credits by hosting a probe (each probe that joins the network makes it better and more reliable for everyone). Credits don’t expire, and you can spend them on additional tests once your free hourly limit runs out. Adopt your probes in the dashboard to fine-tune their location, add tags to target them in tests, and track your credits.

Visit the Globalping Dashboard and learn more about it on our blog.

Globalping API

Finally, the backbone of the platform: the Globalping API. Anybody can use it to create measurements, get the results, check online probes, and view current limits (free tests). If you want to build a tool or app with Globalping, the API is a great starting point. There are also libraries for TypeScript, Go, Python, Java, and .NET if you prefer to work in your language of choice.

Choose your use case

I want to explore and run quick tests

You are: a curious developer, home user, newbie to the networking world, or simply want to run quick tests, potentially on the go.

Maybe you’ve heard of Globalping and want to try it out. Or maybe you just need to check if your website is available in Japan. Whatever it is, you just want to run a quick test without committing to setting up a Globalping tool yet.

The web tool is the fastest way to use Globalping in this scenario. Just visit our website and fill out the form to run a test (no registration needed). And since each test gets a shareable link, it's also a great way to share results with others.

When you're ready and comfortable using your terminal, install the CLI. It supports all the same test types and options as the web tool and adds features such as the --json option for the full API response, including measurement results and probe details.

I want to troubleshoot DNS, latency, or API availability

You are: a developer.

Let’s say you’ve updated your app or service, but something isn’t right. Maybe DNS hasn’t propagated everywhere, latency is higher than it should be in a specific region, or your API returns errors you can’t reproduce on your machine. That’s where Globalping’s global testing comes in.

The CLI is probably the best option here. Run DNS lookups, HTTP checks, or traceroutes from any location and get instant results. If you’re working in VSCode or one of its forks, such as Cursor, you can use our official extension to do the same without leaving your editor.

You can also integrate tests in your own app or automate tests during deployment. Our API and libraries for TypeScript, Go, Python, Java, and .NET give you full programmatic access to Globalping’s functionality.

Need more free tests per hour? Create a free Dashboard account to double them instantly.

I work in a team and want to test, verify, and collaborate

You are: part of a dev team, DevOps engineering team, or team lead.

When something breaks during a deployment, your team needs to run tests and share their findings quickly. However, switching between tools and copy-pasting results can lead to errors and can also slow down the team.

With our official Slack and Discord apps, your team can run tests and see results directly in your channels. As a result, you can keep the conversation and data in one place, add the right people, run additional troubleshooting tests, and reach a solution more quickly.

If you want to run tests for yourself without sharing them with the whole team, the CLI is always there for quick or scripted tests.

We also recommend that your Slack or Discord admin creates a dashboard account and then authenticates with the app to increase the team’s shared free hourly tests. For your CLI tests, you can authenticate with your own dashboard account to use up your own allowance.

I need a global uptime monitoring solution

You are: a DevOps engineer, solo developer, or self-hoster.

When monitoring your website, API, or service, knowing it’s reachable from only one location isn’t enough. You want to test from different countries or regions to get alerts about outages that you would otherwise miss. Globalping is built into several popular open-source monitoring tools, giving you a global perspective without managing the infrastructure yourself.

You can find Globalping in:

If you’re already using one of these, you can check the tool’s documentation to learn how to add Globalping tests in just a few steps. If not, we recommend giving them a try. In the end, you’ll get a global uptime monitoring solution that is open source, self-hosted, and free.

Naturally, the more monitors you run, the closer you’ll get to spending all your free tests. So we also recommend setting up a free dashboard account and connecting it to your monitoring tool in this scenario.

I want to automate tests and build workflows

You are: a DevOps engineer, part of a dev team, or a solo developer.

Whether you want to verify a deployment in a CI/CD pipeline, trigger an alert during an incident, or build a custom monitoring solution, running tests manually won't get you far. Depending on what you want to achieve, there are a few good options.

If you're a developer building something custom, the API provides you with full programmatic access to measurements and results. Before you integrate the API directly, check whether one of our official libraries for TypeScript, Go, Python, Java, and .NET is a better fit for your stack.

If you’d rather build workflows visually, the Globalping nodes for n8n (available on both managed and self-hosted instances) and Zapier let you connect Globalping to hundreds of other tools without writing any code.

The MCP server is worth a look if you're working with AI agents or building AI-powered workflows. You can run tests using natural language and ask it, for example, whether your website is reachable from a specific location, without manually configuring the tests.

Running low on free tests? Create a free dashboard account, connect it to your tool to double your hourly allowance.

I want to contribute to an open-source project

You are: a home user, server owner, company, or open source contributor.

Globalping runs on a vast probe network hosted mainly by the community. The more probes join, the more useful and reliable the platform is for everyone. There are a couple of ways to be part of that.

The easiest way to contribute is to host a probe on a server running Docker (even an old Raspberry Pi works). In return, you earn credits you can spend to run more tests. Create a Dashboard account to adopt your probe, manage it, and track your credits. If you're running Kubernetes, our Helm chart makes deploying multiple probes more straightforward.

You can also support the project by sponsoring via GitHub, which helps us cover infrastructure and development costs.

If you'd rather contribute code, the community has already built libraries for Python, Java, and .NET, as well as a Home Assistant addon. We welcome anyone building new integrations or adding Globalping support to their open source tools.

I am looking to promote my infrastructure

You are: a network company, infrastructure provider, or tech company.

If you run network infrastructure, Globalping gives you a practical way to showcase its performance to developers.

Connect your GitHub organization to the Dashboard to host probes under your org tag. This makes your infrastructure directly targetable by any Globalping user, and you get a public profile page with your organization’s name, logo, and a list of your hosted probes.

You may also already have a Looking Glass page: a clean, branded, bookmarkable page on our website where developers can run tests against your network directly. It's a lightweight dev-facing marketing tool, and can be interesting to link from your developer docs or network status page.

Where to go from here

Globalping is easy to get started with, and all our official tools and integrations are open source and free to use. Pick the use case that fits your situation, get comfortable with one or two tools, and then check out other tools as your needs change.

If you want to read more guides and tutorials, our Globalping blog has you covered. And if you have a feature request, an idea, or just want to follow the project, you can find us on GitHub.