Notifications

VitalSentinel tells you about problems in two places: the in-app notification inbox and email. This page explains the Notifications inbox and the account Notifications settings, where you choose which emails you get.

Before you startCopy Anchor Link

• The bell icon at the top of the app opens a short list of your unread notifications. The full inbox is at /dashboard/notifications.
• To open the email settings, click your avatar at the top right, click User settings, and then click Notifications in the sidebar. You can also click Email settings in the inbox.
• Notification settings are personal. Each member of a workspace sets their own.
• Alerts come from alert rules on a domain. To create alert rules, see Alerts.

Notification channelsCopy Anchor Link

VitalSentinel can send a notification through these channels:

Notification bellCopy Anchor Link

The bell icon at the top of the app shows a badge with the number of unread notifications. The badge shows 9+ for more than nine. Click the bell to see your newest unread notifications. If you have none, the list says "You're all caught up".

Notifications inboxCopy Anchor Link

The Notifications inbox page lists your notifications in the Inbox card, with the newest at the top. Each row shows:

• A colored status dot and the title. An unread title is bold.
• The domain, or Account for a notification that is not about one domain.
• When you received it (Received).
• A Resolved chip if the problem went away. Hover over the time to see when it was fixed, for example "Fixed itself on Oct 17, 2026".
• A chip such as ×3 if the same alert fired more than once.

Needs you and Good to knowCopy Anchor Link

In the Unread view, the inbox splits your notifications into two sections:

• Needs you: unread notifications with the severity Warning or Critical. Read these first.
• Good to know: all other unread notifications, for example Info and Success messages.

In the All view, the inbox shows all notifications, read and unread, newest first, with no sections.

Severity colorsCopy Anchor Link

The status dot of each notification shows its severity:

Open a notificationCopy Anchor Link

Click a notification to open it in a panel on the side of the page. VitalSentinel marks it as read. The panel shows what happened and the facts, such as Received and the device. A button opens the page where you can act, for example View issues or Open the page.

Use the arrows in the panel to go to the previous or next notification.

Manage notifications in the inboxCopy Anchor Link

Each row has a menu (three dots) with these actions:

• Mark as read or Mark as unread.
• Delete. You cannot get a deleted notification back.

For a repeated alert, the actions apply to all copies, for example Mark all 3 as read or Delete all 3. To mark every notification as read, click Mark all read at the top of the page.

Filter the inboxCopy Anchor Link

The filter bar at the bottom of the inbox has these options:

• Show: Unread (the default) or All.
• Domain: show the notifications of one domain.
• Severity: show only one severity, for example Critical.
• Kind: show only one module, for example Uptime Monitoring, RUM Monitoring or Account and system.

Empty inbox messagesCopy Anchor Link

• No unread notifications and "You are all caught up.": you read everything.
• No notifications yet: you have no notifications.
• No notifications match these filters: clear a filter to see more.

Notification settingsCopy Anchor Link

The account Notifications settings page has five cards. Every switch saves immediately.

Account and product emailsCopy Anchor Link

The Account and product emails card controls emails about the product. VitalSentinel always sends account, security and billing emails.

• Product and onboarding emails: getting-started emails after you sign up, plus some product guidance.
• Newsletter: product updates and technical SEO tips, two emails a month at most.
• Count opens and clicks in onboarding and newsletter emails: VitalSentinel sees when you open these emails and click their links. It is off by default. If you ticked the email box when you registered, it is on. You can turn it off at any time.

Each product email also has an unsubscribe link at the bottom.

Alert emailsCopy Anchor Link

The Alert emails card has one switch for each module, for example Uptime Monitoring, RUM Monitoring and Google Search Console. A module switch controls if that module can send you alert emails. Alerts always show in the inbox, under the bell.

An alert email needs two settings: the email switch of the alert rule is on, and the module switch is on.

If you turn off Site Health Monitoring, Page Monitoring or Sitemap Monitoring, VitalSentinel also removes that module from your change digest and weekly report.

The switch Email me when a critical alert fixes itself sends one short email when a critical alert that VitalSentinel emailed closes by itself.

Shared alertsCopy Anchor Link

The Shared alerts card lists alerts that an owner or admin shares with everyone in the workspace. Each alert shows its severity (Critical, Warning or Info), Shared by and the name of the person. Turn off the switch for a site to stop getting that alert yourself. A paused alert shows the chip Paused.

Muted status dotsCopy Anchor Link

The Muted status dots card lists the problems that you muted with Stop flagging this on a status dot. Each row shows the site, the module, the problem and the mute date.

• Click Unmute to see the dot of that problem again.
• Click Unmute all and confirm to unmute every problem.

If you muted nothing, the card shows Nothing is muted. See Dashboard.

Change digestCopy Anchor Link

The Change digest and weekly reports card has two settings and a table of your sites. The Change digest is an email about what changed on the pages you watch with Page Monitoring and across your sites in Site Health Monitoring. Select how often you get it:

Sitemap Monitoring is only in the email with the Weekly option.

Weekly domain reportsCopy Anchor Link

The Weekly domain reports switch sends one email on Monday for all your sites. The email shows what needs action and what changed. A quiet week sends nothing. Urgent problems still reach you through alert rules.

Below the switches, a table lists your sites by workspace. Use the Change digest and Weekly report columns to turn each site on or off. The ? of each column header shows a count, for example "On for 3 of 5 sites."

If the change digest is Off or the weekly reports are off, the site switches of that column are paused. The card then says, for example, "The change digest is off, so its site switches are paused."

TroubleshootingCopy Anchor Link

Why do I not get alert emails?Copy Anchor Link

Check two settings. First, the alert rule must have its email switch on. See Alerts. Second, the module switch must be on in Alert emails. Also look in your spam folder.

Why does the inbox not show my read notifications?Copy Anchor Link

The inbox opens with Show set to Unread. Set Show to All in the filter bar.

How do I stop the product emails?Copy Anchor Link

Turn off Product and onboarding emails and Newsletter in Account and product emails. You can also click the unsubscribe link in the email. Account, security and billing emails always arrive.

Why did a status dot stop showing a problem?Copy Anchor Link

You or somebody with your account muted the problem with Stop flagging this. Open Muted status dots and click Unmute.

RelatedCopy Anchor Link

• Alerts - create the alert rules that fill the inbox
• Alert delivery - send alerts to Slack or a webhook
• Dashboard - status dots and muted problems
• Reports - the reports of a domain