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Watchful.li Review: First Look

Watchful.li Review: First Look

Do you maintain multiple Joomla websites? Find it a pain to keep them all up to date? Do you worry that malicious activity will go unnoticed on your server? Well, then this post is for you. This week we're introducing you to a new, affordable Joomla service that will take the pain out of watching and updating each of your individual Joomla sites.

Watchful service for Joomla

 

Here are the highlights:

Monitor both 1.5 and 2.5 sites
Many webmasters have both very old and very new sites that they have to monitor side by side. If this is you, then you'll love the fact that Watchful provides services for both Joomla 1.5 and 2.5 as well. Developers have provided different extensions to be installed based on the version of Joomla you are running. Just remember that Joomla 1.5 won't be supported much longer.

Update multiple sites from one location - including extensions
Not only can you monitor what Joomla version you are running, you can also update Joomla directly from the Watchful dashboard. A very nice feature is that many extensions are also integrated into the update service, so you can update everything with one click of a button.

Watchful.li Updates

Watchful uses Akeeba
This is an extension that most of us know and love, and why fix something that isn't broken? The fact that Watchful uses Akeeba for its backup functionality means that you can still use a solid technology that you are already comfortable with. This is great in case a site goes down or you need to move it at some point in the future.

Watchful watches for security problems
While the security features are not advanced, it's great to know that some thought has gone in to providing some basic security and notification services. Watchful will perform some very basic monitoring on the logs on your server. It will also show you what files have been touched and at what time. This can be a great starting point to investigating an issue when something goes wrong.

Another great feature that fits into this area is the fact that Watchful displays some information about your setup, such as web server, MySQL version and PHP version. This can be very helpful when evaluating extensions that require certain levels to run properly.

Watchful.li Details

Pricing
You can trial the service for free without having to take out your credit card, and if you choose to continue the service, pricing starts at $4.99 per month to monitor five websites. There's also a Standard level at $19.99 per month for 25 sites and a Pro level at $74.99 to monitor up to 100 sites. Beyond that you'll have to get in to Enterprise Pricing that ranges from $175 per month up to $3000 per month based on the number of websites you're monitoring.

Despite the fact that it really does look like Watchful has done a good job of creating a solid product for the Joomla community, we are normally a paranoid bunch, and would strongly recommend taking the final responsibility of backups and monitoring on yourself as a webmaster. If this means creating a second set of backups or simply logging in to your servers to check the files that should exist, then do that. Just remember that you are the one who will have to explain a bad situation to your clients. Also remember that a backup not tested for recovery is not a backup at all.

This looks to be a service that could very well save a busy webmaster loads of time and hassle. It doesn't provide any magical services that you can't provide on your own, but it does a very good job of putting those normally scattered services into one easy to manage space. And this last point could mean all the difference for some.

Let us know in the comments below how you manage multiple sites and how you feel about Watchful if you've given it a try.

Try the service for free at Watchful.li

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Comments 8

Richard Pearce on Friday, 07 December 2012 07:43

Interested to know what others think of this service. I love the idea, but the security scares me a bit. There is a discussion about this in the forum.

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Interested to know what others think of this service. I love the idea, but the security scares me a bit. There is a discussion about this [url="http://www.buildajoomlawebsite.com/forum/joomla-site-management]in the forum[/url].
Eng Ung on Friday, 07 December 2012 09:52

Thanks for the review Robert. I've been looking to simplify updates with multiple Joomla sites and I think Watchful.ly hits the sweet spot in terms of pricing and features. I like the fact that all the mundane tasks of doing backups, extension updates and Joomla updates are all rolled into one is quite useful.
I've also had my eye on a similar service - Admncredible. But Admncredible's pricing seems out of reach for many freelancers & webmasters.

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Thanks for the review Robert. I've been looking to simplify updates with multiple Joomla sites and I think Watchful.ly hits the sweet spot in terms of pricing and features. I like the fact that all the mundane tasks of doing backups, extension updates and Joomla updates are all rolled into one is quite useful. I've also had my eye on a similar service - Admncredible. But Admncredible's pricing seems out of reach for many freelancers & webmasters.
Trevor Mitchell on Friday, 07 December 2012 14:19

Watchful looks pretty good but recently I've been totally blown away by 'Audit My Joomla'. This has just gone online, and does a thorough audit of your Joomla installation - what is there, what shouldn't be there and what has changed, and what the implications are. Already its helped find and sort out several hacked sites. Integrated updates, uptime, and backup (akeeba) are available to monthly subscribers (unlimited sites). Lots of resources, where you need it, at the time you need it, to help you make the important decisions. (http://www.joomla-security.com)

0
Watchful looks pretty good but recently I've been totally blown away by 'Audit My Joomla'. This has just gone online, and does a thorough audit of your Joomla installation - what is there, what shouldn't be there and what has changed, and what the implications are. Already its helped find and sort out several hacked sites. Integrated updates, uptime, and backup (akeeba) are available to monthly subscribers (unlimited sites). Lots of resources, where you need it, at the time you need it, to help you make the important decisions. (http://www.joomla-security.com)
Richard Pearce on Friday, 07 December 2012 14:47

Watchful's main claim to fame is updates. The Joomla Security product certainly looks promising and is on our radar for a potential future write-up.

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Watchful's main claim to fame is updates. The Joomla Security product certainly looks promising and is on our radar for a potential future write-up.
Guest - Chuck on Friday, 07 December 2012 16:47

There is also http://www.admincredible.com with most of the same updating capibilties as well.

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There is also www.admincredible.com with most of the same updating capibilties as well.
Richard Pearce on Friday, 07 December 2012 17:14

Strictly speaking, Admincredible hasn't been released yet. We'll review it and possibly do a head-to-head article in the future.

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Strictly speaking, Admincredible hasn't been released yet. We'll review it and possibly do a head-to-head article in the future.
Guest - Deb Cinkus on Wednesday, 12 December 2012 14:30

Great article and nice intro to Watchful!

For those who are interested in learning a bit more about all three tools - Admincredible, Audit My Joomla and Watchful - feel free to visit our new blog post. It's a summary of all three compared to each other and each of the vendors involved have reviewed it for accuracy as of today: https://polishedgeek.com/home/blog/item/17-comparing-three-hot-new-joomla-saas-admin-tools

0
Great article and nice intro to Watchful! For those who are interested in learning a bit more about all three tools - Admincredible, Audit My Joomla and Watchful - feel free to visit our new blog post. It's a summary of all three compared to each other and each of the vendors involved have reviewed it for accuracy as of today: https://polishedgeek.com/home/blog/item/17-comparing-three-hot-new-joomla-saas-admin-tools
Richard Pearce on Wednesday, 12 December 2012 15:28

Hey Deb - I'm normally too mean to allow a link to someone else's blog here, but you've created an awesome comparison chart. Nice one.

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Hey Deb - I'm normally too mean to allow a link to someone else's blog here, but you've created an awesome comparison chart. Nice one.

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