Modern development teams need reliable uptime monitoring without vendor lock-in or expensive subscriptions. Uptime Kuma delivers a self-hosted monitoring solution that combines elegant design with powerful functionality, making server monitoring accessible to developers, DevOps engineers, and system administrators alike.
This open source monitoring tool has rapidly become the go-to alternative to commercial services like UptimeRobot and Pingdom, with over 78,000 GitHub stars demonstrating massive community adoption. Whether you are managing a single website or orchestrating complex microservices architectures, Uptime Kuma provides the visibility you need to maintain high availability.
Unlike cloud-based monitoring services, Uptime Kuma gives you complete control over your infrastructure monitoring data. Deploy it on your own servers, and you own every aspect of your monitoring pipeline. No data leaves your infrastructure unless you configure external notifications.
Uptime Kuma supports diverse monitoring types that cover virtually every infrastructure component:
Configure 20-second check intervals to detect downtime almost instantly. When issues arise, Uptime Kuma sends notifications through over 90 integrations including Telegram, Discord, Slack, Email (SMTP), Pushover, Gotify, and webhooks for custom workflows.
The monitoring dashboard features a clean, intuitive design with dark mode support for comfortable late-night debugging sessions. Real-time ping charts visualize uptime patterns and response time trends, making it easy to identify performance degradation before it impacts users.
Built with Vue 3 and modern web technologies, the interface responds instantly to status changes. WebSocket connections ensure you see updates without page refreshes, providing true real-time monitoring visibility.
Create customizable status pages to communicate service availability to your users and stakeholders. Display uptime percentages, current status, and incident history without exposing your internal monitoring dashboard. Perfect for SaaS products, API providers, and client-facing services.
| Feature | Uptime Kuma | UptimeRobot Free | Commercial Solutions |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monitor Count | Unlimited | 50 monitors | Pay per monitor |
| Check Interval | 20 seconds | 5 minutes | 1-5 minutes |
| Status Pages | Unlimited | 1 basic page | Limited or paid |
| Notifications | 90+ services | Email only | Limited channels |
| Self-Hosted | Yes | No | No |
| Cost | Free | Free tier | $10-100+/month |
Never let SSL certificates expire unexpectedly. Uptime Kuma monitors certificate expiration dates and alerts you weeks in advance, ensuring your websites maintain secure connections and avoid browser warnings with tools like Certbot.
Secure your monitoring dashboard with two-factor authentication (2FA). Integrate with existing authentication systems like Auth.js or use built-in user management to control access to sensitive uptime data.
Deploy Uptime Kuma in under 5 minutes using Docker:
version: "3.8"
services:
uptime-kuma:
image: louislam/uptime-kuma:2
container_name: uptime-kuma
restart: always
ports:
- "3001:3001"
volumes:
- uptime-kuma:/app/data
environment:
- TZ=America/New_York
volumes:
uptime-kuma:
Volume Management - Always use local volumes for SQLite database. Network-attached storage (NFS) can cause file locking issues and database corruption.
Reverse Proxy Integration - Place Uptime Kuma behind Nginx or Traefik for SSL termination and domain routing.
Health Checks - Configure Docker health checks to ensure container availability and automatic restart on failures.
Log Rotation - Implement log rotation to prevent disk space exhaustion from monitoring logs.
Backup Strategy - Schedule automated backups of the /app/data directory containing all monitoring configuration and historical data.
Store Uptime Kuma configuration alongside infrastructure code in version control. Export monitor configurations, backup notification settings, and document monitoring strategies for team collaboration with GitHub.
Integrate uptime monitoring into deployment workflows. Configure monitors that activate automatically when new services deploy to staging or production environments using GitHub Actions or similar CI/CD tools.
For complex microservices deployed with Docker Compose or Kubernetes, Uptime Kuma can monitor individual service endpoints, verify inter-service communication, and track cascading failures across your distributed system.
Balance monitoring frequency with system resources:
Uptime Kuma uses SQLite for data storage. For installations monitoring 100+ endpoints:
Best for:
Consider alternatives when:
Uptime Kuma complements other open source monitoring tools like Prometheus for metrics collection, Grafana for advanced visualization, and Zabbix for comprehensive infrastructure monitoring. Use Uptime Kuma for uptime checks and status pages, while deeper performance analysis happens in specialized tools.
With over 6,900 forks and contributions from 812 developers, Uptime Kuma benefits from an active open source community. Regular releases introduce new features, notification integrations, and bug fixes based on real-world usage feedback.
Since Uptime Kuma runs self-hosted, all monitoring data remains within your infrastructure. No external services access your check results, response times, or configuration details unless you explicitly configure external notifications.
Uptime Kuma follows semantic versioning with major releases (v2.x) and frequent minor updates. Update process with Docker:
docker pull louislam/uptime-kuma:2
docker-compose down
docker-compose up -d
Always backup the data volume before upgrading to new major versions.
Implement meta-monitoring to ensure Uptime Kuma itself remains available. Use external monitoring services or secondary Uptime Kuma instances to verify your primary monitoring stack stays operational.
Running Uptime Kuma requires minimal resources:
A $5/month VPS from DigitalOcean or Hetzner can run Uptime Kuma alongside other lightweight services using PM2 or Coolify. Compare this to commercial monitoring at $10-100+ monthly, and the cost savings become substantial for teams monitoring multiple services.
The project maintains active development with regular feature additions including enhanced notification integrations, improved Docker monitoring capabilities, advanced filtering options, and expanded protocol support. Community feedback drives prioritization, ensuring the tool evolves based on real-world DevOps requirements.
Uptime Kuma democratizes infrastructure monitoring by removing cost barriers and vendor dependencies. Whether you are launching your first side project or managing production infrastructure for a growing startup, this self-hosted monitoring tool provides the visibility needed to maintain high availability without breaking your budget.
Install Uptime Kuma today, point it at your critical services, and gain peace of mind knowing you will be alerted the moment anything goes offline. Your users will thank you for the improved reliability, and your finance team will appreciate the cost savings compared to commercial monitoring solutions.
Platform
GitHub
Language
JavaScript
License
MIT
Stars
50k+
Uptime Kuma is a free, open source, self-hosted monitoring tool that tracks website uptime, server availability, and infrastructure health. It features a beautiful reactive UI, supports 90+ notification services, and provides unlimited monitors with 20-second check intervals. Unlike commercial alternatives, you deploy it on your own infrastructure with complete data control.
The easiest installation method is using Docker. Run docker run -d --restart=always -p 3001:3001 -v uptime-kuma:/app/data --name uptime-kuma louislam/uptime-kuma:2 or use Docker Compose for more control. You can also install natively with Node.js 20.4+ and PM2, but Docker is recommended for most users due to simpler dependency management.
Uptime Kuma monitors HTTP/HTTPS endpoints, TCP ports, DNS records, ping targets, Docker containers, databases (MySQL, PostgreSQL), Steam game servers, and supports keyword detection in HTTP responses. It checks SSL certificate expiration, measures response times, and creates detailed uptime charts with historical data.
Uptime Kuma offers unlimited monitors versus UptimeRobot free tier limit of 50 monitors. It provides 20-second check intervals compared to 5-minute intervals, supports 90+ notification services versus email-only on free tier, and being self-hosted means no vendor lock-in. However, UptimeRobot requires zero maintenance, while Uptime Kuma needs infrastructure management.
Uptime Kuma runs efficiently on minimal resources. For 50-100 monitors, you need 1 GB RAM, 1 CPU core, and 10 GB storage. A $5/month VPS is sufficient for most small to medium deployments. It requires Docker for container deployment or Node.js 20.4+ for native installation. PostgreSQL support requires the database to be accessible from the Uptime Kuma server.
Yes, Uptime Kuma includes built-in status page functionality. Create multiple public status pages showing service availability, uptime percentages, current incidents, and historical data. Customize branding, colors, and displayed monitors. Status pages are perfect for communicating with customers, stakeholders, or team members without exposing your monitoring dashboard.
Uptime Kuma integrates with 90+ notification services including Discord, Slack, Telegram, email (SMTP), webhooks, Pushover, Gotify, and many more. Configure multiple notification channels per monitor, set up escalation rules, and customize alert messages. Notifications trigger on downtime, recovery, SSL certificate expiration warnings, and status changes.
Yes, Uptime Kuma supports two-factor authentication (2FA), user management with role-based access, and secure password hashing. Deploy it behind a reverse proxy with SSL/TLS encryption, use firewall rules to restrict access, and enable authentication for all users. Being self-hosted, all monitoring data stays within your infrastructure, providing complete privacy control.
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