Uptime Kuma
Uptime Kuma is a self-hosted, open-source uptime and availability monitor. It runs checks for HTTP(S), TCP, Ping/ICMP, DNS records, JSON/keyword responses and more, then routes alerts to a long list of notification providers or to a public/private status page.
It’s aimed at hobbyists, home-lab builders, small teams and developers who want control over monitoring data, low-cost operation, and easy deployment (Docker, single binary, Raspberry Pi). It’s not a managed multi-region probe network — it’s a lightweight monitor you run where you control infrastructure.
Use Cases
- Home labs and personal projects: keep an eye on web servers, NAS, Raspberry Pi services and home automation endpoints.
- Small-team infrastructure: monitor internal services, DNS, databases and APIs; send alerts to Slack, Discord, Telegram or email.
- Dev/QA environments: short polling intervals for near-real-time feedback during deployments or testing.
- Status pages and customer transparency: publish public or private status pages and badges to communicate incidents.
- Automation and observability integration: export Prometheus metrics and use the REST API for dashboards or programmatic automation.
Strengths
- Multi-protocol checks: monitors HTTP(S), TCP, Ping, DNS, JSON/keyword checks and some specialized checks (Steam), covering many service types from one dashboard.
- Wide notification support: built-in integrations (Telegram, Discord, Slack, SMTP, webhooks, Gotify, Pushover, etc.) minimize glue work to reach existing tools.
- Easy deployment: official Docker image, docker-compose examples and single-binary options make installation fast across Linux, Windows, macOS and Raspberry Pi.
- Short polling intervals: configurable intervals down to ~20s for near-real-time alerts when needed (be mindful of resource costs).
- Status pages & badges: publish uptime information for users or customers without an external SaaS provider.
- Prometheus metrics & API: integrates with observability stacks and automations via metrics and REST endpoints.
- Lightweight and low-cost: small footprint, suitable for small VMs, NAS or Pi — no subscription fees and source code you can inspect or modify.
- Usable UI: reactive dashboard with charts, history and per-monitor logs that make issue triage straightforward.
Limitations
- Single-location checks by default: probes run from the host you deploy. No built-in global probe network, so a single-host deployment can miss regional outages or produce false positives.
- Access control is basic: authentication and 2FA are supported, but enterprise-grade RBAC and native SSO options are limited; additional tooling (reverse proxy + SSO) may be required.
- Scalability depends on DB: SQLite works for small setups; large numbers of monitors or high-frequency checks require MySQL/MariaDB and more operational effort.
- Operational overhead: self-hosting means you handle backups, upgrades and scaling. Documentation gaps and occasional regressions mean testing upgrades in staging is prudent.
- Not a replacement for paid multi-region services: if you need SLA-backed, multi-location synthetic monitoring or enterprise compliance guarantees, a commercial provider is still necessary.
Final Thoughts
Uptime Kuma is a practical, low-cost option for anyone who needs straightforward uptime checks and complete control over monitoring data. For small teams, hobbyists and developers it delivers a usable feature set, strong notification options and easy deployment with minimal infrastructure.
Use Uptime Kuma when you control the infrastructure you want to monitor, need flexible notifications or want to avoid recurring SaaS fees. Consider running multiple instances in different locations or using MySQL/MariaDB if you need higher reliability or scale. Test upgrades in staging, back up your database, and add a reverse-proxy SSO solution if your organization needs centralized auth.