Uptime Kuma: pricing, free tier and alternatives (2026)

§1

Overview

Uptime Kuma is the most popular self-hosted uptime monitor, with nearly 90,000 GitHub stars. You start it with one Docker command and manage everything from a web UI: HTTP(S) and keyword checks, JSON query checks on APIs, TCP ports, ping, DNS records, websockets, Docker containers, game servers and push monitors for cron jobs.

Notifications go to Telegram, Discord, Slack, Pushover, Gotify, SMTP email and more than 90 other services. You can publish several status pages and map each to its own domain, and the UI shows certificate expiry and response-time charts.

Because it is self-hosted, it costs nothing beyond the server, but it also checks from only one place and needs its own monitoring: if the server hosting Uptime Kuma goes down, your alerts go with it. Many people run it on a separate small VPS or pair it with a free hosted monitor.

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Pricing and plans

Free tier · no card

Entirely free and open source (MIT). No limits on monitors or status pages beyond your own server's capacity.

Plan	Price	What you get
Self-hosted	$0	MIT licence; runs via Docker or Node.js on Linux or Windows

No paid plan or hosted service exists; the project is funded by sponsors. Your cost is the server (a small VPS is enough). Checks run from wherever you host it, so a single instance cannot tell a regional outage from a problem at its own host. euRegion is true because you choose where to host it.

Source: github.com/louislam/uptime-kuma · prices as published, excluding tax.

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What it does

Monitor types: HTTP(S), keyword, JSON query, TCP, ping, DNS record, websocket, push, Docker container and Steam game server checks.
Fast intervals: Checks can run as often as every 20 seconds.
Notifications: 90+ notification services including Telegram, Discord, Slack, Pushover and SMTP email.
Status pages: Multiple status pages, each mappable to a specific domain.
Security: Two-factor authentication and proxy support.

§4

Strengths and limitations

Strengths

Free with no monitor limits.
One-command Docker install and a friendly web UI.
Very wide choice of notification channels.
Active open-source project with a large community.

Limitations

Checks come from a single location: wherever you host it.
You must host, update and back it up yourself; NFS storage is not supported.
No built-in team accounts, on-call scheduling or SMS credits.
Not available on FreeBSD, Replit or Heroku, per the README.

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Who it suits

Good for

Homelabs and self-hosters
Side projects on a VPS
Small teams that want unlimited free monitors

Look elsewhere if

Teams that need multi-region checks or managed on-call
Anyone who does not want to run another server

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Alternatives to Uptime Kuma

Tool	From	Free option
Amazon CloudWatch AWS-native metrics, logs, alarms and tracing	Usage-based	Free tier
AppSignal APM with errors, logs, hosts and uptime	$23.25/mo	Free tier
Axiom Log and event data platform	$25/mo	Free tier
Better Stack Uptime, logs, errors and incident management	$29/mo	Free tier
Bugsink Self-hosted error tracking (Sentry SDK compatible)	$16/mo	Free tier
Checkly Synthetic and uptime monitoring as code	$24/mo	Free tier

All monitoring, uptime and error tracking →

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Questions

Is Uptime Kuma free?

Yes, it is open source under the MIT licence with no paid tier; you only pay for the server you run it on.

How do I install Uptime Kuma?

Run the official Docker image (louislam/uptime-kuma:2) or use the Docker Compose file; it serves the UI on port 3001.

Is there a hosted Uptime Kuma?

The project itself offers no hosted version; you self-host it.

How often can Uptime Kuma check a site?

As often as every 20 seconds.

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