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Uptime Kuma: The Ultimate Self-Hosted Monitoring Solution

louislam/uptime-kuma - Detailed Review#

1. Overview & GitHub Stats#

2. Project Description#

Uptime Kuma is an elegant, self-hosted monitoring tool designed to track the uptime and performance of your websites, applications, and services. With its modern web interface and comprehensive feature set, it provides real-time monitoring, alerting, and status pages without the need for expensive commercial subscriptions. Built with simplicity and power in mind, it’s become the go-to solution for developers and sysadmins seeking full control over their monitoring infrastructure.

3. What Software Does It Replace?#

Uptime Kuma serves as a compelling alternative to several popular monitoring solutions:

  • UptimeRobot (Commercial SaaS)
  • StatusCake (Commercial SaaS)
  • Pingdom (Commercial SaaS)
  • Nagios (Open-source but complex)
  • Zabbix (Enterprise monitoring)
  • Datadog Synthetics (Commercial feature)

4. Core Functionality#

Uptime Kuma offers a robust set of monitoring capabilities:

  • HTTP(s) Monitoring: Check website availability with customizable intervals
  • TCP Port Monitoring: Verify service availability on specific ports
  • Ping Monitoring: Network-level availability checking
  • DNS Monitoring: Validate DNS record resolution and response times
  • Push Monitoring: Receive heartbeat signals from your applications
  • Multi-region Monitoring: Deploy monitors from different geographic locations
  • Real-time Status Pages: Public-facing status pages with incident history
  • Multi-notification Support: Alerts via Telegram, Discord, Slack, Email, Webhook, and more
  • Certificate Monitoring: SSL/TLS certificate expiration alerts
  • Response Time Tracking: Performance metrics and historical data

5. Pros and Cons#

Pros:

  • Completely free and open-source
  • Modern, responsive web interface
  • Easy to set up and configure
  • Extensive notification options
  • Lightweight and resource-efficient
  • Active community and regular updates
  • No dependency on third-party services
  • Supports multiple monitoring protocols

Cons:

  • Requires self-hosting infrastructure
  • Lenterprise-grade features of commercial alternatives
  • No built-in distributed monitoring (requires manual setup)
  • Limited historical data retention compared to paid services
  • Community support only (no official SLA)

6. Detailed Installation Guide (Self-host)#

Prerequisites#

  • Ubuntu 20.04+ server
  • Docker and Docker Compose installed
  • 1GB+ RAM recommended
  • Domain name (optional for SSL)

Step-by-Step Installation#

1. Update System Packages

Terminal window
sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y

2. Install Docker and Docker Compose

Terminal window
# Install Docker
curl -fsSL https://get.docker.com -o get-docker.sh
sudo sh get-docker.sh
# Install Docker Compose
sudo curl -L "https://github.com/docker/compose/releases/download/v2.20.0/docker-compose-$(uname -s)-$(uname -m)" -o /usr/local/bin/docker-compose
sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/docker-compose

3. Create Docker Compose File

Terminal window
mkdir uptime-kuma
cd uptime-kuma
nano docker-compose.yml

4. Add the following content:

version: '3.8'
services:
uptime-kuma:
image: louislam/uptime-kuma:1
container_name: uptime-kuma
volumes:
- ./data:/app/data
ports:
- "3001:3001"
restart: unless-stopped

5. Start Uptime Kuma

Terminal window
docker-compose up -d

6. Access the Web Interface Open your browser and navigate to:

http://your-server-ip:3001

7. Initial Setup

  • Create admin account
  • Configure your first monitor
  • Set up notification channels
  • Customize your status page

8. (Optional) Reverse Proxy with Nginx

Terminal window
sudo apt install nginx -y
sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/uptime-kuma

Add Nginx configuration:

server {
listen 80;
server_name your-domain.com;
location / {
proxy_pass http://localhost:3001;
proxy_set_header Host $host;
proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
}
}

Enable the site:

Terminal window
sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/uptime-kuma /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/
sudo nginx -t
sudo systemctl reload nginx

Your Uptime Kuma instance is now ready to monitor your services with professional-grade capabilities!

Uptime Kuma: The Ultimate Self-Hosted Monitoring Solution
https://minixium.com/posts/self-host-louislam-uptime-kuma/
Author
Minixium
Published at
2025-08-28
License
CC BY-NC-SA 4.0