louislam/uptime-kuma - Detailed Review
1. Overview & GitHub Stats
- URL: https://github.com/louislam/uptime-kuma
- Stars: 73635
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
sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y
2. Install Docker and Docker Compose
# Install Dockercurl -fsSL https://get.docker.com -o get-docker.shsudo sh get-docker.sh
# Install Docker Composesudo curl -L "https://github.com/docker/compose/releases/download/v2.20.0/docker-compose-$(uname -s)-$(uname -m)" -o /usr/local/bin/docker-composesudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/docker-compose
3. Create Docker Compose File
mkdir uptime-kumacd uptime-kumanano 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
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
sudo apt install nginx -ysudo 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:
sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/uptime-kuma /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/sudo nginx -tsudo systemctl reload nginx
Your Uptime Kuma instance is now ready to monitor your services with professional-grade capabilities!