Uptime Kuma
Hacker ApprovedThe most recommended of 8 uptime monitors
Free, open-source uptime monitor that is easy to self-host and sends alerts to chosen channels, including certificate expiry warnings. Critics note it lacks features for small teams and is single-user.
Free, open-source uptime monitor that is easy to self-host and sends alerts to chosen channels, including certificate expiry warnings. Critics note it lacks features for small teams and is single-user.
19 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 17
- criticize it
- 2
- approval share
- 89%
Recommended in 9 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 17 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 8.5 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 9 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Warns before certificates expire
“Uptime Kuma supports certificate expiry notifications and will send you messages in whatever channel you configure ahead of time”
Comment from 24 Feb 2026 in “Manjaro website off-line again due to lapsed certificate” “Supports all sorts of alerts and can even tell you if it ever looks like your TLS certs will soon expire”
Comment from 3 Dec 2025 in “Codeberg is down” “ask it to alert you on expiration proximity”
Comment from 28 Dec 2025 in “The Dangers of SSL Certificates” Alerts to Slack, ntfy and more
“Uptime Kuma supports certificate expiry notifications and will send you messages in whatever channel you configure ahead of time”
Comment from 24 Feb 2026 in “Manjaro website off-line again due to lapsed certificate” “Supports all sorts of alerts and can even tell you if it ever looks like your TLS certs will soon expire”
Comment from 3 Dec 2025 in “Codeberg is down” “We heavily rely on uptimekuma->slack integration for notifications.”
Comment from 25 May 2026 in “Traceway: MIT-licensed observability stack you can self-host in ~90s” - Comment from 18 Nov 2025 in “Cloudflare Global Network experiencing issues”
Easy to install and configure
“Uptime Kuma is FOSS, not sure if it is missing any features you might be expecting. Very easy to set up as well.”
Comment from 30 Nov 2025 in “Show HN: Network Monitor – a GUI to spot anomalous connections on your Linux” “incredibly easy to install and configure”
Comment from 23 Mar 2026 in “Cyber.mil serving file downloads using TLS certificate which expired 3 days ago”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Lacks features for small teams
“lacks other features for smaller teams or agencies”
Comment from 13 Apr 2026 in “Ask HN: What Are You Working On? (April 2026)” Seen as unnecessary for self-hosting
“those are things I consider a waste of time for self-hosting”
Comment from 16 Oct 2026 in “What I self-host” “You don't even need Uptime Kuma with docker compose”
Comment from 16 Oct 2026 in “What I self-host”
Other uptime monitors people recommend
The four most recommended other uptime monitors, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Uptime KumaThis page | 17 | 2 | 89% | 9 | — | Approved |
| Healthchecks.io | 12 | 0 | 100% | 6 | — | Approved |
| Updog | 6 | 0 | 100% | 5 | — | — |
| UpDown.io | 5 | 0 | 100% | 4 | — | — |
| Heartbeat | 5 | 0 | 100% | 3 | — | — |
What people said
17 of the 22 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“those are things I consider a waste of time for self-hosting”
“You don't even need Uptime Kuma with docker compose”
“Uptime Kuma offers more features, albeit being single user”
“the command hooks have been useful when combined with Uptime Kuma”
“I would certainly recommend for small shops.”
“We heavily rely on uptimekuma->slack integration for notifications.”
“Just deploy Uptime Kuma or similar to a VPS and job done.”
“lacks other features for smaller teams or agencies”
“incredibly easy to install and configure”
“Uptime Kuma supports certificate expiry notifications and will send you messages in whatever channel you configure ahead of time”
“First, if cron jobs are not running at all for some reason, the timeout will notify you.”
“Kind of cool to have an uptime monitoring tool that also had an option like that, two birds one stone and all that.”
“ask it to alert you on expiration proximity”
“Supports all sorts of alerts and can even tell you if it ever looks like your TLS certs will soon expire”
“Uptime Kuma is FOSS, not sure if it is missing any features you might be expecting. Very easy to set up as well.”
“I actually have exactly this, paired with ntfy.”
“Can recommend Uptime Kuma for this purpose”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.