hostnag vs Uptime Kuma
Uptime Kuma is a free, open-source, self-hosted monitor with a wide range of monitor types and Docker-aware checks, at no subscription cost for anyone willing to run and patch the server themselves. The same kind of board, hosted, with certificates, domains and mail setup beside uptime and no server of your own to patch or keep running.
14 days of Pro to start, then free for 20 hosts. No card, nothing to install.
Side by side
Uptime Kuma read from its public documentation on 2026-09-15. Tell us if it changed.| What breaks | Uptime Kuma | hostnag |
|---|---|---|
| A host goes downwebsite, API, VPN, mail, gateway | Yes | Yes |
| Uptime Kuma: HTTP(S), TCP, Websocket and Ping monitors report uptime. | ||
| A certificate expiresdays-before thresholds, daily inside the last window | Yes | Yes |
| Uptime Kuma: Certificate info is shown per monitor with expiry warnings at configurable thresholds (14 and 7 days by default). | ||
| A domain lapsesregistration expiry from RDAP | Unknown | Yes |
| Uptime Kuma: The README's feature list does not mention domain (WHOIS) registration expiry. | ||
| A certificate is swappedfingerprint changed, wrong host, chain not trusted | Unknown | Yes |
| Uptime Kuma: The README documents certificate info and expiry only; it does not say whether a fingerprint, hostname or chain change is detected. | ||
| A DNS record driftsexpected answer missing or changed | Yes | Yes |
| Uptime Kuma: A DNS Record monitor checks a chosen record against an expected value you configure and alerts when the resolved value no longer matches. | ||
| An ISP link dropsthe public address from several locations, by ping or a TCP port, confirmed by a ping from an internal device | Unknown | Yes |
| Uptime Kuma: No combined external-check-plus-internal-confirmation monitor for an office or ISP link is documented.hostnag: external and internal | ||
| Mail stops being deliveredMX, SPF, DKIM, DMARC and blocklists, at the expiry cadence of your plan | Unknown | Yes |
| Uptime Kuma: Email (SMTP) appears only as an outgoing notification method in the README, not as an MX, SPF, DKIM, DMARC or blocklist check. | ||
| A scheduled job stops runningcron, backups, workers: a heartbeat that goes quiet | Yes | Yes |
| Uptime Kuma: A Push monitor type expects a periodic ping to a unique URL, the same heartbeat pattern as a cron job monitor. | ||
| Your nameservers or registrar changenameservers, registrar, DNSSEC, certificate issuer, DNS answers, redirect targets | Unknown | Yes |
| Uptime Kuma: The README's feature list does not describe watching nameservers, a registrar, DNSSEC or a redirect target for a change. | ||
| A vendor you depend on has an incidenttheir status page read for an outage or degraded state, the incident named | Unknown | Yes |
| hostnag: read from their own status page | ||
UNKNOWN means their documentation did not say either way on the day we read it. PARTLY is covered with a limit noted in the cell.
What Uptime Kuma has that we don't
- Self-hosting under the MIT license: no subscription, run it on your own server or Docker host.
- Docker container monitoring over the Docker socket or a TCP connection to the daemon.
- 90+ notification service integrations, including Telegram, Gotify and Pushover.
- Steam game server monitoring.
Switching
- 01Export a 1.x backup (Settings, Backup) and upload the JSON file in the import dialog; it never leaves your browser except to hostnag's own server.
- 02HTTP, keyword, port and DNS monitors carry over with their type and target; JSON query monitors import as plain HTTP checks with a note that the query assertion was dropped.
- 03Push (heartbeat) monitors get a new hostnag ping URL to point the job at after the import.
- 04Ping (ICMP) monitors carry over as Ping monitors, run from hostnag's own probes.
- 05Websocket, Steam Game Server and Docker container monitors are not supported and are listed with a note instead of silently dropped.
- 06Check intervals snap up to the nearest hostnag preset (1, 5, 15, 60, 360 or 1440 minutes).
- 07Monitors are created up to your plan's limit; the rest stay listed in the preview so nothing is lost silently.
Pricing
Free and open source under the MIT license; there is no subscription, only the cost of the server you run it on.Free
$0/ mo$0/ yrFor your own handful of hosts.
- Monitors
- 20
- Beacons
- 2
- Groups
- 3
- Status pages
- 1
- Seats
- 3
- Every
- 5min
- Locations
- 1
- History
- 30days
- Channels
- Email, Slack, Discord, Microsoft Teams, Telegram, Webhook
- More
- No packs
Pro
$19/ mo$190/ yrFor a team's sites, APIs and gateways.
- Monitors
- 100
- Beacons
- 10
- Groups
- 25
- Status pages
- 10
- Seats
- 10
- Every
- 1min
- Locations
- 3
- History
- 90days
- Channels
- Email, Slack, Discord, Microsoft Teams, Telegram, Webhook, PagerDuty, Opsgenie
- More
- Packs of 100 monitors at $15 a month, up to 4; packs of 10 beacons at $10 a month, up to 9
Business
$79/ mo$790/ yrFor many groups: clients, products or offices.
- Monitors
- 500
- Beacons
- 100
- Groups
- ∞
- Status pages
- ∞
- Seats
- ∞
- Every
- 1min
- Locations
- 5
- History
- 365days
- Channels
- Email, Slack, Discord, Microsoft Teams, Telegram, Webhook, PagerDuty, Opsgenie, SMS
- More
- Packs of 100 monitors at $15 a month, as many as you need; packs of 10 beacons at $10 a month, as many as you need
Sources
Read on 2026-09-15.Bring your Uptime Kuma monitors. Hear about the next outage first.
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