Uptime Kuma: Self-Hosted Uptime Monitoring with Alerts and Status Pages

Why Uptime Kuma?

Paid services like UptimeRobot and Pingdom charge per monitor. Uptime Kuma gives you:

Unlimited monitors — Check hundreds of services for free.
90+ notification channels — Slack, Telegram, Discord, email, PagerDuty, and more.
Public status pages — Professional branded pages for your users.
SSL certificate monitoring — Get alerted days before certificates expire.
Beautiful UI — Modern, responsive dashboard.

Prerequisites

Docker installed on any Linux server.
At least 256 MB RAM.
Port 3001 open.

Step 1: Deploy with Docker

docker run -d \
  --restart=always \
  -p 3001:3001 \
  -v uptime-kuma:/app/data \
  --name uptime-kuma \
  louislam/uptime-kuma:latest

Access at http://your-server:3001. Create an admin account on first visit.

Step 2: Add Monitors

Click Add New Monitor and choose a type:

Monitor Type	Use Case
HTTP(S)	Check website availability and response codes
TCP Port	Verify a service is listening (e.g., MySQL 3306)
Ping	Basic ICMP reachability check
DNS	Verify DNS resolution returns expected records
Docker Container	Check if a container is running (via Docker socket)
SSL Certificate	Alert before certificate expiration

Example: HTTP Monitor

URL: https://example.com
Heartbeat Interval: 60 seconds
Retries: 3 (avoids false positives from brief network blips)
Accepted Status Codes: 200-299
Keyword: (Optional) Check that the page contains a specific string.

Step 3: Configure Notifications

Go to Settings → Notifications → Setup Notification.

Slack: Paste a Slack Incoming Webhook URL.
Telegram: Enter your Bot Token and Chat ID.
Email (SMTP): Enter SMTP server, port, username, password, from/to addresses.

Then on each monitor, toggle which notifications should fire.

Step 4: Create a Status Page

Go to Status Pages → New Status Page.
Name: “Company Services Status”
Add monitors in groups (e.g., “Web Services”, “APIs”, “Databases”).
Customize the logo, title, and description.
Share the status page URL with your team or customers.

Troubleshooting

Problem	Solution
False positive alerts	Increase “Retries” to 3-5; increase heartbeat interval
Notifications not arriving	Test the notification in Settings; check webhook URL or SMTP credentials
High memory usage	Reduce the number of monitors or increase check interval
Can’t monitor internal services	Uptime Kuma must be on the same network or have VPN access to private services
Status page not loading	Verify the container is running: `docker ps`; check port 3001 is mapped

Summary

Deploy with a single Docker command — no dependencies.
Monitor HTTP, TCP, DNS, ping, Docker containers, and SSL certs.
Send alerts to 90+ services including Slack, Telegram, and email.
Create public status pages for customer-facing uptime transparency.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Uptime Kuma and why use it?

Uptime Kuma is a free, self-hosted monitoring tool similar to UptimeRobot or Pingdom. It checks if your websites, APIs, and services are online by performing HTTP, TCP, DNS, or ping checks at configurable intervals. When something goes down, it sends alerts via Slack, Telegram, Discord, email, or 90+ other notification services. It also provides beautiful public status pages.

What types of monitors does Uptime Kuma support?

HTTP/HTTPS (checks for status codes and keywords), TCP port (checks if a port is open), DNS (verifies DNS resolution), Ping/ICMP, Docker container (checks if a container is running), Steam Game Server, MQTT, gRPC, and many more. You can also monitor SSL certificate expiration.

Can I create a public status page with Uptime Kuma?

Yes. Go to Status Pages > New Status Page. Add your monitors, customize the branding, and share the URL with your users. The status page shows real-time status, uptime percentages, and incident history. You can set a custom domain for the status page.

How do I get notified when a service goes down?

In Uptime Kuma, go to Settings > Notifications and add a notification channel (Slack webhook, Telegram bot, SMTP email, Discord webhook, etc.). Then assign the notification to your monitors. You can set how many failed checks trigger an alert (retries) to avoid false positives.