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It is important to monitor your applications, websites, network, firewall, etc. Tracking can help you find the root cause of a problem and be aware of the problem ahead of your customers.
In this article we will focus on monitoring web applications or websites.
There are multiple solutions such as Uptime Robot or StatusCake which allow you to monitor 50 websites for FREE. You can monitor your URL, check if your SSL certificate will expire, and receive alerts if your website is down via email, slack or even via SMS.
You can have exactly the same features (even more) by installing Uptime Kuma which is open source and can be installed self hosted on a VPS or Cloud instance.
The dashboard design is similar to Uptime Robots and very intuitive as well as absolutely fast and captivating.
Developed on advanced technologies
Uptime Kuma stands out in the monitoring software landscape thanks to the use of cutting-edge, advanced and performance-oriented technologies. This platform is built on an asynchronous architecture that emphasizes advanced networking capabilities and ensures an optimized user experience.
The heart of Uptime Kuma is the Node.js programming language, known for its efficiency and scalability, especially in asynchronous event-driven applications. This approach ensures that Uptime Kuma is highly responsive and able to handle a high volume of requests simultaneously, which is crucial for monitoring system performance.
For data management, Uptime Kuma uses SQLite, a lightweight and powerful noSQL database, which allows efficient and fast data management, ideal for the needs of a real-time monitoring system.
Its intuitive and easy-to-use graphical interface is built with Vue.js 3, a progressive JavaScript framework that allows you to create interactive and dynamic user interfaces. Plus, it's integrated with Bootstrap 5 for responsive design and Vite.js, a new build tool that significantly improves development time.
Another distinctive feature of Uptime Kuma is the use of WebSockets, a technology that allows real-time bidirectional communication between client and server, thus ensuring instant updates and constant monitoring of performance.
When it comes to its installation and configuration, Uptime Kuma offers flexibility. Users can choose to run it in standalone mode, installing Node.js and npm and then running the software directly. Alternatively, for those who are familiar with Docker and prefer a faster solution, a dockerized image of Uptime Kuma is available, which allows you to boot your system efficiently and without complications. This Docker-based deployment option is best suited for production and test environments, providing a quick and easy way to get started with Uptime Kuma.
Feature and functionality
It must be said that the software, although relatively new, is already very mature and well-equipped with features.
Although it is certainly inspired by Uptime Robot (the graphical interface is very similar) it has nothing to envy to it.
In fact, we find many features including:
- Uptime Tracking for HTTP (s) / TCP / HTTP (s) Keyword / Ping / DNS Registration / Push / Steam Game Server.
- Sleek, responsive and fast UX / UI.
- Notifications via Telegram, Discord, Gotify, Slack, Pushover, Email (SMTP) and beyond 70 Notification Services, click here for the full list .
- Minimum intervals of 20 seconds for monitoring.
- Possibility to retry the check before sending the alert
- Multilingual
- Simple status page
- Ping chart
- Response Time History (TTFB)
- Information on the SSL certificate and notifications when there are a few days left to expire.
How much do you save compared to Uptime Robot?
When analyzing the financial savings that a medium-sized hosting company can achieve by opting for Uptime Kuma instead of Uptime Robot, a significant financial advantage is evident. Let's take as an example a company that needs to monitor 5000 websites monthly for an entire year.
Using Uptime Robot, a widely known monitoring service, the company would face an annual cost of approximately $4944. This cost refers to the subscriptions that allow monitoring of such a large number of sites, including additional costs for advanced features that may be necessary to manage such a volume of sites.
On the other hand, by switching to Uptime Kuma, the investment is significantly reduced. The main expense is purchasing a suitable Cloud instance. For the specified needs, an instance with 4 cores, 8GB of RAM and 1GB/s connectivity is more than sufficient. Currently, the cost of a cloud hosting service with these specifications is around 13 euros per month. This means that the annual investment for Uptime Kuma would be around 156 euros.
When we compare the two costs, using Uptime Kuma results in substantial savings. By going from around 5000 dollars a year to just 150 euros, the company saves over 95% of its expenses. In practical terms, this translates into a saving of almost 33 times the annual cost. This type of saving is not only significant in monetary terms, but also represents more efficient resource management, allowing the company to reinvest these savings in other crucial areas such as infrastructure development, improved customer service or technological innovation .
What are the limits?
When looking at Uptime Kuma as a website monitoring tool, it is important to consider its limitations, despite the many benefits it offers. One of the key aspects to consider is the geographic location from which the monitoring tests are performed.
The main limitation of Uptime Kuma lies in the fact that the monitoring tests are conducted solely from the geographical location in which the hosting instance is installed. This means that it is not possible to test the reachability and performance of websites from different geographical locations natively. In a globalized world, where web traffic can come from anywhere on the globe, this limitation can be significant. For example, a site might be easily accessible from one part of the world but have connectivity or performance issues in another.
To mitigate this limitation, Uptime Kuma users should take extra care when choosing their hosting provider. It is essential to select a provider that guarantees high uptime and good reachability of services from different parts of the world. This approach can help reduce the impact of geo-restriction by ensuring that tracking is as representative of the actual user experience as possible.
Despite this limitation, Uptime Kuma remains an effective and suitable solution for most current Uptime Robot users. For 99% of these users, the features offered by Uptime Kuma, including its affordable nature and ease of use, are sufficient to meet their monitoring needs. The platform is particularly suitable for companies and individuals who operate websites whose users are primarily located in a specific geographic area or for those who do not need monitoring from multiple global locations. Furthermore, for companies operating on a local or regional scale, this limitation may not pose a significant problem.
