Uptime Kuma vs Prometheus
Both are free and self-hosted. Uptime Kuma is one app that probes endpoints, alerts you and publishes a status page. Prometheus is a metrics database; to get the same result you add the Blackbox exporter for probes, Alertmanager for alerts and Grafana for a screen. Here is when the extra parts pay off.
Uptime Kuma vs Prometheus: The Verdict
Uptime Kuma answers "is it up?" in one app: paste a URL, get an alert, publish a status page. Prometheus answers "what is happening inside it?" and needs three more pieces before it does uptime at all: the Blackbox exporter to probe HTTP, HTTPS, DNS, TCP, ICMP and gRPC, Alertmanager to route alerts, and Grafana to see anything. Pick Prometheus when you already run it for application metrics and want probes to live in the same PromQL rules and dashboards. Pick Uptime Kuma when uptime is the whole job, or when the person maintaining the checks does not want to learn PromQL and four YAML files. Either way, run the monitor off the box it watches.
Last updated: 2026-09-18Quick Comparison
| Feature | Prometheus | Uptime Kuma |
|---|---|---|
| What It Is | A time-series database and query engine (PromQL) | An uptime monitor with alerts and status pages built in |
| Parts Needed for Uptime Checks | Prometheus + Blackbox exporter + Alertmanager (+ Grafana for dashboards) | One app |
| How You Add a Check | Edit prometheus.yml scrape config plus blackbox.yml module, reload | Paste a URL in the web UI and save |
| Probe Types | HTTP, HTTPS, DNS, TCP, ICMP, gRPC (Blackbox exporter) | HTTP(s), keyword, JSON query, TCP, DNS, ping, WebSocket, push, Steam servers, Docker |
| Check Interval | Any scrape interval you set | Down to 20 seconds |
| Alert Routing | Alertmanager: grouping, silencing, inhibition, routing trees | 90+ notification services, per-monitor |
| Public Status Page | No - build one in Grafana or a third-party tool | Multiple pages, each mappable to its own domain |
| Custom Application Metrics | Yes - the core use case, with PromQL | No |
| History and Charts | Full time-series retention, queried with PromQL | Response-time and uptime charts per monitor |
| Config in Version Control | Yes - everything is YAML | No - monitors live in the app database |
| Built With | Go (Prometheus v3.14.0, Blackbox exporter v0.28.0) | Node.js and Vue (2.5.5) |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| 1-Click on InstaPods | No - install and wire the stack yourself over SSH | Yes - $3/mo, launches ready to use |
What Is Harder With Prometheus?
Trade-offs to weigh before committing.
Uptime Monitoring Is Four Things, Not One
Prometheus on its own cannot probe a URL. The Blackbox exporter does the probing, Prometheus scrapes it, Alertmanager decides who gets paged, and Grafana draws the chart. Each is a separate process with its own config file, and a first working uptime check means editing at least prometheus.yml, blackbox.yml and an alerting rule.
No Status Page
There is no public status page anywhere in the stack. You either build a Grafana dashboard and make it public, or bolt on another tool. Uptime Kuma ships multiple status pages with incident posts and per-page domains, which is the part people usually pay a hosted monitor for.
Alerts Are a Rule Language
An alert is a PromQL expression such as probe_success == 0 held for a duration, then routed through an Alertmanager tree of receivers, matchers and inhibitions. It is precise and it scales, but there is no "notify me on Telegram when this is down" checkbox.
Heavier to Run for a Handful of Endpoints
Prometheus stores every scrape as a time series and keeps it on disk. For 20 endpoints that is fine on a small VPS, but it is still three or four services to keep alive for a job Uptime Kuma does with one Node process and a SQLite file.
Why Pick Uptime Kuma Instead?
What you get when you pick this stack.
One App, First Check in Under a Minute
Paste a URL, pick a type, set an interval, save. Alerts and the status page are in the same UI. There is no exporter to run, no scrape config to reload and no alert rule to write.
More Kinds of Checks
Beyond HTTP, TCP, DNS and ping, Uptime Kuma checks a keyword or a JSON value in the response body, WebSocket endpoints, Docker containers, Steam game servers, and push monitors that alert when a heartbeat stops arriving. The Blackbox exporter covers HTTP, HTTPS, DNS, TCP, ICMP and gRPC.
90+ Notification Services, Per Monitor
Telegram, Discord, Slack, Gotify, ntfy, PagerDuty, email, webhooks and dozens more, attached to a monitor with a checkbox. Alertmanager can do all of this too, but every receiver is YAML you write and reload.
Status Pages Included
Multiple status pages, each mappable to its own domain, with grouped monitors, branding and incident history. It is the clearest gap between the two: Prometheus has nothing equivalent.
Real Cost Comparison
Watching 20 endpoints with alerts and a public status page for a year. Both stacks are free software, so the cost is the server and your time.
- Prometheus, Blackbox exporter, Alertmanager, Grafana: all free (Apache-2.0 / AGPL-3.0)
- Four services to install, configure and keep running
- No status page - build one in Grafana or add another tool
- A $3/mo pod runs it, but you write every config file
- InstaPods Launch plan: $3/mo (1 vCPU, 512MB RAM, 10GB)
- Uptime Kuma: free and open source (MIT)
- Instant launch with HTTPS and a domain already wired up
- 20 endpoints, unlimited monitors, status pages included
Frequently Asked Questions
Can Prometheus do uptime monitoring?
Yes, with the Blackbox exporter. Prometheus itself only scrapes metrics; the Blackbox exporter probes endpoints over HTTP, HTTPS, DNS, TCP, ICMP and gRPC and exposes the result (probe_success, probe_duration_seconds) for Prometheus to scrape. Alerting then goes through Alertmanager.
Is Uptime Kuma a replacement for Prometheus?
No. Uptime Kuma checks whether an endpoint is up and how fast it responds. Prometheus collects any metric an application exposes and lets you query it with PromQL. If you need CPU, queue depth or request latency histograms, that is Prometheus. If you need "is it up, tell me when it is not", that is Uptime Kuma.
Which one is easier to set up?
Uptime Kuma. It is one app with a web UI; the first check takes about a minute. A Prometheus uptime setup means installing Prometheus, the Blackbox exporter and Alertmanager, editing prometheus.yml, blackbox.yml, an alerting rule and an Alertmanager receiver, then adding Grafana if you want a chart.
Does Prometheus have a status page?
No. Neither Prometheus nor the Blackbox exporter renders a public status page. The usual workaround is a public Grafana dashboard. Uptime Kuma has multiple status pages built in, each mappable to its own domain, with incident posts.
Should I run both?
Plenty of teams do. Prometheus already watches the application metrics, and Uptime Kuma sits on a separate $3/mo pod as the outside-in check and the public status page. The two do not overlap much, and the second one costs nothing beyond the server.
Can I run Prometheus on InstaPods?
Not as a 1-Click app. A pod is a real Linux server with SSH, so you can install Prometheus, the Blackbox exporter and Alertmanager yourself under systemd. Uptime Kuma is the one-click option.
Where should the uptime monitor run?
Anywhere except the machine it is watching. A monitor on the same box dies with that box. A $3/mo pod somewhere else is the cheapest way to make sure the alert fires.
Want Uptime Checks Without the Stack? Deploy in 60 Seconds
Prometheus is the right tool for application metrics. If all you need is to know when a URL goes down, Uptime Kuma launches on InstaPods for $3/mo, off the box you are watching, with HTTPS and a domain already wired up.
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