Beszel vs Uptime Kuma
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted monitoring & status options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Beszel
Lightweight server monitoring with a clean hub
VS
Uptime Kuma
Easy self-hosted uptime monitoring tool
| Feature | Beszel | Uptime Kuma |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | ≈5-minute setup |
| Health score | 97 · Excellent | 100 · Excellent |
| Category | Monitoring & Status | Monitoring & Status |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Language | Go | JavaScript |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 128 MB | 256 MB |
| Deployment | docker, binary | docker |
| GitHub stars | ★ 25,691 | ★ 91,752 |
| First released | 2024 | 2021 |
| Replaces | UptimeRobot | Pingdom, UptimeRobot |
What are Beszel and Uptime Kuma?
Beszel
Beszel is a lightweight server monitoring platform with a central hub and small agents tracking CPU, memory, disk, and Docker stats. It targets home labbers who want simple multi-host monitoring. It is deployed via Docker.
- Hub and agent architecture
- Tracks Docker container stats
- Configurable alerts
- Very low overhead
Uptime Kuma
Uptime Kuma is a self-hosted monitoring tool that checks the availability of websites, services, and APIs with a clean dashboard. It targets users who want a simple, attractive status monitor. It is deployed via Docker as a single container.
- Monitors HTTP, TCP, DNS and more
- Beautiful dashboard and status pages
- 90+ notification integrations
- Single-container deployment
Beszel vs Uptime Kuma: key differences
Beszel is written in Go, while Uptime Kuma is built with JavaScript. Beszel is the lighter option, starting around 128 MB of RAM against 256 MB for Uptime Kuma. Uptime Kuma is the more established project (first released 2021), while Beszel arrived in 2024. Uptime Kuma has the considerably larger community, at 91,752 GitHub stars versus 25,691.
Why pick each one
Choose Beszel if…
- Extremely lightweight
- Simple multi-host view
- Easy setup
Watch out for
- Young project
- Fewer metrics than Netdata
Choose Uptime Kuma if…
- Very easy to use
- Great notifications
- Lightweight
Watch out for
- Single instance, no clustering
- Not for deep metrics
Frequently asked questions
Is Beszel or Uptime Kuma better?
Neither is universally better. Uptime Kuma has the larger community; both share a easy setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Beszel and Uptime Kuma free and open-source?
Yes. Beszel is licensed under MIT and Uptime Kuma under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Beszel and Uptime Kuma with Docker?
Beszel: yes. Uptime Kuma: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Beszel or Uptime Kuma?
Beszel has the smaller minimum footprint at 128 MB of RAM, compared to about 256 MB for Uptime Kuma. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.