Checkmk 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.

Not the right match-up?
FeatureCheckmkUptime Kuma
CategoryMonitoring & StatusMonitoring & Status
LicenseGPL-2.0MIT
LanguagePythonJavaScript
Setup difficultyMediumEasy
Min. RAM1,024 MB256 MB
Deploymentdocker, bare-metaldocker
GitHub stars★ 2,336★ 89,960
First released20092021
ReplacesNagios, DatadogPingdom, UptimeRobot

Why pick each one

Choose Checkmk if…

  • Strong auto-discovery
  • Scales well
  • Good defaults
Checkmk details

Choose Uptime Kuma if…

  • Very easy to use
  • Great notifications
  • Lightweight
Uptime Kuma details

Frequently asked questions

Is Checkmk or Uptime Kuma better?

Uptime Kuma is the stronger all-round pick: it has both the larger community and the simpler easy setup. Consider Checkmk if its specific feature set fits your needs better.

Are Checkmk and Uptime Kuma free and open-source?

Yes. Checkmk is licensed under GPL-2.0 and Uptime Kuma under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run Checkmk and Uptime Kuma with Docker?

Checkmk: yes. Uptime Kuma: yes.

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