Monika vs PHP Server Monitor
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted monitoring & status options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | Monika | PHP Server Monitor |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 66 · Good | 19 · At risk |
| Category | Monitoring & Status | Monitoring & Status |
| License | Apache-2.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Language | TypeScript | PHP |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 128 MB | 128 MB |
| Deployment | docker, binary | docker, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 628 | ★ 2,188 |
| First released | 2021 | 2010 |
| Replaces | Pingdom, Datadog Synthetics | Pingdom, UptimeRobot |
What are Monika and PHP Server Monitor?
Monika
Monika is a free and open-source synthetic monitoring tool that runs HTTP probes defined in a configuration file and alerts on failures. It checks uptime, response times, and assertions.
- Config-driven probes
- Response assertions
- Many alert channels
- Synthetic monitoring
PHP Server Monitor
PHP Server Monitor is a lightweight script that checks whether websites and servers are up and sends notifications by email, SMS, or messaging services when they go down. It runs on common LAMP hosting.
- Website and port checks
- Email and SMS alerts
- Uptime history
- Runs on shared hosting
Monika vs PHP Server Monitor: key differences
Monika is written in TypeScript, while PHP Server Monitor is built with PHP. Licensing differs — Apache-2.0 for Monika versus GPL-3.0 for PHP Server Monitor. PHP Server Monitor is the more established project (first released 2010), while Monika arrived in 2021. PHP Server Monitor has the considerably larger community, at 2,188 GitHub stars versus 628.
Why pick each one
Choose Monika if…
- Released under the Apache-2.0 license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Written in TypeScript
Choose PHP Server Monitor if…
- Very easy to deploy
- Low resource use
Watch out for
- Basic feature set
- Limited graphing
Frequently asked questions
Is Monika or PHP Server Monitor better?
Neither is universally better. PHP Server Monitor has the larger community; both share a easy setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Monika and PHP Server Monitor free and open-source?
Yes. Monika is licensed under Apache-2.0 and PHP Server Monitor under GPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Monika and PHP Server Monitor with Docker?
Monika: yes. PHP Server Monitor: yes.