Monika vs Blackbox Exporter
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted monitoring & status options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | Monika | Blackbox Exporter |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 66 · Good | 84 · Excellent |
| Category | Monitoring & Status | Monitoring & Status |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Language | TypeScript | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 128 MB | 32 MB |
| Deployment | docker, binary | docker, kubernetes, binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 628 | ★ 5,882 |
| First released | 2021 | 2016 |
| Replaces | Pingdom, Datadog Synthetics | Pingdom |
What are Monika and Blackbox Exporter?
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
Blackbox Exporter
The Blackbox Exporter allows Prometheus to probe endpoints over HTTP, HTTPS, DNS, TCP, ICMP, and gRPC. It is the standard way to perform black-box availability and latency monitoring with Prometheus.
- HTTP, TCP, DNS, ICMP probes
- TLS certificate checks
- Prometheus integration
- Multi-target probing
Monika vs Blackbox Exporter: key differences
Monika is written in TypeScript, while Blackbox Exporter is built with Go. Blackbox Exporter is the lighter option, starting around 32 MB of RAM against 128 MB for Monika. Blackbox Exporter is the more established project (first released 2016), while Monika arrived in 2021. Blackbox Exporter has the considerably larger community, at 5,882 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 Blackbox Exporter if…
- Simple uptime monitoring
- Tiny footprint
Watch out for
- Needs Prometheus to be useful
- No standalone UI
Frequently asked questions
Is Monika or Blackbox Exporter better?
Neither is universally better. Blackbox Exporter has the larger community; both share a easy setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Monika and Blackbox Exporter free and open-source?
Yes. Monika is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Blackbox Exporter under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Monika and Blackbox Exporter with Docker?
Monika: yes. Blackbox Exporter: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Monika or Blackbox Exporter?
Blackbox Exporter has the smaller minimum footprint at 32 MB of RAM, compared to about 128 MB for Monika. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.