Monika 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.
Uptime Kuma
Easy self-hosted uptime monitoring tool
| Feature | Monika | Uptime Kuma |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | ≈5-minute setup |
| Health score | 66 · Good | 100 · Excellent |
| Category | Monitoring & Status | Monitoring & Status |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Language | TypeScript | JavaScript |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 128 MB | 256 MB |
| Deployment | docker, binary | docker |
| GitHub stars | ★ 628 | ★ 91,752 |
| First released | 2021 | 2021 |
| Replaces | Pingdom, Datadog Synthetics | Pingdom, UptimeRobot |
What are Monika and Uptime Kuma?
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
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
Monika vs Uptime Kuma: key differences
Monika is written in TypeScript, while Uptime Kuma is built with JavaScript. Licensing differs — Apache-2.0 for Monika versus MIT for Uptime Kuma. Monika is the lighter option, starting around 128 MB of RAM against 256 MB for Uptime Kuma. Uptime Kuma has the considerably larger community, at 91,752 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 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 Monika 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 Monika and Uptime Kuma free and open-source?
Yes. Monika is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Uptime Kuma under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Monika and Uptime Kuma with Docker?
Monika: yes. Uptime Kuma: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Monika or Uptime Kuma?
Monika 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.