Peekaping 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 | Peekaping | Blackbox Exporter |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 72 · Good | 84 · Excellent |
| Category | Monitoring & Status | Monitoring & Status |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Language | Go | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 128 MB | 32 MB |
| Deployment | docker | docker, kubernetes, binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 1,195 | ★ 5,882 |
| First released | 2024 | 2016 |
| Replaces | Pingdom, Better Uptime | Pingdom |
What are Peekaping and Blackbox Exporter?
Peekaping
Peekaping is a self-hosted uptime monitoring tool with status pages and notifications, inspired by Uptime Kuma. It supports many monitor types and aims for a fast, modern user experience.
- Multiple monitor types
- Status pages
- Notification integrations
- Modern UI
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
Peekaping vs Blackbox Exporter: key differences
Both projects are written in Go. Licensing differs — MIT for Peekaping versus Apache-2.0 for Blackbox Exporter. Blackbox Exporter is the lighter option, starting around 32 MB of RAM against 128 MB for Peekaping. Blackbox Exporter is the more established project (first released 2016), while Peekaping arrived in 2024. Blackbox Exporter has the considerably larger community, at 5,882 GitHub stars versus 1,195.
Why pick each one
Choose Peekaping if…
- Lightweight Go backend
- Clean interface
Watch out for
- Young project
- Smaller community
Choose Blackbox Exporter if…
- Simple uptime monitoring
- Tiny footprint
Watch out for
- Needs Prometheus to be useful
- No standalone UI
Frequently asked questions
Is Peekaping 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 Peekaping and Blackbox Exporter free and open-source?
Yes. Peekaping is licensed under MIT and Blackbox Exporter under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Peekaping and Blackbox Exporter with Docker?
Peekaping: yes. Blackbox Exporter: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Peekaping or Blackbox Exporter?
Blackbox Exporter has the smaller minimum footprint at 32 MB of RAM, compared to about 128 MB for Peekaping. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.