PHP Server Monitor 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 | PHP Server Monitor | Uptime Kuma |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | ≈5-minute setup |
| Health score | 19 · At risk | 100 · Excellent |
| Category | Monitoring & Status | Monitoring & Status |
| License | GPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Language | PHP | JavaScript |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 128 MB | 256 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal | docker |
| GitHub stars | ★ 2,188 | ★ 91,752 |
| First released | 2010 | 2021 |
| Replaces | Pingdom, UptimeRobot | Pingdom, UptimeRobot |
What are PHP Server Monitor and Uptime Kuma?
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
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
PHP Server Monitor vs Uptime Kuma: key differences
PHP Server Monitor is written in PHP, while Uptime Kuma is built with JavaScript. Licensing differs — GPL-3.0 for PHP Server Monitor versus MIT for Uptime Kuma. PHP Server Monitor is the lighter option, starting around 128 MB of RAM against 256 MB for Uptime Kuma. PHP Server Monitor is the more established project (first released 2010), while Uptime Kuma arrived in 2021. Uptime Kuma has the considerably larger community, at 91,752 GitHub stars versus 2,188.
Why pick each one
Choose PHP Server Monitor if…
- Very easy to deploy
- Low resource use
Watch out for
- Basic feature set
- Limited graphing
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 PHP Server Monitor 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 PHP Server Monitor and Uptime Kuma free and open-source?
Yes. PHP Server Monitor is licensed under GPL-3.0 and Uptime Kuma under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run PHP Server Monitor and Uptime Kuma with Docker?
PHP Server Monitor: yes. Uptime Kuma: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, PHP Server Monitor or Uptime Kuma?
PHP Server Monitor 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.