Blackbox Exporter vs Statping-ng
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted monitoring & status options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | Blackbox Exporter | Statping-ng |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 84 · Excellent | 30 · At risk |
| Category | Monitoring & Status | Monitoring & Status |
| License | Apache-2.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Language | Go | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 32 MB | 128 MB |
| Deployment | docker, kubernetes, binary | docker, binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 5,882 | ★ 1,992 |
| First released | 2016 | 2018 |
| Replaces | Pingdom | UptimeRobot, Pingdom |
What are Blackbox Exporter and Statping-ng?
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
Statping-ng
Statping-ng is a community-maintained status page and uptime monitoring server that tracks services and publishes a public status page. It targets teams wanting a self-hosted status page. It is deployed via Docker or a binary.
- Public status pages
- Service uptime tracking
- Notifier plugins
- Mobile app available
Blackbox Exporter vs Statping-ng: key differences
Both projects are written in Go. Licensing differs — Apache-2.0 for Blackbox Exporter versus GPL-3.0 for Statping-ng. Blackbox Exporter is the lighter option, starting around 32 MB of RAM against 128 MB for Statping-ng. Blackbox Exporter is the more established project (first released 2016), while Statping-ng arrived in 2018. Blackbox Exporter has the considerably larger community, at 5,882 GitHub stars versus 1,992.
Why pick each one
Choose Blackbox Exporter if…
- Simple uptime monitoring
- Tiny footprint
Watch out for
- Needs Prometheus to be useful
- No standalone UI
Choose Statping-ng if…
- Nice status pages
- Single binary
- Easy to host
Watch out for
- Slower development
- Fewer checks than Uptime Kuma
Frequently asked questions
Is Blackbox Exporter or Statping-ng 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 Blackbox Exporter and Statping-ng free and open-source?
Yes. Blackbox Exporter is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Statping-ng under GPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Blackbox Exporter and Statping-ng with Docker?
Blackbox Exporter: yes. Statping-ng: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Blackbox Exporter or Statping-ng?
Blackbox Exporter has the smaller minimum footprint at 32 MB of RAM, compared to about 128 MB for Statping-ng. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.