Blackbox Exporter vs Upptime
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted monitoring & status options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Not the right match-up?
Blackbox Exporter
Probes endpoints over HTTP, TCP, DNS, and ICMP
VS
Upptime
GitHub-powered uptime monitor and status page
| Feature | Blackbox Exporter | Upptime |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Monitoring & Status | Monitoring & Status |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Language | Go | Markdown |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 32 MB | 64 MB |
| Deployment | docker, kubernetes, binary | one-click, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 5,818 | ★ 17,114 |
| First released | 2016 | 2020 |
| Replaces | Pingdom | Statuspage, Pingdom |
Why pick each one
Frequently asked questions
Is Blackbox Exporter or Upptime better?
Neither is universally better. Upptime has the larger community; both share a easy setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Blackbox Exporter and Upptime free and open-source?
Yes. Blackbox Exporter is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Upptime under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Blackbox Exporter and Upptime with Docker?
Blackbox Exporter: yes. Upptime: check the project docs for container support.