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.
| Feature | Blackbox Exporter | Upptime |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | ≈5-minute setup |
| Health score | 84 · Excellent | 76 · Good |
| 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 | ★ 5,882 | ★ 17,168 |
| First released | 2016 | 2020 |
| Replaces | Pingdom | Statuspage, Pingdom |
What are Blackbox Exporter and Upptime?
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
Upptime
Upptime is an uptime monitor and status page powered entirely by GitHub Actions and Issues. It runs checks on a schedule, opens issues for downtime, and publishes a status page with no server required.
- Runs on GitHub Actions
- Auto-generated status page
- Downtime issues and alerts
- No servers to maintain
Blackbox Exporter vs Upptime: key differences
Blackbox Exporter is written in Go, while Upptime is built with Markdown. Licensing differs — Apache-2.0 for Blackbox Exporter versus MIT for Upptime. Blackbox Exporter is the lighter option, starting around 32 MB of RAM against 64 MB for Upptime. Blackbox Exporter is the more established project (first released 2016), while Upptime arrived in 2020. Upptime has the considerably larger community, at 17,168 GitHub stars versus 5,882. Blackbox Exporter lists first-class Docker deployment; Upptime does not.
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 Upptime if…
- Completely free hosting
- Zero infrastructure
Watch out for
- Tied to GitHub
- Check interval limited by Actions
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.
Which is lighter on resources, Blackbox Exporter or Upptime?
Blackbox Exporter has the smaller minimum footprint at 32 MB of RAM, compared to about 64 MB for Upptime. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.