TL;DR - Quick Picks
- Best overall free tier: UptimeRobot (50 monitors)
- Best for self-hosting: Uptime Kuma (unlimited, you host)
- Best for indie makers: PerkyDash (generous free tier + status pages)
- Best for enterprises: Better Stack (great UI, limited free)
- Best no-account option: PerkyDash Free Uptime Checker (instant, no signup)
Keep reading for detailed breakdowns, limitations, and honest assessments.
Every website needs uptime monitoring. But not every project needs—or can afford—a paid tool from day one. The good news: several quality options offer genuinely useful free tiers.
The bad news: "free" often comes with catches. Monitor limits, check intervals, missing alerting channels, no status pages. This guide cuts through the marketing to show you what you actually get for free.
We tested each tool, documented the real limitations, and ranked them based on what matters for indie makers, freelancers, and small teams. No affiliate links, no sponsored placements—just honest comparisons.
Not sure what uptime monitoring actually involves? Read our guide on why uptime alone isn't enough for context.
Free Tier Comparison at a Glance
| Tool | Free Monitors | Check Interval | Status Page | Alerts | Regions | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UptimeRobot | 50 | 5 min | 1 (basic) | Email, SMS (limited) | 1 | Side projects |
| Uptime Kuma | Unlimited | 1 min+ | Yes | 70+ integrations | Self-hosted | Devs who self-host |
| PerkyDash | 5 | 5 min | Yes (branded) | Email, Slack, Discord | 12 | Indie makers |
| Better Stack | 5 | 3 min | 1 | Email, Slack | Multiple | Teams wanting UX |
| Freshping | 50 | 1 min | 1 (public) | Email only | 10 | Quantity over features |
| Oh Dear | 1 | 1 min | No | Multiple | Trying before buying | |
| Pingdom | 1 (trial) | 1 min | No | 1 | Enterprise evaluation |
* Check intervals and features may change. Last verified January 2026.
1 UptimeRobot
Best Free Tier QuantityWhat You Get Free
- 50 monitors (HTTP, ping, port, keyword)
- 5-minute check intervals
- 1 basic status page
- Email alerts + limited SMS
- 2-month log history
What's Limited
- Single region only (can't detect regional outages)
- 5-minute intervals (competitors offer 1-3 min)
- Basic status page (no custom domain)
- No SSL certificate monitoring
- No maintenance windows
Honest Take
UptimeRobot's free tier is genuinely generous for quantity. 50 monitors covers most side projects and even small agencies. The catch? It's basic. Single-region checks mean you won't catch issues affecting only some users. The 5-minute interval is fine for most, but if you need faster detection, you'll hit the paywall fast.
Best for: Hobbyists and side projects where "good enough" monitoring beats no monitoring.
See detailed comparison: PerkyDash vs UptimeRobot
2 Uptime Kuma
Best Self-Hosted OptionWhat You Get
- Unlimited monitors
- Check intervals as low as 20 seconds
- Status pages with custom styling
- 70+ notification integrations
- TCP, HTTP, DNS, Docker, and more
- Certificate monitoring included
The Catch
- You host it yourself (need a VPS, Docker knowledge)
- Your monitoring is only as reliable as your server
- Single location (where you host it)
- No managed support
- Setup and maintenance time cost
Honest Take
Uptime Kuma is fantastic if you're comfortable with self-hosting. The UI is clean, features are comprehensive, and you control everything. But here's the irony: your monitoring tool needs to be more reliable than what it monitors. If your $5 VPS goes down, so does your monitoring.
The other limitation: single-location monitoring. You're checking from wherever your server is, not from where your users are.
Best for: Developers who enjoy self-hosting and understand the trade-offs.
Want multi-region without self-hosting? See how multi-region monitoring catches issues Uptime Kuma might miss.
3 PerkyDash
Best for Indie MakersWhat You Get Free
- 5 monitors (HTTP, heartbeat, SSL, domain)
- 5-minute check intervals
- Status page included
- Email, Slack, Discord alerts
- 12-region global monitoring
- Visual diff monitoring
- Emergency status page (no signup)
What's Limited
- Only 5 monitors (vs 50 on UptimeRobot)
- 5-minute intervals on free (1-min on paid)
- Some advanced features paid-only
Honest Take
Full disclosure: this is our product. We're including it because we genuinely believe the free tier offers things others don't—particularly multi-region monitoring from day one and integrated status pages.
The trade-off is quantity: 5 monitors vs UptimeRobot's 50. If you have 30 side projects, UptimeRobot wins. If you have 1-5 projects you care about and want better monitoring quality, PerkyDash's approach makes more sense.
Best for: Indie makers and small teams who prefer quality over quantity in monitoring.
Try without signing up: Free Instant Uptime Checker
4 Better Stack
Best UI/UXWhat You Get Free
- 5 monitors
- 3-minute check intervals
- 1 status page
- Email and Slack alerts
- Beautiful, modern interface
- Multi-region checks
What's Limited
- 5 monitors only
- Paid jumps to $24/mo (expensive)
- Incident management limited on free
- On-call scheduling paid only
Honest Take
Better Stack has arguably the best-looking interface in the category. If design matters to you (and it should for status pages your customers see), this is appealing. The free tier is tight at 5 monitors, and the jump to paid is steep at $24/mo.
Best for: Teams who value polished UX and plan to upgrade eventually.
Detailed comparison: PerkyDash vs Better Stack
5 Freshping
Most Generous Check IntervalWhat You Get Free
- 50 monitors
- 1-minute check intervals (!)
- 10 global locations
- 1 public status page
- Email alerts
What's Limited
- Part of Freshworks suite (can feel bloated)
- Email-only alerts on free (no Slack/Discord)
- UI feels dated compared to modern alternatives
- Limited integrations
Honest Take
Freshping's free tier is surprisingly generous: 50 monitors with 1-minute checks from 10 locations. On paper, it beats most competitors. In practice, the UI feels like an afterthought in Freshworks' larger product suite, and you're limited to email alerts.
Best for: Users who prioritize raw specs over UX.
6 Oh Dear
Best Premium Experience (Limited Free)What You Get Free
- 1 site only
- Comprehensive checks (uptime, SSL, broken links, mixed content)
- 1-minute intervals
- Multiple locations
- Email alerts
What's Limited
- Only 1 site (it's really a trial, not a free tier)
- No status page on free
- Limited alert channels
Honest Take
Oh Dear is a premium product with a token free tier. It's less "free monitoring" and more "extended trial." The product itself is excellent—comprehensive checks, clean UI, great docs. But if you need to monitor multiple sites for free, look elsewhere.
Best for: Evaluating before committing to paid.
7 Pingdom
Enterprise Name RecognitionWhat You Get Free
- 1 monitor only
- 1-minute intervals
- Basic uptime check
- 14-day trial period
What's Limited
- It's a trial, not a real free tier
- No status page included (separate product)
- Dated interface
- Expensive: $15/mo for basic, features cost extra
Honest Take
Pingdom pioneered uptime monitoring, but the product feels stuck in 2010. The free "tier" is really just a trial. Paid plans use modular pricing where everything costs extra. Status pages? Separate product. Transaction monitoring? Extra. Real User Monitoring? Extra.
Best for: Enterprises with existing SolarWinds relationships.
Full comparison: PerkyDash vs Pingdom
What Actually Matters in Free Monitoring
Not all "free" tiers are created equal. Here's what to evaluate:
Check Frequency
5-minute intervals are standard. 1-minute is better for production apps. The math: with 5-minute checks, you could be down for 4 minutes and 59 seconds before detection. For side projects, that's fine. For revenue-generating products, it might not be.
Learn more: Monitoring without DevOps complexity
Check Locations
Single-location monitoring is a blind spot. Your server might be up in Virginia but unreachable from Tokyo. Multi-region monitoring catches these issues.
Alert Channels
Email-only alerts are 2010. You need Slack, Discord, or webhooks—wherever your team actually pays attention. Check what's included free vs paid-only.
Status Pages
A status page builds trust during incidents. Some tools include them free, others charge extra, some don't offer them at all. If you have customers, you need one.
Related: Status page best practices
Beyond Uptime
Modern monitoring covers more than "is it up?": SSL certificates, domain expiry, cron jobs, visual changes. The best free tiers include some of these. The worst nickel-and-dime you for basics.
Which Free Tool Should You Choose?
Do you want to self-host?
Uptime Kuma
Unlimited monitors, full control
How many sites do you need to monitor?
UptimeRobot or Freshping
Quantity wins
Do you need multi-region monitoring?
PerkyDash or Better Stack
Global coverage matters
UptimeRobot
Simple and reliable
Do you need a status page?
PerkyDash
Included free with branding
Better Stack
Best UX, 5 monitors
Frequently Asked Questions
Is free uptime monitoring reliable enough for production?
For side projects and MVPs, yes. Free tiers from established providers are reliable. For production apps with paying customers, consider whether 5-minute check intervals and single-region monitoring meet your needs. The monitoring itself is reliable—the limitations are in features, not uptime.
What's the best completely free uptime monitor?
For quantity: UptimeRobot (50 monitors) or Freshping (50 monitors, 1-min intervals). For features: PerkyDash (multi-region, status pages). For self-hosting: Uptime Kuma (unlimited). The "best" depends on whether you value monitor count or monitoring quality.
Should I use Uptime Kuma or a hosted service?
Uptime Kuma is excellent if you're comfortable with Docker and have a reliable VPS. The trade-off: your monitoring is only as reliable as your server, and you're checking from one location. Hosted services handle reliability and offer multi-region checks. Choose based on your comfort with self-hosting and need for global coverage.
How often should uptime be checked?
5-minute intervals work for most sites. For e-commerce or SaaS with revenue impact, 1-3 minute intervals catch issues faster. The trade-off: more frequent checks mean faster detection but also more false positives from network blips. Start with 5 minutes and decrease if you need faster alerting.
Do I need multi-region monitoring?
If your users are global, yes. CDN issues, DNS propagation problems, and regional outages can affect some users while others are fine. Single-region monitoring creates blind spots. If most of your users are in one region and you're just starting, single-region is acceptable initially.
Why do some free tiers have more monitors than paid plans?
Business model differences. Some tools (UptimeRobot, Freshping) offer generous monitor counts but charge for features like faster intervals, more regions, or integrations. Others (PerkyDash, Better Stack) include more features but limit monitor counts. Decide what matters: quantity of monitors or quality of monitoring.
The Bottom Line
Free uptime monitoring has never been better. You can legitimately monitor production sites without paying anything. But "free" always has trade-offs.
For side projects and learning:
UptimeRobot — 50 monitors covers everything. Basic but reliable.
For developers who love self-hosting:
Uptime Kuma — Unlimited, full control, great community.
For indie makers with real users:
PerkyDash — Multi-region, status pages, modern features. Fewer monitors, better monitoring.
For teams planning to scale:
Better Stack — Best UX, easy upgrade path when ready.
The best choice depends on your priorities. If you need to monitor 30 sites and don't care about bells and whistles, UptimeRobot wins. If you have 3 sites with real users and want proper status pages and global monitoring, PerkyDash or Better Stack makes more sense.
Start free, upgrade when limitations hurt. That's the whole point of free tiers.
Try PerkyDash Free
5 monitors, 12 regions, status pages included. No credit card required.
Or create an emergency status page right now—no signup needed.