📡 Upwatch
Self-hosted uptime monitoring + a beautiful public status page.
UptimeRobot charges $8/mo. Pingdom starts at $10/mo. Both cap your monitors and keep billing you forever. Upwatch is the same core product — HTTP checks, incident tracking, alerting, a classic 90-day-bar status page — running on your own $5 VPS (or your desktop) with unlimited monitors and zero recurring fees.
Upwatch, as it actually looks — a real screenshot, not a mockup.
Features
HTTP(S) monitors
URL, interval from 30s to 15m, expected status code, optional keyword match.
In-process checker loop
No cron, no workers, no Redis — one Node process does everything.
SQLite storage
Check history with automatic 90-day retention pruning. One file to back up.
Per-monitor detail
Uptime % for 24h / 7d / 30d, response-time sparkline, full incident log.
Public status page
Clean branded page at /status — per-monitor badges, classic 90-day uptime bars, outage banner.
Alerts on down + recovery
Slack/Discord-compatible JSON webhook and email via your own SMTP.
Built for agencies
Monitor every client site from one box; hand clients a clean branded status page.
Desktop or VPS
Run it as a desktop app, or deploy to a $5 VPS (Docker included) when it needs to be public.
Upwatch vs UptimeRobot
UptimeRobot at $8/mo runs roughly $96/year — $192 over two years. Upwatch is $39, once.
| Upwatch | UptimeRobot | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $39 once | UptimeRobot $8/mo ($96/yr) · Pingdom $10+/mo |
| Monitors | Unlimited | 50 on UptimeRobot's paid tier |
| Check interval | 30s | 60s (paid) |
| Public status page | Included, branded | Limited / upsell |
| Keyword checks | Included | Paid tier |
| Your data | Your SQLite file on your box | Their cloud |
| Multi-client agency use | One VPS monitors everything | Per-account limits / pricing |
Pays for itself vs UptimeRobot in under 5 months — then it's free forever.
Three steps, no subscription
Buy once on Whop
One-time $39 for the packaged, zero-config version with updates and priority support.
Run it anywhere
Desktop app for personal use, or docker compose up on a $5 VPS for a public status page.
Add monitors, get alerts
HTTP checks every 30s, webhook/email pings the second something breaks — and again when it recovers.
Honest answers
Is it really free on GitHub?
Yes — MIT source at github.com/bensblueprints/uptime-monitor, always. The paid version is pure convenience: packaged installer, updates, priority support.
Do I need a server?
Not necessarily. Desktop mode runs the whole app in an Electron window. For a public status page or 24/7 monitoring you'll want a $5 VPS — which is still cheaper per year than one month of most competitors' higher tiers.
What check types are supported?
HTTP(S) with status-code and keyword assertions. No ping/port/DNS checks yet — if you need those today, UptimeRobot still has the broader check menu.
Where does monitoring run from?
From wherever you host it — one location. Cloud services check from multiple regions; that's their genuine advantage. For "is my site up and is checkout on the page", one good vantage point covers it.
How do alerts work?
JSON webhooks (Slack/Discord-compatible) plus email through your own SMTP credentials, on both down and recovery.
Deep-dive comparisons:
Own Upwatch forever
$39 once. Deploy on your own server — your data never leaves it. No renewal, no account with us, no meter. Or build it yourself from the MIT source — it's the same app.