Probecast vs Uptime Kuma
A much-loved open-source, self-hosted monitoring tool: install it on your own server and watch anything, free.
The short version
Uptime Kuma is free, private and yours — if you host it. Probecast is hosted, measured from outside and speaks client: reports, SLA and status pages under your brand. The honest difference: a monitor you host is your own word; when a client questions the numbers, an independent third party is the record both sides can accept.
Probecast is monitoring plus monthly client reports for devs and agencies who ship projects for other people. It watches websites, APIs, cron jobs, TCP ports, browser flows and public MCP servers from 4 regions, groups everything by client and ends each month in a white-label report — with an API, a CLI and an MCP server so your coding agent can manage monitors too.
What each one does.
| Capability | Uptime Kuma | Probecast |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free, open source | Free tier; paid plans from $9 |
| Hosting | Self-hosted — your server, your uptime | Hosted and monitored from 4 regions, independent of your infra |
| Check types | Very broad (HTTP, TCP, DNS, Docker and more) | Websites, APIs, heartbeats, TCP, SSL and domain, browser flows, MCP servers |
| Independent record for client disputes | No — you run the monitor | Yes — a third party measures and the finalised report is frozen |
| Status pages | Yes, self-hosted | Per client, your brand, optional password, no server to keep up |
| Client reports | DIY | White-label month-end report in 6 languages |
| Who watches the monitor | You do | We do — four regions watch each other |
Capabilities checked October 2026 · Uptime Kuma details from public materials — tell us if something is out of date
Uptime Kuma pricing
Free (MIT licence) — the cost is the server you run it on and the time to keep it patched and up.
Probecast pricing
Free · Indie $9 · Startup $25 · Agency $150/mo, hosted, with the client layer included.
When Uptime Kuma is the better choice
- You want full control and your data on your own box.
- You enjoy running infrastructure and a homelab is part of the fun.
- Nobody external ever needs to trust your numbers.
When Probecast is the better choice
- A client relationship depends on numbers both sides can accept.
- You would rather ship client work than patch a monitoring VM.
- You need white-label reports, SLA tracking and scoped team access out of the box.
Is self-hosted monitoring less accurate?
Not necessarily — Uptime Kuma checks are solid. The limits are structural: a monitor inside your infra can go down with it, and numbers you produce yourself are harder to stand on when a client disputes an outage. Independence is the thing you cannot self-host.
Can I keep Uptime Kuma and add Probecast?
Yes — plenty of devs keep Kuma for internal boxes and use Probecast for everything client-facing: the sites, the reports and the status pages clients see.
See it with your own projects.
Start free with one project — or add a monitor from the terminal with npx probecast.
Uptime Kuma is a trademark of its owner. Probecast is not affiliated with and does not endorse or disparage Uptime Kuma; this page reflects public information as of October 2026 and both products evolve. Found an error? Tell us at probecast.io/contact and we will fix it.