Uptime Kuma vs Uptrends

Uptime Kuma The open-source Docker monitor you run yourself. Free, flexible, and yours to keep online. Uptrends Browser-level synthetics and API checks, including multi-step payments and OpenTelemetry export. Uptime Kuma is self-hosted. Uptrends is hosted. That is the first fork — who owns the checker when your own network is the thing on fire. If you only needed a public status page and a health check, neither may be the smallest tool — GreenCrew is built for that job.

Side by side

Topic	Uptime Kuma	Uptrends
Best for	People who already self-host, want many monitor types, and accept that the checker is another box they own.	Teams that need to prove a user journey — not just a URL — from many regions, and maybe stream that into OTel.
Not for	Founders who did not want another container, or who need a status URL that stays up when their VPS does not.	A first monitor on a side project, or anyone who only wanted a public status URL.
Hosting	Self-hosted	Hosted
What it checks	HTTP, keyword, TCP, DNS, Docker, push/heartbeats, and more — depending on how you configure it.	Transaction monitoring in real browsers, API steps, extra confirmations that a payment actually landed.
Status page	You can expose a status page from the same instance. It lives where you deployed it.	Reporting and public dashboards; the product is the probe, not the customer page.
Alerts	Huge list of notification backends if you configure them.	Detailed synthetic failures, including which step broke.
Complexity	Simple software, operationally yours.	Moderate
Pricing shape	Free software. You pay the VPS, the backups, and the time.	Priced as synthetics, not as a free ping. Transactions cost more than availability.

What Uptime Kuma is

The open-source Docker monitor you run yourself. Free, flexible, and yours to keep online. People who already self-host, want many monitor types, and accept that the checker is another box they own. Founders who did not want another container, or who need a status URL that stays up when their VPS does not.

What Uptrends is

Browser-level synthetics and API checks, including multi-step payments and OpenTelemetry export. Teams that need to prove a user journey — not just a URL — from many regions, and maybe stream that into OTel. A first monitor on a side project, or anyone who only wanted a public status URL.

The actual split

Uptime Kuma is self-hosted. Uptrends is hosted. That is the first fork — who owns the checker when your own network is the thing on fire.

Who should pick which

Uptime Kuma: People who already self-host, want many monitor types, and accept that the checker is another box they own.
Uptrends: Teams that need to prove a user journey — not just a URL — from many regions, and maybe stream that into OTel.