Why Uptime Kuma
Not every project needs Datadog or New Relic. Most of the services I manage at KnausDev: client platforms like Exlink and E-wire, Mailcow instances, Nextcloud, Gitea, Jellyfin. Just need a simple question answered: is it up?
Uptime Kuma runs on my Proxmox homelab, checks every service every 60 seconds, and sends a Telegram notification the moment something goes down. No agents to install, no complex dashboards to configure, no per-host pricing.
How I Use It
Every domain and service I manage gets a monitor — HTTP checks for websites, TCP for databases, DNS for nameservers. The dashboard shows response times, uptime percentages, and certificate expiration dates at a glance.
The Telegram integration is the key piece. I don’t need to be logged into client infrastructure to know something is wrong. A notification hits my phone within seconds of a service going down, and another one confirms when it’s back.
For client-facing services, I create public status pages showing which services are operational. Customers can check mail server status or website availability without contacting support.
In the Stack
Uptime Kuma fills the gap between “no monitoring” and “enterprise observability platform” across all KnausDev infrastructure. For production applications with complex metrics, I’d reach for dedicated APM tools. For everything else: client Docker deployments on Hetzner, homelab services behind Cloudflare tunnels, self-hosted email — Uptime Kuma does exactly what’s needed with zero ongoing cost.