Grafana vs Uptime Kuma: Which to Self-Host?
Quick Verdict
These tools solve different problems. Uptime Kuma monitors whether your services are up and notifies you when they go down. Grafana visualizes metrics from multiple data sources to understand system performance and trends. Most self-hosters should start with Uptime Kuma for uptime alerts and add Grafana + Prometheus later when they need deeper infrastructure monitoring.
Overview
Uptime Kuma is a self-hosted uptime monitoring tool — it pings your services and alerts you when they’re down. Grafana is a visualization and dashboarding platform that connects to data sources like Prometheus, InfluxDB, and Loki to display metrics, logs, and alerts.
They’re complementary tools, not direct competitors. But many self-hosters ask which one they need, so the answer depends on what you’re monitoring.
Feature Comparison
| Feature | Grafana | Uptime Kuma |
|---|---|---|
| Primary purpose | Metrics visualization | Uptime monitoring |
| Setup complexity | High (needs data sources) | Low (standalone) |
| Data storage | External (Prometheus, etc.) | Built-in SQLite |
| Dashboard building | Advanced (queries, transforms) | Pre-built status page |
| Alert channels | Many (via Alertmanager) | 90+ notification services |
| HTTP monitoring | Via Blackbox Exporter | Built-in |
| TCP/Ping monitoring | Via Blackbox Exporter | Built-in |
| DNS monitoring | Via Blackbox Exporter | Built-in |
| Docker monitoring | Via cAdvisor/Node Exporter | Built-in (Docker host) |
| Public status page | Via plugins | Built-in |
| RAM usage | ~200-400 MB (with Prometheus) | ~80-150 MB |
| Container count | 2-3 (Grafana + Prometheus + exporters) | 1 |
| Learning curve | Steep | Minimal |
| Certificate expiry monitoring | Via Blackbox Exporter | Built-in |
| Response time graphs | Yes (detailed) | Yes (basic) |
Installation Complexity
Uptime Kuma is a single container with an SQLite database. Deploy it, open the web UI, add your monitors. The entire setup takes 5 minutes. No external dependencies, no configuration files, no queries to write.
Grafana alone is also a single container, but it’s useless without data sources. A typical monitoring stack is Grafana + Prometheus + Node Exporter (+ optionally cAdvisor, Loki, Alertmanager). That’s 3-6 containers, Prometheus configuration files, and learning PromQL to build dashboards.
Performance and Resource Usage
Uptime Kuma uses ~80-150 MB for monitoring dozens of services. The Grafana + Prometheus stack starts at ~400 MB and grows with the number of metrics being collected and the retention period.
Use Cases
Choose Uptime Kuma If…
- You want to know when a service goes down and get notified
- You want a public status page for your services
- You want simple setup with no configuration files
- You want certificate expiry monitoring
- You’re monitoring external services (websites, APIs)
- You want a clean dashboard without building it yourself
Choose Grafana (+ Prometheus) If…
- You need to visualize CPU, memory, disk, and network metrics
- You want historical trend analysis
- You need to correlate metrics across multiple systems
- You want custom dashboards with complex queries
- You’re running a larger infrastructure (10+ services)
- You need log aggregation alongside metrics
Use Both If…
- You want uptime alerting (Uptime Kuma) AND infrastructure metrics (Grafana)
- Many self-hosters run both — Uptime Kuma for the quick “is it up?” check and Grafana for deep-dive troubleshooting
Final Verdict
Start with Uptime Kuma. It answers the most common monitoring question — “are my services running?” — with minimal setup. The built-in status page and 90+ notification integrations make it immediately useful.
Add Grafana + Prometheus when you need deeper visibility into resource usage, performance trends, or when you’re running enough services that you need infrastructure-level monitoring. The learning curve is steeper but the visibility is unmatched.
Running both is common and recommended for any self-hoster with more than a handful of services.
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