Free uptime monitoring: what each free plan really includes
The biggest free hosted tier is UptimeRobot's (50 monitors, 5-minute checks, email alerts); the fastest is HetrixTools' (1-minute checks). Vigil by PuzariCloud's Free plan gives 20 monitors at 5-minute checks with 3 logins, alerts in Slack, Teams, Google Chat, Telegram or WhatsApp and a status page on your own domain, and allows commercial use. Every number below was read on the vendor's own pages on 19 October 2026.
Free tiers side by side
| Tool | Monitors | Fastest check | Check locations | Status page | Alerts on the free plan | Logins | History | Terms |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vigil by PuzariCloud | 20 | 5 min | 1 (Germany) + 1 private location you host | 1, custom domain and password protection allowed | Email, webhooks, Telegram, Slack, Discord, Microsoft Teams, Google Chat, Zoho Cliq, Matrix, ntfy, Gotify, Pushover, WhatsApp; 1 ticketing channel (PagerDuty, Jira…) | 3 | 7 days | Commercial use allowed; no card |
| UptimeRobot | 50 | 5 min | not stated for Free | 1, UptimeRobot URL only, no customisation | Email; Google Chat, Discord, Pushover, Pushbullet, Splunk. No Slack, Telegram or webhooks on Free; SMS/voice via paid credits | no extra login seats | 3 months | Terms: "available for any use, including commercial" (since 26 May 2026); pricing page still says "hobby and non-profit"; no card |
| HetrixTools | 15 uptime + 15 server | 1 min | multiple locations | Public status pages, 3 white-label domains | Email (1 recipient), Telegram, Slack, Discord, Teams, Google Chat, ntfy, webhooks; SMS and calls at $0.10 each | no sub-accounts | uptime reports unlimited, activity log 15 days | Must log in every 90 days; one free account per person or organisation |
| Better Stack | 10 monitors and 10 heartbeats (the /pricing page says "10 monitors & heartbeats") | 3 min | not stated for Free | 1 | Slack and email; phone and SMS need a paid responder ($34/month) | not stated | not stated | Labelled "free for personal projects" |
| StatusCake | 3 or 10 (its pricing page shows two versions) | 15 or 5 min (same) | not stated for Free | not stated | Email (1 contact group); SMS and integrations not on Free | 1 ("single login for personal use") | not stated | No card |
| Pulsetic | 10 (monitors, heartbeats and domains combined) | 5 min | 3 | 3 | Email and 1 webhook per monitor; no Slack, Teams, Telegram or SMS on Free | no teammates | 3 months | Free limits are per customer, not per account |
| UptimeObserver | 20 | 5 min | not stated for Free | 1, custom domain | Email (1 recipient), Telegram, Pushover, Slack, Discord, 2 webhooks | not stated | not stated | No card |
| Cronitor (Hacker) | 5 (jobs, checks and heartbeats combined) | 5 min | not stated for Free | 1 basic, 50 subscribers | Email, Slack, Discord, Teams, webhooks; no SMS | 1 | not stated | "For homelabs and small projects" |
| Healthchecks.io (Hobbyist) | 20 cron jobs (heartbeats only, no URL checks) | n/a (your job pings it) | n/a | none (README badges) | Email, webhooks, Slack, Discord, Google Chat and more; SMS, WhatsApp and calls on paid plans | not stated | 100 log entries per job | No card; extra accounts to dodge limits count as abuse |
| Uptime Kuma (self-hosted) | unlimited | 20 s | wherever you run it | multiple, on your own domains | 90+ notification services | your server | your server | MIT licence; you run and update the server (Docker or Node.js), and it cannot tell you when that server itself is down |
Read on each vendor's pricing page, terms or repository (linked from its name) on 19 October 2026. "Not stated" means the vendor does not publish it for the free plan. Paid tiers are not compared here; see the comparison hub for those.
Freshping is gone. Freshworks shut Freshping down: its FAQ says free accounts "will be disabled on March 6, 2026", with data export until 4 June 2026. Freshping FAQ. Moving from Freshping.
Which free plan fits which job
- You watch many sites and email alerts are enough
- UptimeRobot Free: 50 monitors beats everyone's free hosted tier, and its terms now allow commercial use. You give up Slack/Telegram/webhook alerts, team logins and a custom-domain status page.
- You want 1-minute checks or SMS and phone alerts without a subscription
- HetrixTools: every plan checks every minute from several locations, and SMS or calls cost $0.10 each. Remember to log in every 90 days.
- You only need cron and backup jobs
- Healthchecks.io Hobbyist (20 jobs) is the specialist. Vigil accepts the same ping URL format, so pick Vigil if you also want URL checks and a status page in the same account.
- You have a server and want unlimited monitors
- Uptime Kuma, self-hosted. Pair it with an outside check (any hosted free tier) so you hear when the Kuma server itself dies.
- You already use Better Stack for logs
- Better Stack's free uptime tier (3-minute checks, Slack and email) keeps it in one place; it is labelled for personal projects.
- A small company that wants team logins, a branded or private status page and alerts in its own chat app
- Vigil Free: 20 monitors, 3 logins, a status page on your domain (password protection included), alerts in Slack, Teams, Google Chat, Zoho Cliq, Telegram or WhatsApp, plus 1 server agent and heartbeats, with commercial use spelled out.
Where Vigil's free plan loses
- Only 20 monitors on Free (UptimeRobot gives 50).
- 5-minute checks on Free (HetrixTools checks every minute; Better Stack every 3).
- One check location in Germany, plus any private location you host; HetrixTools, Pulsetic and others check from several regions.
- 7 days of history on Free (UptimeRobot and Pulsetic keep 3 months).
- No SMS or phone calls on the hosted Free plan.
If those matter more than team logins, chat alerts and a branded status page, pick one of the others above. Paid Vigil plans start at $19 a month (₹1,499 in India) for 50 monitors at 1-minute checks and unlimited team members.
What Vigil's free plan includes
- 20 monitors (website, API with assertions, keyword, SSL, domain, DNS, TCP, cron heartbeats) at 5-minute checks; heartbeats can use a 1-minute period.
- 1 status page with your own domain, password protection and 25 subscribers.
- 1 server with the monitoring agent, 2 multi-step API flows and 3 team logins.
- 7 days of check history. Commercial use allowed. No card.
Related: free status page tools (status pages only), cron monitoring alternatives, uptime monitoring in India.
FAQ
Is there a truly free uptime monitor for a business?
Yes. Vigil's Free plan (20 monitors at 5-minute checks) allows commercial use, and UptimeRobot's terms have allowed commercial use on its free plan since 26 May 2026. Better Stack labels its free tier for personal projects, and Cronitor's for homelabs and small projects.
Which free uptime monitor checks most often?
Among hosted free tiers, HetrixTools checks every minute and Better Stack every 3 minutes; most others check every 5 minutes. Self-hosted Uptime Kuma can check every 20 seconds, but only from your own server.
Which free plans include Slack alerts?
Vigil, HetrixTools, Better Stack, UptimeObserver, Cronitor and Healthchecks.io include Slack on their free plans. UptimeRobot's free plan does not (it includes Google Chat and Discord).
What happened to Freshping?
Freshworks shut it down; its FAQ says free accounts were disabled on 6 March 2026. Vigil can import a list of URLs in one paste if you are moving from it.
Do I need a credit card?
Not for Vigil, UptimeRobot, StatusCake, UptimeObserver or Healthchecks.io, according to their pages.