Self-hosted uptime monitoring with Uptime Kuma

Why self-hosted monitoring

Uptime Kuma checks HTTP(S), TCP and ping targets and can send alerts to Telegram or email. Test notification delivery before relying on it.

Step 1 — One click at server creation

Create an account, Servers → New server: smallest plan, any Ubuntu or Debian image, tick Uptime Kuma. First boot installs Docker and starts Kuma on port 80.

Step 2 — Create the admin account, add monitors

Open http://<server-ip>/ — the first visit is Kuma's setup wizard; create the admin account right away (until you do, the wizard is open to anyone who finds the IP). Then add your first monitors: your site's URL, your API's health endpoint, the SSH port of a server you care about.

Step 3 — Wire up Telegram alerts

Settings → Notifications → Telegram: make a bot with @BotFather, paste the token, send the bot a message, let Kuma detect the chat ID. Attach the notification to your monitors and kill your test server once to enjoy the alert actually arriving.

Back up application data and the database, then test a restore. Docker named volumes are not contained in the Compose project directory.

A sensible small-stack layout

One honest rule of monitoring: don't run the watcher on the same box as the watched. Give Kuma its own small server, ideally in a different region than what it monitors.