The best free uptime monitoring tools in 2026

Most uptime monitoring services offer a free plan, but the limits differ far more than the headlines suggest: how many monitors you get, how often each one is checked, whether a status page is included, who can receive alerts, and whether you may use the plan for a business at all. This guide puts the free plans that matter in 2026 side by side.

Every fact about another provider comes from that provider's own website: its pricing page, terms of service, documentation or official code repository, checked on 15 October 2026. Plans change, so check the provider's site before you sign up.

One declaration: PulseStack™ is our product. We have described it with the same kind of facts as everyone else, and we say where other tools are ahead.

Tool	Free monitors	Check interval	Status page	Alerts on the free plan
Better Stack	10 monitors and 10 heartbeats	3 minutes	1 included	Slack and email
Cronitor	5 in total (cron, uptime and heartbeat)	Not stated on the plan	Basic page	Email and Slack
HetrixTools	15 uptime and 15 server monitors	1 minute	Included	Email to one recipient
PulseStack™	25 website monitors	5 minutes	1 included	Email
Site24x7	Up to 50 websites	5 minutes	1 public page	Email only
StatusCake	10 uptime, plus 1 SSL, 1 domain and 1 page speed monitor	5 minutes	Sold separately	Through integrations
Uptime Kuma	No limit (you host it)	Down to 20 seconds	Multiple pages	90+ notification services
UptimeRobot	50 monitors	5 minutes	1 basic page	Up to 5 integrations

Facts from each provider's own site, checked on 15 October 2026. Pingdom is not listed because it has no free plan, and Freshping has closed: both are covered below.

• The most monitors: UptimeRobot and Site24x7 both allow 50 on their free plans. Uptime Kuma has no limit, because you host it yourself.
• The fastest checks without paying: HetrixTools checks every minute on its free plan. Uptime Kuma can check every 20 seconds on your own server.
• A business website: the terms of UptimeRobot and PulseStack™ both allow commercial use of the free plan. Better Stack and HetrixTools label their free plans for personal projects.
• A status page for customers: Better Stack, Cronitor, HetrixTools, PulseStack™, Site24x7 and UptimeRobot include one on the free plan. StatusCake sells status pages separately.
• Checks from more than one place: PulseStack™ checks free monitors from London, New York and Sydney and needs two locations to agree before it alerts. HetrixTools' free plan uses 4 of its 12 locations. Site24x7's free plan checks from Seattle only.
• Full control and no limits: Uptime Kuma, if you are happy to run and update a server yourself.

Better Stack

Better Stack's free tier includes 10 monitors and 10 heartbeats, one status page, and alerts by Slack and email, with checks every three minutes. Its pricing page describes the tier as free for personal projects. Phone and SMS alerts need a paid licence.

Good for: personal projects that want a polished dashboard and a status page. See our Better Stack comparison.

Cronitor

Cronitor is built around cron job and heartbeat monitoring. Its free Hacker plan allows five monitors in total, with email and Slack alerts and a basic status page. SMS alerts and premium integrations are on the paid Business plan, which is priced per monitor and per user.

Good for: keeping an eye on a handful of scheduled jobs. See our Cronitor comparison.

HetrixTools

HetrixTools gives its free plan 15 uptime monitors and 15 server monitors, checked every minute from 4 of its 12 locations, with a 15-day activity log and status pages. Alerts go to a single email address, there are no included SMS credits, and you need to log in at least every 90 days. The plan is labelled for personal projects.

Good for: one-minute checks at no cost, with basic server monitoring included.

PulseStack™

The PulseStack™ Free plan covers 25 website monitors checked every five minutes from London, New York and Sydney. A monitor only goes down when at least two of the three locations fail, which filters out local network blips. It includes one public status page and email alerts, needs no card, and our terms allow commercial use within those limits. SSL certificate, domain expiry, keyword, API and cron job monitors, faster checks and chat alerts start on the Starter plan at £9 a month.

Good for: small businesses and agencies that want a free plan they can use for company and client sites, with a status page. See website monitoring and pricing.

Site24x7

Site24x7 has a forever-free plan for up to 50 websites, checked every five minutes, with email alerts and one public status page. On the free plan, checks run from one location, Seattle in the United States. SMS, voice and integrations such as Slack are on paid plans.

Good for: many sites on a free plan, if a single check location is acceptable. See our Site24x7 comparison.

StatusCake

StatusCake's free plan includes 10 uptime monitors at five-minute intervals, plus one SSL monitor, one domain monitor and one page speed monitor. Status pages are a separate product, StatusCake Pages, from £11.95 a month. Paid monitoring starts with Superior at £14.99 a month for 100 uptime monitors at one-minute intervals.

Good for: a few sites that also need a basic SSL and domain check. See our StatusCake comparison.

Uptime Kuma

Uptime Kuma is free, open-source software, released under the MIT licence, that you install and run yourself. It supports HTTP, keyword, TCP, ping, DNS and other checks at intervals down to 20 seconds, multiple status pages, and notifications through more than 90 services. There is no monitor limit, but the server, updates and backups are yours to look after, and a monitor that runs on the same server or network as your website cannot warn you when that server or network goes down.

Good for: technical teams who want full control. See our hosted alternative to Uptime Kuma.

UptimeRobot

UptimeRobot's free plan includes 50 monitors at five-minute intervals, covering HTTP, port, ping and keyword checks, one basic status page on an UptimeRobot address, and up to five integrations. SSL and DNS monitoring are on paid plans. Its terms of service say UptimeRobot is available for any use, including commercial and business use, while its pricing page pitches the free plan at hobby and non-profit projects.

Good for: lots of simple HTTP checks. See our UptimeRobot comparison.

Pingdom does not have a free plan. Its sign-up page offers a 30-day free trial of the paid product instead. See our Pingdom comparison.

Freshping has closed. Freshworks deprecated it, disabled free accounts on 6 March 2026 and closes paid accounts when their subscriptions end. If you used it, our guide to moving off Freshping covers what to do next.

A note on older articles: some guides still say UptimeRobot's free plan is for non-commercial use only. Its terms of service, checked on 15 October 2026, say it is available for any use, including commercial.

These three are often compared with each other. On their free plans, UptimeRobot offers far more monitors (50 against StatusCake's 10), while StatusCake's free plan adds one SSL, one domain and one page speed monitor that UptimeRobot keeps for paid plans. Pingdom has no free plan, only a 30-day trial.

On paid plans, StatusCake prices in pounds, with Superior from £14.99 a month, and UptimeRobot in euros, with Solo from €144 a year billed annually. StatusCake lists 43 test locations in 30 countries; UptimeRobot adds location-specific monitoring on its paid plans. If you are weighing any of them against PulseStack™, our comparison hub has each one side by side.

1. Count what you need to watch. List every website, page, API and scheduled job. Ten monitors go quickly once you add a login page, a checkout and an API for each site.
2. Decide how quickly you need to know. A five-minute check can leave you up to five minutes behind an outage. For a shop or a booking system, one minute or faster is worth paying for.
3. Check you may use the plan for business. Read the terms, not just the pricing page labels.
4. Look at where checks run from. A single location raises false alarms whenever that location's own network has a problem. Services that confirm from two or more places alert less often for no reason.
5. Check who gets the alert. Free plans often limit alerts to email, or to one recipient. Make sure the alert reaches someone who can act on it, out of hours too.
6. Think about your customers. A public status page saves a flood of "is it down?" emails during an outage.
7. Plan the next step. Compare what the first paid plan costs and adds, so outgrowing the free plan is not a surprise.

Not sure your site is up right now? Run a free check with our website down checker, or see how much downtime an uptime target allows with the uptime calculator.

What is the best free uptime monitoring tool?

It depends on what you need. For the most monitors, UptimeRobot and Site24x7 allow 50 each. For one-minute checks, HetrixTools. For a self-hosted tool with no limits, Uptime Kuma. For a free plan that allows commercial use, includes a status page and confirms outages from three locations, PulseStack™.

Is UptimeRobot still free for commercial use?

Yes. On 15 October 2026 UptimeRobot's terms of service said it is available for any use, including commercial and business use. Its pricing page describes the free plan as good for hobby and non-profit projects.

Which free uptime monitor checks most often?

Among hosted services, HetrixTools checks every minute on its free plan and Better Stack every three minutes. UptimeRobot, StatusCake, Site24x7 and PulseStack™ check every five minutes. Uptime Kuma, which you host yourself, can check every 20 seconds.

Does Pingdom have a free plan?

No. Pingdom offers a 30-day free trial of its paid plans, but no free plan.

Did Freshping shut down?

Yes. Freshworks deprecated Freshping. Free accounts were disabled on 6 March 2026, and paid accounts close when their subscriptions end.

Do free plans include SSL certificate monitoring?

Some do. StatusCake's free plan includes one SSL monitor, and Site24x7's free plan can check that a certificate is valid and not close to expiry. UptimeRobot and PulseStack™ keep SSL monitoring for paid plans. For a one-off check at any time, use a free SSL checker.