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Monitoring Solution in 2026
Hi Guys,
Just wondering what you all have been using for monitoring your VPS/servers (or websites).
I have been a long term user of hetrixtools. Looks like nothing new happening there. (It's pretty decent for what it does)
Recently discovered fivenines.io, looks promising. Haven't used them yet, they recently had a large outage of their own setup.
I also use self-hosted checkmk and Zabbix for a couple projects.
What you have been using recently.
Wondering if there a better solution for in-depth Docker container monitoring.
Self-Hosting / SaaS, Free or Paid, whatever works best 
Thanks
Comments
HetrixTools is the only way.
and MAYBE a UptimeKuma node as a backup (No VPS monitoring though)
uptime kuma + beszel combo
This! Beszel is such a strong but lightweight tool. But if we focus on in-depth docker container monitoring it sadly lacks of notifications. Sure, the information is there to look at, but you won't be notified automatically.
We should be launching out beta in the next monthish for our new inhouse monitoring service, we have over 15 Monitoring locations. early adopters will receiving lower pricing than users when it comes out of beta into prod. this platform has been designed from the ground up.
I was using UptimeKuma but its not built for a large amount of monitors and starts to have issues.
Going to be migrating to Gatus https://github.com/TwiN/gatus
After experiencing a few uptime application, i went back to Hetrixtool because it’s FREE ☠️
I'm also using hetrix, and i'm happy with it
I know some tools,
I'm not a fan of manual query so I don't use TIG/PNG stack
I don't want to manually create dashboard, take a day to resize panel to fit my multiple monitor, so I don't use zabbix, checkmk
I don't want to spin a whole windows VM so PTRG get out
I don't want to pay for greedy corporation so Datadog not there
With beszel, netdata left, netdata recently want I use and pay for their cloud even when I don't want to it (even when I install for internal use only it continuos ask me to login bruhh) so only beszel left, I'm using it
I always use Beszel for general uptime monitoring, and a small custom solution for memory pressure-related issues.
Beszel is wonderfully lightweight.
Prometheus+Grafana stack for complex monitoring. UptimeKuma if I want to expose a status page to users - sure I can do that in Grafana as well but I'd rather lock the more sensitive / detailed metrics tools to private network and expose only the lightweight stuff to users.
I have used netdata in the past and it is not bad, it is a good 'set and forget' solution if you want to not spend time configuring prometheus properly. It can also expose prometheus metrics so you can injest it in your master eventually. And netdata also has delightfully-easy custom views that you can build for light(ish) weight monitoring like a custom greenscreen / desktop wallpaper.
betterstack.
HetrixTools because it's free and I can save one more idler
Does anyone know which monitoring support customizable status pages like server health and scheduled maintenance?
For domain expirations:
https://lowendtalk.com/discussion/210290/free-domain-monitor-self-hosted-domain-expiration-tracking-system-php-8-1
I built own monitoring system using nats jetstream + rabbitmq. I'm considering it into public but there are already a lot similar thing which stop me.
inspired me to finally look at beszel, tentative like.
annoying i can't remember sz or zs though.
Choosing a monitoring stack really depends on your needs. If you want comprehensive monitoring, perhaps try Grafana + Prometheus.
If you just need simple disk/CPU/network monitoring, there are many options available out there.
Still living in the past with collectd + collectd graph panel, and php server monitor. Latter is a bit shit but it keeps enough slots free on hetrix for me to remain a freeloader
Using uptime kuma, but building my own as I want some special stuff behind the scenes.
If you’re checking out alternatives, we built Aepto for this kind of external monitoring.
It’s fully cloud based, so you just sign up and start adding domains or endpoints. No agents, no server setup.
Main focus is AI-based domain tracking. It keeps an eye on expiry, DNS changes, SSL issues, and flags anything unusual early instead of just pinging uptime.
You can also monitor APIs (GET checks), IPs (v4/v6), subdomains, and custom ports.
Free plan gives 3 domains + 5 extra monitoring components, so you can mix websites, APIs, ports, whatever you need.
It’s more about external visibility and domain intelligence than deep Docker metrics, but works well alongside an internal stack.
Can you explain that? Why are you using AI to just check when SSL or domain is expiring? A lot of other services doing the same but without AI ...
I only trust hetrixtools for public statuspage and uptime kuma for internal things
I wrote a Perl script that I'm planning to expand. I have three remote name servers, all of which run my monitoring script.
There's no alerting, yet. But it checks for some really particular things, like that SOA matches different name servers.
You can see the output here: https://status.slowservers.net/
Or here, if you're cool and use Gemini: gemini://status.slowservers.net/
Hello,
You could try https://statuseagle.com, it do have free plan to try.
We’re not using AI just to check expiry dates. That part doesn’t really need AI and many tools already handle it.
The idea behind AI in Aepto is to go beyond basic monitoring and look at the domain as a whole ecosystem.
So instead of only tracking things like SSL or domain expiry, we analyze signals around what’s connected to the domain — hosting, DNS, email configuration, and website behavior.
For example, the system can help detect unexpected provider or DNS changes, highlight configurations that may affect email deliverability, and notice abnormal content responses such as defacement, database errors, or pages that shouldn’t appear even if the server is still returning HTTP 200.
Another useful part is response pattern analysis. If your site starts responding slower than usual or shows a degrading performance trend, Aepto can notify you early. The idea is to detect reliability risks before a full outage happens.
So AI domain monitoring is about adding context, anomaly detection, and early warning signals on top of standard monitoring rather than replacing simple checks.
If I have 8 idlers and I set up Beszel on one to monitor the other 7, do I have 7 idlers now or still 8?
None. Still need agent on other 7 servers. True idler is boot server and forget about it (naked like newborn baby). You can change ssh port and add keys.
I have used Netdata for sometime. I haven't used beszel before, but seeing many people suggesting it, I will give it a try.
I have been thinking for "Prometheus+Grafana" option. I know it will be a pain to setup initially, but once it's done, it will probably be the best option.
I am surprised to see many people using tools to monitor domains. (Nothing wrong with it) But I guess a Complete Monitoring solution goes way beyond domain monitoring.
If you are here, you must have few VMs, Servers.
I have been using HetrixTools for like 4 years now. It's great for basic monitoring, but shame it feels like not getting new features.
I don't have many projects but recently started using uptimeflare on cloudflare workers.
I'm using Komari because I like the colors.