Uptime Kuma is a fantastic self-hosted status page and uptime checker. We run it ourselves for internal services. But it was built to answer "is this host reachable?", not "does this VPN tunnel actually carry traffic?"
What Uptime Kuma genuinely does well
- Free, open source and self-hosted — full control
- Huge monitor-type selection for generic services
- Lovely status pages and a passionate community
| Feature | Uptime Kuma | ExitProbe |
|---|---|---|
| Real tunnel handshake testing | TCP port checks only | Full protocol handshakes on all 8 protocols |
| Exit IP verification | Not available | Every check verifies the live exit IP |
| Per-protocol incidents | One status per monitor | Scoped to protocol + probe pair |
| Hosting model | Self-hosted (you maintain it) | Managed, zero maintenance |
| Alert delivery when your server dies | Depends on the box Kuma runs on | Independent edge probes keep alerting |
| Setup effort | Provision a server, keep it updated | Paste a config, done |
Bottom line
Keep Uptime Kuma for your websites and APIs. Use ExitProbe when the question is whether a VPN tunnel actually works from the outside world.
See the difference yourself
Add one VPN server on the free plan and watch real handshakes come in.