system-status vs UptimeRobot
Last checked July 2026 — UptimeRobot's plans may have changed since; verify on their pricing page.
UptimeRobot is the best-known free uptime monitor and a mature product. system-status is a smaller, simpler service focused on one audience: freelancers and web agencies who monitor client sites and need to show clients the results. The differences fall out of that focus.
| system-status | UptimeRobot | |
|---|---|---|
| Free monitors | 10 | 50 |
| Check interval (free) | 60 seconds | 5 minutes |
| Commercial use on the free plan | Yes | Intended for hobby / non-commercial use |
| Public status pages | Every monitor, free, with response-time chart | Limited on free; full status pages on paid tiers |
| Status page on your own domain | Yes (white-label, automatic HTTPS) | Paid tier (about $29/month when last checked) |
| SSL expiry warnings | Free (14 and 3 days before expiry) | Paid plans |
| Check types | HTTP / HTTPS | HTTP, ping, port, keyword, cron |
| Alert channels | Email plus many integrations | |
| Paid plan | Pro coming soon | From roughly $8/month |
Choose system-status if
- You monitor client sites commercially and want to stay inside a free plan's terms.
- You want 60-second checks without paying — a 5-minute interval means a short outage can end before it's ever noticed.
- You want to hand every client a status page, or serve it from their own domain, without a $29/month tier.
- Expired SSL certificates have burned you before — expiry warnings are free here.
Choose UptimeRobot if
- You need more than 10 free monitors for personal projects.
- You need ping, port, keyword, or cron monitoring — we only do HTTP(S) today.
- You want alerts in Slack, PagerDuty, or a mobile app rather than email.
Both have free plans, so the cheapest way to decide is to run them side by side on the same site for a week.