Supervisor review
A focused open-source supervisor for restarting, grouping, logging, and controlling processes.
Reviewed by iTechGuides Editors · Editorial team · Updated Oct 2026
Supervisor is an open-source client/server process-control system for developers and administrators managing application processes on servers. It starts and manages child processes, restarts crashed or exited processes, and provides individual or group control. Process status and actions are available through supervisorctl, with an optional browser-based interface and an XML-RPC API for programmatic interrogation and control. Its free, self-hosted model suits teams that want direct control over process supervision on Linux, macOS, or other Unix-like systems.
The strongest part of Supervisor is its focused supervision workflow. Process groups allow related services to be controlled together, while automatic restart behavior helps respond to crashes or exits. Activity and child-process output can be logged, and automatic log rotation helps keep those logs manageable. Event notifications add a protocol for reacting to process activity, while remote monitoring and process actions extend control beyond the local command line. This makes Supervisor a practical fit for server-side application processes that need explicit lifecycle management rather than a broad infrastructure observability suite.
Supervisor also offers several ways to integrate with existing administration tools: supervisorctl for command-line control, a web interface for browser-based access, and XML-RPC for applications or remote clients. The trade-off is operational scope. It is self-hosted software, so deployment and administration remain with the team using it, and its emphasis is process supervision rather than resource metrics. Alerting is centered on process event notifications rather than a named email or chat channel. Choose Supervisor when open-source process control, restart behavior, grouping, logs, and APIs are the priority; choose another tool when hosted operation or deeper system-resource monitoring is central.
Supervisor pros and cons
- Where it wins
- Automatically restarts crashed or exited processes
- Groups processes for coordinated control and management
- Combines CLI, web, XML-RPC, notifications, and logging
- Where it doesn't
- Designed for Unix-like systems rather than broad cross-platform deployment
- Requires self-hosted installation and ongoing administration
- Emphasizes supervision more than resource metrics
Supervisor fact sheet, pricing and score →
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