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Run Uptime Kuma when your first question is “Can users reach the service?” Run Beszel when it is “Why is the server slow, full, hot, or overloaded?” They monitor different layers rather than competing for the same job. Uptime Kuma probes services from the outside; Beszel collects operating-system, hardware, storage, network, and container telemetry from an agent installed on each machine. For production systems, running both gives you an outage signal and the diagnostic context to explain it.
The practical choice depends on the failure you need to detect, where the monitor will run, and whether you need public status pages or long-term infrastructure history. The sections below map those decisions to concrete deployment patterns.
Uptime Kuma and Beszel answer different questions
Uptime Kuma is an easy-to-use self-hosted monitoring tool built around checks. A Kuma instance periodically tests a target and records whether that test succeeds. Depending on the monitor type, the target can be an HTTP(S) URL, TCP port, keyword in a response, JSON query, WebSocket endpoint, ping destination, DNS record, push check, Steam server, or Docker container. It can also show certificate information and a ping chart.
Beszel is a lightweight server monitoring platform with Docker statistics, historical data, and alert functions. Its hub receives telemetry from an agent on each monitored system. That telemetry covers host resources and, where supported, hardware and storage health: CPU, memory, swap or ZFS ARC, disk capacity and I/O, network traffic, load, temperatures, fans, GPU, battery, containers, S.M.A.R.T., ZFS, and agent-based network monitors.
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That distinction matters during an incident. A successful HTTP check only proves that the application answered the particular request from the Kuma location. It does not prove that disk space is healthy, memory pressure is low, a software RAID pool is safe, or a container is within its resource limits. Conversely, a Beszel graph can show a host running out of memory while saying little about whether an outside user can resolve the domain or complete a TLS handshake.
Side-by-side comparison
| Decision axis | Uptime Kuma | Beszel |
|---|---|---|
| Primary question | Is a service, endpoint, port, DNS record, or container responding to its check condition? | How is the host, container, disk, network, or hardware performing? |
| Monitoring perspective | Outside-in probing from the Kuma instance | Inside-out telemetry from an agent on each system |
| Architecture | One self-hosted application | PocketBase-based hub plus an agent on every monitored system |
| Typical deployment | Docker Compose, Docker, or Node.js installation | Central hub and per-machine agents; Docker or binary agent options |
| Checks and metrics | HTTP(S), TCP, keyword, JSON query, WebSocket, ping, DNS, push, Steam, Docker, certificate details, and ping charts | CPU, memory, swap/ZFS ARC, disk usage and I/O, network, load, temperature, fan, GPU, battery, containers, S.M.A.R.T., ZFS, and network probes |
| Notifications and presentation | More than 90 notification services, multiple status pages, domain mapping, proxy support, and two-factor authentication | Configurable alerts, many notification services, multi-user access, OAuth/OIDC, API access, and automatic backups |
| Multi-machine model | One instance can check remote services; the prober’s location determines what an outage looks like | One hub aggregates data from agents installed on multiple systems |
| Historical infrastructure data | Focused on check history and availability | Designed for historical host, container, and hardware metrics |
The notification count and feature labels can change as projects evolve, so verify the current documentation before standardizing a deployment. The architectural difference is stable enough to drive the decision: Kuma is check-centric, while Beszel is telemetry-centric.
Choose Uptime Kuma first for availability monitoring
Public websites and APIs
Use Kuma when the important event is a customer-facing failure. An HTTP(S) monitor can test the URL users actually open, while keyword or JSON checks can verify that a response contains expected content rather than merely returning a TCP connection. A TCP check is useful for a database, mail service, game server, or custom application that has no web interface. Ping and DNS monitors isolate basic reachability and name-resolution failures.
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Kuma can also monitor WebSocket endpoints, receive push checks from jobs that report their own completion, inspect certificate information, and monitor Steam servers. These options let you express an availability condition instead of relying on a single generic “port is open” test.
Status pages and incident communication
Kuma is the stronger first choice when other people need a simple service view. Its status-page features let you publish selected monitors, map a domain, and present current state without exposing the complete administration dashboard. Multiple status pages are useful when customers, internal teams, or separate projects should see different sets of services. Proxy support and two-factor authentication address common deployment and account-protection requirements.
Single-application operations
If you want one application rather than a hub and a fleet of agents, Kuma is simpler to start. The official project documents Docker Compose, a direct Docker deployment, and a non-Docker installation. The non-Docker route requires Node.js 20.4 or newer, Git, and PM2 for background operation. Its README specifically warns that NFS file systems are not supported for the data mapping, so place persistent data on a local filesystem or another supported storage type.
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Choose Beszel first for host, container, and hardware health
Capacity and saturation
Beszel is the better first dashboard when you need to explain performance rather than merely detect it. CPU utilization, memory and swap activity, load, disk usage, disk I/O, and network throughput reveal whether a slow service is being starved by the host. Historical views help distinguish a one-minute spike from a recurring capacity trend, which is essential for deciding whether to tune an application, resize a machine, or add storage.
Storage and hardware signals
Where the operating system and agent expose them, Beszel can report temperatures, fan state, GPU and battery information, S.M.A.R.T. health, and ZFS-related data. Those signals are valuable on home servers, workstations, storage appliances, and GPU hosts where a service can remain reachable while hardware is degrading or thermal limits are being reached.
Containers and multiple servers
A Beszel hub centralizes data from agents on multiple machines. Container statistics show which workload is consuming CPU, memory, or other available resources, while host metrics provide the context around that workload. This is a natural fit for a small cluster, a home-lab fleet, or several Docker hosts that need one historical view instead of separate dashboards.
Beszel is not limited to host-only monitoring. Agents can probe ICMP, TCP, HTTP, and DNS targets and record response time and packet loss. Network monitors require agent version 0.20.0 or later. The documented network-loss alert uses a default threshold of 5% packet loss during the previous hour and requires at least three probes before it fires. These checks add useful reachability coverage, but the platform’s distinctive strength remains machine and container telemetry.
Is Beszel a replacement for Uptime Kuma?
Usually, no. Beszel can check websites or DNS through its agent network monitors, but those probes are an adjunct to its host dashboard. Uptime Kuma offers a broader set of application-level checks, public status pages, certificate-oriented information, push monitors, and a large notification-integration catalog. If the requirement is “tell me when this URL, port, DNS record, or response condition fails,” Kuma remains the more direct tool.
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Run both when availability and diagnosis both matter
A common two-layer design uses an independently placed Uptime Kuma prober for the user perspective and a Beszel hub with agents for infrastructure telemetry. Kuma can alert that an API is unreachable. Beszel can then show whether the API host exhausted memory, filled its disk, overheated, lost a storage pool, or experienced abnormal container usage.
The layers also catch different false assumptions. A host may be healthy while a reverse proxy, certificate, DNS record, application process, or upstream dependency is broken; Kuma sees that. An HTTP endpoint may still return a success response while the host is close to a capacity or thermal limit; Beszel sees that. Use separate alert routes or clearly labeled notification names so responders know whether they are looking at an external symptom or an internal cause.
Deployment architecture and exact prerequisites
Uptime Kuma installation choices
The documented Kuma paths are:
- Docker Compose: define the Kuma service and persistent data volume in a Compose project, then start it with your normal Compose workflow.
- Docker: run the project’s documented container configuration with persistent storage.
- Node.js: install Node.js 20.4 or newer and Git, install the application as documented, and use PM2 to keep it running in the background.
Whichever path you choose, protect the persistent data directory, back it up, and avoid NFS-backed data mappings because the project documentation says NFS is unsupported. Put the instance where it can reach every target and where its own failure will not be mistaken for a target outage.
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Beszel has two distinct components. The PocketBase-based hub stores the interface, users, alerts, and historical data. An agent runs on each monitored system and sends telemetry to that hub. The official Docker agent example uses host networking, a read-only Docker socket mount for container statistics, the hub URL, a public key, a token, and a listening port. Treat the Docker socket as sensitive even when mounted read-only: anyone who gains control of the monitoring container may obtain information about the host and its workloads.
Rootless containers may not expose temperature, fan, battery, GPU, ZFS, S.M.A.R.T., or systemd metrics without additional configuration. When those metrics are required, the documentation suggests using the binary agent instead. Confirm the permissions and kernel interfaces available on the target before promising hardware coverage.
Where to host the monitors
Placement determines what an alert means. If Kuma runs on the same server, network, power circuit, or hypervisor as the service it checks, a shared failure can take out both the service and the alarm path. The monitor may be unable to report the outage, or it may report only after the host returns.
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For public availability, place the Kuma prober in an independent failure domain: a separate machine, network, data center, or small external VPS. It does not need to host the application; it only needs reliable outbound access to the endpoints and a notification path. For private services, an internal Kuma instance may be appropriate, but label its results as internal reachability rather than Internet availability.
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Beszel’s hub can live centrally while agents remain on the systems being measured. If the hub shares a failure domain with all agents, you may lose the dashboard during a site-wide outage even though agents cannot deliver their data. Automatic backups and a second access path help preserve history and administration, but they do not replace independent availability probing.
Alerting, status pages, and historical data
Choose Kuma when notification breadth and status-page presentation are requirements in their own right. Its documented integrations cover more than 90 notification services, and it supports multiple status pages, domain mapping, proxy-aware deployments, and two-factor authentication.
Choose Beszel when alert rules should be tied to resource history and multiple users need a shared infrastructure view. Its documented capabilities include configurable alerts, many notification services, multi-user access, OAuth/OIDC, API access, and automatic backups. The important difference is not simply how many channels each project supports; it is what event feeds the alert. Kuma alerts on a check condition, while Beszel alerts on telemetry and configured thresholds.
Monitoring Docker containers and the host together
For a Docker host, the most complete arrangement is to use Kuma for externally observable services and Beszel for the host and container layer. Create Kuma monitors for the public HTTP endpoint, relevant TCP ports, DNS, and any push-based jobs. Install a Beszel agent on the Docker host and provide the documented read-only Docker socket access if container statistics are needed.
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This arrangement answers three separate questions:
- Is the service reachable? Kuma’s endpoint check.
- Is the host under pressure? Beszel’s CPU, memory, load, disk, I/O, and network data.
- Which workload is responsible? Beszel’s container statistics, subject to the visibility available to the agent.
Do not treat a container being “up” as proof that its application is usable. A running process can be wedged, return errors, fail authentication, or serve stale content. Pair container telemetry with a meaningful Kuma application check.
Privacy, control, and security trade-offs
Both tools are self-hosted, so monitoring data can remain under your control instead of being sent to a hosted monitoring vendor. That control also makes patching, backups, authentication, network exposure, and incident response your responsibility.
- Expose only the interfaces required for checks, agents, administrators, and notifications.
- Use HTTPS and strong authentication for dashboards and status pages; enable two-factor authentication in Kuma where appropriate.
- Limit Beszel users and OAuth/OIDC mappings to the teams that need infrastructure data.
- Protect Beszel agent tokens, public keys, hub credentials, and backup files.
- Review the implications of host networking and Docker socket access before deploying an agent.
- Separate public status information from private host metrics; a status page should not reveal disk paths, temperatures, or internal topology.
Common failure modes and fixes
The monitor says a service is down, but users can reach it
Check where Kuma is running and whether that network has different DNS, routing, firewall, IPv6, or proxy behavior from the user’s network. A single prober reports its own vantage point. Add a second probe location or compare DNS and TCP checks with the HTTP result before declaring a global outage.
The service is down, but Kuma sends no alert
First verify that the Kuma instance itself is reachable and running. If it shares the failed host or power domain, move the prober to an independent location. Then verify the notification channel, credentials, rate limits, and the monitor’s interval and failure conditions.
Beszel is missing hardware metrics
Check whether the agent is running rootless and whether the required device interfaces are visible. The documentation notes that rootless containers may lack temperature, fan, battery, GPU, ZFS, S.M.A.R.T., and systemd metrics. Use the binary agent or provide the additional configuration required for the specific metric, while keeping permissions as narrow as possible.
Beszel network alerts never fire
Confirm that the agent is version 0.20.0 or later, the target is reachable from that agent, and at least three probes have occurred. The documented default network-loss rule requires 5% packet loss over the previous hour; a short isolated packet drop will not satisfy that condition.
Kuma data behaves unexpectedly on shared storage
Move the persistent data mapping off NFS, which the project README says is unsupported. Use a supported local filesystem and test restoration from a backup before relying on the instance for incident response.
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A decision checklist
- Select Uptime Kuma if your acceptance test is an HTTP, TCP, DNS, ping, keyword, JSON, WebSocket, push, Steam, certificate, or Docker check.
- Select Beszel if you need CPU, memory, swap, load, disk, I/O, network, thermal, GPU, battery, S.M.A.R.T., ZFS, or container history.
- Select Uptime Kuma if public status pages and a single self-hosted application are central requirements.
- Select Beszel if a hub-and-agent fleet, multi-user access, OAuth/OIDC, API access, and infrastructure alerts matter most.
- Run both when responders need an independent user-facing outage signal and the evidence to diagnose the underlying machine.
- Place the Kuma prober outside the monitored service’s failure domain whenever external availability matters.
Bottom line
Uptime Kuma is the availability monitor: it tells you whether a defined service condition succeeds from the prober’s location. Beszel is the infrastructure monitor: it tells you what the host, containers, storage, network, and supported hardware are doing over time. Beszel can perform limited ICMP, TCP, HTTP, and DNS probing, but it is not a full substitute for Kuma’s application checks and status-page workflow. Start with the tool that matches your primary question, and deploy both when uptime alerts and root-cause visibility are equally important.
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