Is UptimeRobot free enough for indie SaaS — and what about Freshping?
UptimeRobot and Freshping built loyal audiences on generous free tiers: dozens of monitors, five-minute (or faster) intervals, and basic status pages. Indie founders still Google those names when they want “free uptime” before revenue covers tools.
This guide is not another eight-vendor roundup — see best uptime monitoring indie 2026 for that. Here we compare free-tier mechanics against StillOnline on the wedge many solo founders actually need: one production health URL, owner alerts, and a hosted status page customers can bookmark — without a pricing calculator.
Quick answer
UptimeRobot Free offers 50 monitors at 5-minute intervals per their pricing page — strong on count, weaker as a bundled customer comms workflow (one basic status page, limited integrations). Freshping deprecated free accounts on March 6, 2026; treat historical “50 monitors / 1-minute” references as migration context, not a live option. StillOnline Free is narrower: one URL, 5-minute probes, hosted public status page, one owner alert channel (email, StillOnline bot on Telegram, or Slack) — better when you want status + checks in one cabinet. Deep dives: vs UptimeRobot · alternatives hub.
UptimeRobot Free — what you actually get
Per UptimeRobot pricing and help center guidance:
| Feature | UptimeRobot Free |
|---|---|
| Monitors | 50 |
| Interval | 5 min |
| Status pages | 1 basic page |
| Integrations | 5 (subset) |
| Retention | 3 months (per vendor materials) |
| Commercial use | Non-commercial only — Terms of Service restrict business / revenue-generating use |
Wins when: you need many endpoints (staging, personal homelab, SSL expiry monitors) and email alerts are enough.
Friction for indie SaaS: launching a revenue product on Free may conflict with non-commercial terms; status pages are “basic” compared to a dedicated status-first product; you may still wire customer comms separately from monitor sprawl.
Freshping — historical free tier (2026 shutdown)
Freshping’s free plan was famously generous — 50 monitors, 1-minute checks, multiple status pages for free users per Freshping status page docs. As of 2026, Freshworks is sunsetting the product: deprecation FAQ notes free accounts disabled March 6, 2026, with data deletion following.
If you land here from an old bookmark:
- Export monitors and status page config while access remains.
- Do not plan a 2026 launch on Freshping free — pick a live vendor.
- Compare on monitor count vs status workflow, not nostalgia.
StillOnline does not try to match 50 free monitors. It matches founders who want stillonline.tech/.../s/... live the same afternoon they ship /health.
StillOnline Free — different trade-off
| UptimeRobot Free | StillOnline Free | |
|---|---|---|
| Monitor count | 50 | 1 URL |
| Interval | 5 min | 5 min |
| Status page | 1 basic UptimeRobot URL | Hosted public page + incidents |
| Owner alerts | Email (+ limited integrations) | One of email, StillOnline bot (Telegram), or Slack |
| Commercial indie SaaS | Terms restrict commercial use | Built for shipped products |
| Deep compare | vs UptimeRobot | Alternatives hub |
Pro ($9/mo) adds up to 10 URLs per project, private pages, 90-day history, REST API, and MCP — which plan.
Decision matrix (status page wedge)
Use this when you are down to “free pings” vs “status page product.”
| Your situation | Lean toward |
|---|---|
| 20 personal sites + SSL monitors, no paying customers | UptimeRobot Free (if terms fit) |
Shipping indie SaaS; need trust link + /health probe | StillOnline Free |
| Migrating off Freshping; want hosted status + alerts | StillOnline or status page without Kuma |
| Need logs + on-call depth, not just HTTP | Better Stack free guide |
| Want 50 monitors and polished customer comms | Often two roles — see roundup FAQ in best uptime 2026 |
Many teams run UptimeRobot (or similar) for volume and StillOnline for what customers see — that is fine if you do not duplicate owner alerts on the same hostname without agreeing which tool owns “are we down?”
Pragmatic migration path (Freshping or UptimeRobot → StillOnline)
- Ship or keep one honest
GET /health— quickstart. - Create a StillOnline project → HTTP check on that URL.
- Connect one owner channel: Telegram via Connect Telegram and the StillOnline bot.
- Copy the public
/s/...link into docs and support macros when external users exist. - Leave extra UptimeRobot monitors for non-customer endpoints only if terms allow — do not point three dashboards at the same production URL without a source of truth.
When free tiers are “enough” vs when to pay
| Signal | Action |
|---|---|
| First paying customer asks for status URL | StillOnline Free is often enough |
| API + marketing + webhooks need separate probes | StillOnline Pro — 10 URLs |
| UptimeRobot Free terms block commercial use | UptimeRobot Solo or StillOnline |
| You need 50 production monitors on one invoice | UptimeRobot paid tier or platform monitor — not StillOnline’s lane |
StillOnline does not win on monitor count. It wins when status page + owner alerts + RU/EN in one predictable $9 step beats assembling comms from a ping farm.
Related guides
- Best uptime monitoring for indie SaaS 2026
- Better Stack Free for indie founders
- Status page without Uptime Kuma
- Which StillOnline plan to pick
FAQ
Is UptimeRobot Free legal for my indie SaaS launch?
UptimeRobot’s Terms of Service and help article state Free is for personal, non-commercial use. A revenue-generating SaaS generally belongs on a paid tier or a vendor that prices for commercial products. StillOnline Free targets shipped indie products with one production URL — see vs UptimeRobot.
Can Freshping Free still power a 2026 side project?
No. Freshping deprecated free accounts in March 2026. Migrate to a live service; compare monitor count vs status workflow in this guide and alternatives hub.
When does StillOnline beat UptimeRobot Free for a status page?
When you want a hosted status timeline, incident posts, and one owner channel (including the StillOnline bot on Telegram) without upgrading UptimeRobot for richer pages. UptimeRobot wins when you need 50 monitors more than customer comms — full table: vs UptimeRobot.
Does StillOnline Free include Telegram owner alerts?
Yes — pick one owner channel on Free: email or Telegram (Connect Telegram + official StillOnline bot) or Slack. Telegram guide. Pro enables all channels together — pricing.
Is this article a duplicate of the 2026 best-tools roundup?
No. The roundup compares eight vendors end-to-end — best uptime 2026. This post focuses on free-tier limits, Freshping shutdown, and the status page wedge with links to dedicated vs pages instead of another head-to-head scorecard.