UptimeRobot alternative for monitoring a network you manage

If you only need to know that a website answers, UptimeRobot's free plan is hard to beat. If you also look after switches, firewalls and access points on client networks, you need something that sits inside the network. This page says which is which.

What UptimeRobot lists

  • Free: 50 monitors with a 5-minute interval. The free plan has no login seats, and SMS and voice credits are not included.
  • Solo: $13 a month, or $12 a month billed annually, with a 60-second interval. Team: $46 a month, or $39 billed annually, 100 monitors at 30 seconds.
  • SMS and voice are bought as credits, separately from the plan: 10 credits for $3 or 100 for $15, with an SMS costing 2 credits in most countries. Credits do not renew with a plan.

The difference that matters for an MSP

A hosted uptime monitor checks from outside, so it can only see what has a public address. A switch, a firewall interface or a printer on a client LAN has none. SoloNOC runs one agent inside each site and reaches the devices from there: ping, the ARP table, SNMPv2c polling, a syslog receiver and an SNMP trap receiver, with the agent making an outbound HTTPS connection so the client opens no inbound port.

That also changes what an alert means. SoloNOC lets you declare that one device sits behind another, and when the upstream device is down the downstream device-down alerts are suppressed and point at the root cause, instead of paging you once per device. How that works.

Price, side by side

  • SoloNOC Free: $0, 1 site, 10 devices, no card, no expiry.
  • SoloNOC Solo: $29/mo or $290/yr, 5 sites, 50 devices.
  • UptimeRobot Free: $0, 50 monitors at 5 minutes. UptimeRobot Solo: $13 a month or $12 billed annually.

These count different things: a UptimeRobot monitor is a check, a SoloNOC device is a discovered machine with all its polled metrics. Compare them against the job you have, with the cost calculator.

Stay with UptimeRobot if

  • You only watch public websites, ports or APIs. A free outside-in check is the right tool.
  • You need text-message alerts now. SoloNOC sends iOS push, email and webhooks (including Slack); text-message alerts are not live yet.
  • You need SNMPv3, a Windows agent or an Android app. SoloNOC has SNMPv2c, a Linux agent and an iOS app.

Many shops run both: an outside-in check for the client’s website and an inside agent for their network.

Try the inside view on one site

The Free plan covers 1 site and 10 devices with no card. Create an account, run the one-line agent install on a Linux box at the site, and the devices appear in the dashboard.

Sources

Every vendor figure on this page was read from the vendor’s own page on 2026-10-18. Prices change; check the link before you decide.

  • UptimeRobot: Free plan: 50 monitors, 5-minute interval, no login seats, SMS and voice credits not included. https://uptimerobot.com/pricing/ (read 2026-10-18)
  • UptimeRobot: Solo plan: $13 per month, or $12 per month billed annually; 60-second interval. https://uptimerobot.com/pricing/ (read 2026-10-18)
  • UptimeRobot: Team plan: $46 per month, or $39 per month billed annually; 100 monitors, 30-second interval. https://uptimerobot.com/pricing/ (read 2026-10-18)
  • UptimeRobot: SMS and voice credits are bought separately: 10 for $3, 100 for $15; an SMS costs 2 credits in most countries; credits do not renew with a plan. https://uptimerobot.com/pricing/ (read 2026-10-18)

More from SoloNOC

SoloNOC is network monitoring for the one-person IT shop and the small MSP: one agent per site, flat plans, a 14-day trial with no card. Start free.