HetrixTools alternative for uptime without the server agents
HetrixTools bundles uptime checks with IP blacklist monitoring and Linux server agents, and Logdash does neither of those, so it is only the right swap if what you actually use is the HTTP checks, the status page and the alerts.
Start with what Logdash does not do, because on this comparison it matters more than anything else. There is no IP or domain blacklist monitoring. There is no server agent reporting CPU, RAM, disk or network from your boxes. There are no SSL expiry, DNS, TCP or ICMP checks either. HetrixTools does all of that, has done since 2015, and if any of it is why you signed up then stop here and stay.
The people who do move are the ones running the uptime half and nothing else. They took the free 15 monitors, never installed the agent, and have never sent a marketing email in their lives. For that group HetrixTools is a box that says up or down, and a box that says up or down is a solved problem that half a dozen tools give away.
Logdash is worth the swap for that group because the check is not the product. Application logs and custom metrics from the same app sit in the same dashboard as the monitor, so the alert and the reason for the alert are one click apart. Cron jobs get push heartbeats. It is AGPL-3.0 licensed, and the source is on GitHub if you want to read what is actually running.
A health endpoint the monitor can hit
<?php
// Answer 200 only when the database answers. Cheap enough to run
// every minute, honest enough to page on.
header('Content-Type: application/json');
try {
$pdo = new PDO(getenv('DATABASE_DSN'), getenv('DB_USER'), getenv('DB_PASS'), [
PDO::ATTR_ERRMODE => PDO::ERRMODE_EXCEPTION,
PDO::ATTR_TIMEOUT => 2,
]);
$pdo->query('select 1');
http_response_code(200);
echo json_encode(['status' => 'ok']);
} catch (Throwable $e) {
http_response_code(503);
echo json_encode(['status' => 'degraded']);
}- Recreate the uptime monitors Add an HTTP monitor per URL. Logdash records the status code and the response time on every check, at 5 minutes free, 1 minute on Builder and 15 seconds on Pro.
- Cover the cron jobs the agent never watched On Pro, create a push monitor per scheduled job. It expects a POST to https://api.logdash.io/ping/<httpMonitorId> in every 15-second window, so the job touches a stamp file when it succeeds and a heartbeat line pings while the stamp is fresh.
- Point the alerts at Telegram Attach a Telegram channel to each monitor, then take one service offline. The alert arrives in Telegram naming the monitor and the status code, and the logs from that minute are already under the same domain.
| Feature | Logdash | HetrixTools |
|---|---|---|
| IP and domain blacklist monitoring | Not offered and not planned | Dozens of blocklists, included free |
| Linux server resource agent | Not offered | CPU, RAM, disk, network and processes |
| Free uptime monitors | 5 monitors at 5 minute checks | 15 monitors at 1 minute checks |
| Public status page | Included on every plan, custom domain on Pro | Included, free plan too |
| Cron and background job heartbeats | Push monitors on Pro, a ping every 15 seconds | Not offered |
| Application logs and custom metrics | Eight SDKs into the same dashboard | Host stats only, nothing from your code |
| Source available | AGPL-3.0 on GitHub | Closed source |
When HetrixTools is the better pick
- You send email at volume. Blacklist monitoring across the major blocklists is the reason HetrixTools exists, and Logdash has no equivalent now or later.
- You run Linux boxes and need CPU, RAM and disk alerts from them. The HetrixTools agent collects host stats. Logdash charts metrics your code pushes, which is not the same job.
- Fifteen free monitors at one minute beats five at five minutes. If you are paying nobody, the HetrixTools free plan is simply larger.
- You resell monitoring under your own brand. HetrixTools supports that workflow and Logdash does not.
What moving actually involves
The honest version is that most people should run both. Keep HetrixTools for blacklist and host monitoring, which nothing here replaces, and move the HTTP checks to Logdash so they sit beside the logs. If you are dropping HetrixTools entirely, you are also dropping blacklist alerts and agent metrics, so decide that on purpose rather than discovering it the week a mail server gets listed.