TL;DR
UptimeRobot's free plan gives you 50 monitors checked every 5 minutes — a worst-case detection gap of 299 seconds. Since December 2024, commercial use is explicitly banned under their Terms of Service. If you're running a SaaS on the free plan, you're already in violation.
If you signed up for UptimeRobot's free plan a few years ago and never looked back, there's something you probably missed. In October 2024, UptimeRobot updated their Terms of Service with enforcement starting December 1, 2024: the free plan is now restricted to personal, non-commercial use only. Business use, commercial projects, client work, or any revenue-generating application is explicitly prohibited — and violators risk account suspension.
Most indie SaaS founders monitoring their products on the free plan are now technically non-compliant — and have been for months. Here's the full picture: what the free plan actually includes, which limits matter in practice, the upgrade pricing trap most people walk into, and how it compares to alternatives that still allow commercial use.
What the free plan actually includes
Here's the complete spec list, verified against UptimeRobot's official pricing page as of 2026:
- —50 monitors — the headline number, and genuinely generous for personal use
- —5-minute check interval — fixed, no customization available on free
- —Monitor types: HTTP(S), Keyword, Ping, and Port
- —1 status page — no custom domain, UptimeRobot branding only
- —5 of 12 integrations — email alerts included; Slack, webhooks, and PagerDuty are not
- —3-month data retention — log history deleted after 90 days
- —API access — rate-limited to 10 requests per minute
- —No maintenance windows, no team seats, no 2FA
- —Commercial use prohibited since December 1, 2024
The 5-minute interval problem
299 sec
Worst-case undetected downtime on UptimeRobot's free plan — based on a 300-second check cycle
A 5-minute check interval means UptimeRobot polls your URL once every 300 seconds. If your site goes down one second after a check completes, it won't be detected for another 299 seconds. That's nearly five full minutes of users hitting errors before your first alert fires.
Cockroach Labs' State of Resilience 2025 found that 41% of organizations are told about downtime by customers before their monitoring detects it. Five-minute polling is a structural reason why — not a rounding error. The paid Solo plan starts at $7/month and provides 60-second intervals. Enterprise reaches 30 seconds. The free interval is fixed and non-negotiable.
The December 2024 change most founders missed
In October 2024, UptimeRobot updated their Terms of Service effective December 1, 2024. The restriction: the free plan is for personal and non-commercial use only. Any project that generates revenue, monitors a paid product, serves business clients, or is operated by a for-profit entity requires a paid plan. Open-source projects, educational use, and nonprofits are specifically exempted.
The announcement landed on Hacker News under the thread title "UptimeRobot offers a fake free plan" (thread #42244667). The community reaction was pointed. Developers who had relied on the free tier for years found themselves suddenly non-compliant with no prominent notification. Account suspension is the stated consequence for violations.
The limits nobody talks about
- —No Slack, Discord, or webhooks. The free plan's 5 integrations don't include the ones developers actually use. Slack, Discord, webhooks, PagerDuty, and Zapier are all gated behind the Team plan at $29/month.
- —No maintenance windows. Deploying at 2am means absorbing false-positive downtime alerts. There's no way to suppress alerts for scheduled maintenance without upgrading.
- —API rate-limited to 10 req/min. Paid plans reach 5,000 req/min. The free limit becomes a hard ceiling the moment you try to build any integration or dashboard on top of it.
- —3-month history. Not enough for SLA reporting, trend analysis, or reviewing an incident from last quarter.
- —No 2FA. Two-factor authentication is gated behind the Team plan — a gap for any team with compliance requirements.
The upgrade trap
The base Solo plan costs $7/month (annual billing) and gives you 10 monitors at 60-second intervals. Ten — fewer monitors than the free plan's 50. To match the free plan's monitor count with 60-second checks, you're paying approximately $15/month on the Solo tier. The $7 entry price applies to a configuration less capable than free.
$15/mo
Approximate cost to match free plan's 50 monitors with 60-second intervals on UptimeRobot's Solo tier — not the advertised $7/mo entry price
How free plan competitors compare
BetterStack — 10 monitors, 30-second checks
Fewer total monitors (10 vs. 50) but 6× faster detection and commercial use is allowed. Best for fewer, higher-stakes endpoints where detection speed matters.
HetrixTools — 15 monitors, 1-minute checks
Unlimited status pages, unlimited log history, 4 monitoring locations, and commercial use allowed. Caveat: you must log in every 90 days or your monitors are paused.
StatusCake — Unlimited monitors, 5-minute checks
No monitor cap and commercial use is allowed, but the check interval matches UptimeRobot and alerts are email-only.
Stillup — 3 monitors, 1-minute checks
Fewest monitors on free, but built for indie SaaS: 1-minute checks, a public status page, and Slack alerts without a paid plan. Commercial use allowed.
Frequently asked questions
Is UptimeRobot free in 2026?
Yes, but with restrictions. The free plan includes 50 monitors at 5-minute check intervals and is limited to personal, non-commercial use only since December 2024. Commercial use — including monitoring a SaaS, business, or client project — requires a paid plan starting at $7/month.
What is the check interval on UptimeRobot's free plan?
Five minutes (300 seconds), fixed. There is no way to increase check frequency without upgrading. The Solo paid plan starts at $7/month and provides 60-second intervals. The Enterprise plan reaches 30-second intervals.
Can I use UptimeRobot free for my SaaS?
Not as of December 1, 2024. UptimeRobot's Terms of Service now explicitly restrict the free plan to personal, non-commercial use. Commercial applications, business services, and revenue-generating projects require a paid plan. Account suspension is the stated consequence for violations.
Does UptimeRobot free include Slack alerts?
No. The free plan includes 5 of UptimeRobot's 12 available integrations — email is included, but Slack, Discord, webhooks, PagerDuty, and Zapier all require the Team plan at $29/month.
What is the best free UptimeRobot alternative for a SaaS?
For a single SaaS product: Stillup (3 monitors, 1-minute checks, status page, Slack alerts, commercial use allowed). For unlimited monitors: StatusCake (5-minute checks, commercial use allowed). For fastest checks: BetterStack (10 monitors, 30-second checks). For the most generous free tier: HetrixTools (15 monitors, 1-minute checks, unlimited status pages — requires 90-day login).
SourcesUptimeRobot Pricing (official, 2026) · UptimeRobot API Documentation · UptimeRobot Terms of Service (December 2024 update) · Hacker News #42244667 · LowEndTalk · BetterStack Pricing (2026) · HetrixTools Pricing (2026) · StatusCake Pricing (2026) · Cockroach Labs State of Resilience 2025