head to head · open source
Uptime Kuma vs retina
Uptime Kuma has 93,190 GitHub stars, 8,655 forks, 805 open issues and last shipped yesterday. retina has 3,184 stars, 308 forks, 190 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Uptime Kuma leads on adoption by 2,827% (93,190 vs 3,184 stars). Uptime Kuma is written in JavaScript under MIT; retina is written in Go under MIT. Uptime Kuma has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, retina 10%. retina was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| Uptime Kuma | retina | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 93K | ★ 3.2K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | JavaScript | Go |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 8.7K | ⑂ 308 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Uptime Kuma if
- You weight community size — 93K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick retina if
- You want the retina feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and retina fits your workflow better
About Uptime Kuma
Uptime Kuma Uptime Kuma is an easy to use self hosted monitoring tool. 🥔 Live Demo Try it! Demo Server (Location: Frankfurt Germany): It is a temporary live demo, all data will be deleted after 10 minutes. Sponsored by Uptime Kuma Sponsors. ⭐ Features Monitoring uptime for HTTP(s) / TCP / HTTP(s) Keyword / HTTP(s) Json Query / Websocket / Ping / DNS Record / Push / Steam Game Server / Docker Containers Fancy, Reactive, Fast UI/UX Notifications via Telegram, Discord, Gotify, Slack, Pushover, Email (SMTP), and 90+ notification services, click here for the full list 20 second intervals Multi Languages Multiple…
read the full Uptime Kuma overview →
About retina
[![goreport][goreport img]][goreport] ![GitHub release][release img] [![retina publish][godoc badge]][godoc] ![license] [![retina test][retina test image badge]][retina test image] [![retinash][retinash badge]][retinash] [![retina publish][retina publish badge]][retina publish] ![retina codeql img][retina codeql badge] ![retina golangci lint img][retina golangci lint badge] Overview Retina is a cloud agnostic, open source Kubernetes network observability platform that provides a centralized hub for monitoring application health, network health, and security . It provides actionable insights to cluster network…
read the full retina overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Uptime Kuma or retina more popular?
Uptime Kuma has 93,190 GitHub stars and retina has 3,184. Uptime Kuma has the larger community by that measure.
Are Uptime Kuma and retina free?
Both are open source. Uptime Kuma is licensed under MIT and retina under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Uptime Kuma and retina?
Uptime Kuma is written in JavaScript and retina in Go. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Uptime Kuma or retina?
Choose Uptime Kuma if you want the larger community (93,190 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose retina if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.