"Free" in VPS monitoring usually means one of two things: a real, if limited, product you can run forever, or a 14-day trial with a credit card requirement waiting at the end. Worth knowing which one you're looking at before you install anything.

What should a free VPS monitoring tier actually include?

At minimum: live resource metrics (not just a single uptime ping), some form of alerting that doesn't require a paid add-on, and enough retention to actually spot a trend — a single day of history isn't enough to notice a slow memory leak. Anything calling itself "free monitoring" that only checks if a port responds isn't VPS monitoring, it's uptime monitoring wearing a bigger name.

What's reasonable to gate behind a paid plan?

Server count is the fair, standard lever — a free tier covering 1-2 servers with the full feature set is a genuinely useful product for a solo developer, and paid tiers scaling server count as a team's fleet grows is a model that doesn't punish someone for trying the tool honestly. Team seats, longer metrics retention, and priority support are also reasonable things to reserve for paid plans. What's less reasonable: crippling the free tier's core monitoring itself, or requiring a credit card just to start a "free" plan.

What MonitorFree's free tier includes

No card required, forever-free for up to 2 servers, with the full feature set switched on rather than a stripped demo:

  • Live 15-second CPU, memory, disk, and network metrics
  • Remote actions — restart a service, kill a process, tail a log, reboot
  • External HTTP/TCP/heartbeat monitoring with a public status page
  • S3 backup & restore to your own bucket
  • Email alerts, on by default the moment you add a server
  • 7-day metrics history

Paid plans (Pro and Business) raise the server cap to 10 and 50, add Telegram/Slack/webhook alert channels, an in-browser SSH terminal, team accounts, and longer metrics retention — the free tier isn't a crippled trial of those, it's a complete, standalone product for a small setup.

When should you actually upgrade?

The honest answer: when you add a third server, need a teammate to have their own login instead of sharing yours, or want alerts somewhere other than email. Not before. A free tier that's actually free for your real use case, for as long as that use case stays small, is the whole point.

Start on the free tier — no card, no time limit, up to 2 servers.

Get started free

Frequently asked questions

Is MonitorFree's free plan actually free forever?

Yes — there's no trial period or expiration on the free tier. It covers up to 2 servers with the full core feature set, indefinitely, with no card required to sign up.

What happens when I add a third server?

You'll be prompted to upgrade to a paid plan (Pro covers up to 10 servers) — your existing servers and data aren't affected until you choose to add more than the free tier's limit.

Does the free plan include remote actions?

Yes — restart a service, kill a process, tail a log, and reboot are available on every plan, including free, not gated as a paid-only feature.