Checkmate Hosting

Open your pod URL and complete the initial account setup if prompted. Add an HTTP monitor for a publicly reachable website, choose its checking interval and configure a notification channel. Review the first checks and test your alerts; the quick start guide walks through creating a monitor.

No. PikaPods sets up and runs Checkmate for you, including OS and app updates and HTTPS. You won't touch Docker or a server. Your data stays available over SFTP if you ever want to move it elsewhere.

A hosted pod needs network access to the service it checks. Start with public URLs; private addresses on your home network are not automatically reachable. Hardware monitoring also requires you to install and configure the separate Capture agent on the monitored server and make its endpoint reachable to Checkmate.

The monitoring dashboard works in your browser. Optional notification channels can require SMTP credentials, webhook URLs or accounts with the selected provider; any provider charges are separate. Hardware monitoring needs your own server running Capture. See the notification documentation for supported integrations.

Set up incremental backups to S3 in your pod settings for automatic nightly snapshots, or copy your files over SFTP. We keep whole-server backups for server failures, but they aren't a per-pod restore service, so your own backup is what protects your data.

Checkmate is an open source alternative to UptimeRobot. Its source code is public, so anyone can inspect or improve it, and you aren't tied to one vendor.

No. You add prepaid credit and your pods are billed by the hour from that balance, rounded up to full hours. There are no contracts or minimum terms: delete a pod anytime and billing stops. Optional automatic top-ups keep your pods running without manual payments.

You do. And you're in full control. If you ever want to download, migrate, edit or delete your data, just enable SFTP access to your pod and it will be right there.

Yes. Checkmate is part of our Green Heart program, so part of the revenue from every deployed pod goes to the project.