TunnelHQ vs Better Stack
Better Stack (formerly Better Uptime, the uptime side of the broader Better Stack platform) is a mature, well-designed observability suite that handles uptime, incident management, logs, and metrics. TunnelHQ is built around one job: monitoring VPN servers across 11 protocols with real handshake-level checks. This page exists to help you pick honestly.
TL;DR
Pick Better Stack if: you want a single vendor to cover websites, APIs, general uptime, incident response, and log management. Their UX is excellent and their pricing at small scale is reasonable.
Pick TunnelHQ if: the critical thing you need to monitor is VPN servers, and you need to know the VPN actually works. Not just that a port answers. Better Stack's uptime monitors do TCP/HTTP; they can't perform a WireGuard handshake or parse a VLESS URI. TunnelHQ can.
Feature comparison
| Feature | TunnelHQ | Better Stack |
|---|---|---|
| Primary focus | VPN server monitoring | General observability suite (uptime, incidents, logs) |
| VPN protocol handshakes | 11 protocols native: WireGuard, OpenVPN, VLESS, VMess, Trojan, Shadowsocks, Hysteria2, TUIC, IKEv2, OpenConnect, AmneziaWG | Not supported. HTTP/TCP/ICMP/DNS/keyword checks only |
| URI auto-detect | Paste vless://, trojan://, etc. Parsed automatically |
Not applicable |
| Subscription URL monitoring | Yes. Detects config rotation | No |
| Incident management | Basic. Incidents grouped by tunnel | Full-featured |
| Log management | Not offered | Included. 30-day retention on paid plans |
| Fastest interval | 1 minute (Business) | 30 seconds (paid plans) |
| Free tier | 14 days free on every plan. Your card is charged on day 15, and you can cancel any time before. | 10 monitors, 3-min interval |
| Entry paid tier | $12 a month. 20 tunnels | ~$29/mo. Uptime only; logs are a separate add-on |
| Notification channels | 20 channels, including Slack, PagerDuty, Telegram, Discord and email | 20+ including PagerDuty, Opsgenie, Splunk, etc. |
| REST API rate limits | 30/60/120 req/min by plan | Higher but variable. API is well-documented |
Where Better Stack is the better choice
Better Stack (the company behind Better Uptime) is a polished team-of-teams observability product. Pick it if:
- You're monitoring mostly HTTP APIs, websites, or generic TCP endpoints
- You want a first-class incident-management experience
- You want uptime + logs + metrics from one vendor
- You're fine paying ~$29/mo+ for uptime alone and more for the rest of the suite
Where TunnelHQ wins
TunnelHQ wins when your monitoring target is specifically VPN servers. Better Stack's uptime monitors can't:
- Parse a
vless://ortrojan://URI - Perform a WireGuard Curve25519 handshake to verify the tunnel actually works
- Complete an OpenVPN TLS control channel exchange with your client cert
- Detect REALITY key rotation or XTLS/Vision flow failures
- Monitor a V2Ray/Xray subscription URL for config rotation
- Tell the difference between "port 443 answers" and "VLESS server actually works"
This matters because VPN failures are routinely invisible at the TCP/HTTP layer. A Better Stack monitor will happily show a WireGuard server as green when users are unable to connect. Because the UDP port is open, which is all Better Stack checks.
Can I use both?
Yes. And many teams do. Better Stack for websites, APIs, and incident management. TunnelHQ for VPN servers. Both have webhook alerting, so both can feed the same incident management system.
A common setup we see:
- Better Stack handles API monitoring and incident management
- TunnelHQ handles VPN fleet, alerts via webhook into Better Stack
- Result: one place for incidents, VPN-specific check fidelity
Pricing at a glance
| Tier | TunnelHQ | Better Stack (Uptime tier) |
|---|---|---|
| Free | 14 days free on every plan. Your card is charged on day 15, and you can cancel any time before. | 10 monitors, 3-min |
| Entry paid | $12 a month. 20 tunnels, 5-min | ~$29/mo. 50 monitors, 30s |
| Team | $39 a month. 100 tunnels, 2-min | ~$99/mo. 100 monitors, 30s + advanced features |
| Business | $99 a month. 500 tunnels, 1-min, REST 120 req/min | ~$299/mo+. Pro / Enterprise |
Better Stack pricing shown is indicative. Check their site for current numbers. TunnelHQ's site has authoritative current pricing.