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, status pages, logs, and metrics. TunnelHQ does one thing: monitors VPN servers across 10+ 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, on-call, status pages, and log management. Their UX is excellent, their pricing at small scale is reasonable, and the status-page product is best-in-class.
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
| TunnelHQ | Better Stack | |
|---|---|---|
| Primary focus | VPN server monitoring | General observability suite (uptime, incidents, status pages, logs) |
| VPN protocol handshakes | 10+ protocols native: WireGuard, OpenVPN, VLESS, VMess, Trojan, Shadowsocks, Hysteria2, 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 |
| Status pages | Included on all paid plans | Excellent. Probably the best in the category |
| Incident management / on-call | Basic. Incidents grouped by monitor | Full-featured. Escalation, rotations, acknowledgement SLA |
| Log management | Not offered | Included.30-day retention on paid plans |
| Fastest interval | 1 minute (Business) | 30 seconds (paid plans) |
| Free tier | 5 monitors, 10-min interval | 10 monitors, 3-min interval |
| Entry paid tier | $12/mo.20 monitors | ~$29/mo. Uptime only; logs/status pages separate add-ons |
| Notification channels | Email, Slack, Telegram, Discord, Webhook | 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 on-call and incident-management experience with real rotation schedules
- Status pages are a core deliverable (Better Stack's status pages are genuinely the nicest in the space)
- 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 on-call 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 and status-page monitoring + on-call rotation
- TunnelHQ handles VPN fleet, alerts via webhook into Better Stack
- Result: single on-call view, VPN-specific check fidelity
Pricing at a glance
| Tier | TunnelHQ | Better Stack (Uptime tier) |
|---|---|---|
| Free | 5 monitors, 10-min | 10 monitors, 3-min |
| Entry paid | $12/mo.20 monitors, 5-min | ~$29/mo.50 monitors, 30s |
| Team | $39/mo.100 monitors, 2-min | ~$99/mo.100 monitors, 30s + advanced features |
| Business | $99/mo.500 monitors, 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.