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Vigil Core
Free software · Apache-2.0

Core is real free software under Apache-2.0.

Not a trial, not a demo build, and not a version that falls behind. It is cut from the same commit as the paid edition by a script that runs in a required build job.

Read the source Core in the comparison
Apache-2.0no key, no telemetry, no account
1.29.0both editions, one commit
40 check typesof the 42 in the tree
25 native providersCore alerts through all of them

The rule the seam is cut on

Everything the paid edition has that Core lacks is something Uptime Kuma does not have either.

With one exception, recorded rather than rounded off: maintenance windows. Kuma has them and Core does not, so that one paid feature does have a free equivalent elsewhere. It is written here because the repository's own migration documentation already says so, and a line that quietly excluded the case it does not cover would be exactly the kind of claim this rule exists to stop.

The consequence is that the seam is much smaller than a free tier usually is. Nothing was taken out of Core to build the paid half, and no free capability has ever moved behind the paywall.

The Vigil monitor list running in Core: sixteen monitors with their state, uptime over the last day, average response and check interval.

monitors, in Corethe same list the paid edition draws, from the same code

The two lists

What Core ships, and what it does not.

In Core, free

Everything below is Apache-2.0 and needs no key.

  • 40 of Core's check types
  • the check-type registry
  • duration-based down thresholds
  • incidents and timelines
  • incident evidence at onset
  • 25 native alert providers
  • the Apprise bridge
  • signed webhooks
  • public status pages
  • status-page subscribers
  • password and private pages
  • four team roles
  • the audit page
  • the observation ledger
  • imports from fifteen systems
  • Docker Compose deployment

Commercial only

The operations half, and the two check types that need a browser container.

  • many client organizations
  • on-call rotas and escalation
  • SMS and voice paging
  • automatic recovery
  • remote probes and quorum
  • branded client reports
  • maintenance windows
  • alert routing policies
  • worker fleet visibility
  • scripted API journeys
  • scripted browser journeys
  • objectives and error budgets
  • runbooks
  • operations tasks
  • support with a stated response time

The two commercial check types are the scripted-synthetic ones. The other forty are protocol adapters: one request, one answer, nothing installed and nothing stored. A journey needs a browser in a container the operator deploys and records per-step timings and screenshots into tables of its own, and Uptime Kuma has no equivalent, so the rule above still holds. real-browser, which is the single-page check Kuma also has, stays in Core.

Why it cannot fall behind

One tree, one commit, a job that has to pass.

This answer was wrong until July 2026, and it is worth saying so plainly. Core really was far behind, because it was copied out by hand and nothing built one edition from the other. It had its own root commit, four flat files where this repository had a check-type registry, and one hand-squashed migration against twelve.

The gap was not the defect. The absence of a mechanism was. There is one now: the gate strips the commercial code, then lints, typechecks, tests, builds, migrates onto an empty Postgres and serves HTTP against the stripped tree. Where this page and the gate disagree, the gate is right.

Version
Both editions are 1.29.0, cut from the same commit.
Provenance
Each Core release commit carries the commercial commit it was cut from, so the tree can be reproduced from the tag it came from.
The gate
A required build job. Adding a check type turns the build red until every published sentence agrees with the registry again.
Test counts
Deliberately not published for Core: its suite is smaller because the commercial tests are stripped with the code they cover, and the gate prints the count it actually ran.
edition
vigil-core, Apache-2.0
version
1.29.0, the same number this repository publishes
cut by
the edition gate, a required build job
trailer
Vigil-Source-Commit, on every release commit

Section 8

If this company goes quiet, the paid edition becomes free too.

Every commercial release becomes Apache-2.0 twenty-four months after it ships, or immediately if twelve months pass with no release at all. Nobody has to act on it and nobody has to be around to agree to it. That is section 8 of the license, readable in full before you pay anything.