BoxWatch vs M/Monit

M/Monit is a commercial web dashboard built on top of Monit, the open-source Unix process supervisor. You install Monit on each server, point the agents at your own M/Monit instance, and get a centralized view of process health, resource usage, and basic uptime. BoxWatch is a fully hosted SaaS: a one-command bash agent pushes metrics to BoxWatch's cloud, so there is no server to run and no infrastructure to maintain. Both products cover host metrics and process monitoring; they diverge sharply on deployment model, alerting depth, and ancillary features like cron heartbeats and public status pages.

Quick verdict

M/Monit is the better pick when you need a self-hosted solution that stays entirely on your own infrastructure, when you already use Monit and want a multi-host dashboard, or when you want Monit's open-source agent (AGPL-licensed) rather than a closed one. BoxWatch is the better pick when you want zero-ops monitoring with built-in cron/heartbeat checks, native Slack/Discord/webhook alerts, public status pages, and uptime SLA tracking without hosting anything yourself.

Pricing

Note: M/Monit does not publish a public price list. Estimates above are based on historical community reports; visit mmonit.com/shop for current figures. The perpetual license includes one year of updates; renewals are 50% off.

Feature comparison

When M/Monit is the better choice

M/Monit is genuinely stronger if you need full self-hosted control: all monitoring data stays on your servers, the Monit agent is AGPL open source, and M/Monit supports fine-grained access roles so different teams see only their own hosts. If you are already running Monit on every box and just need a central dashboard, M/Monit is a natural fit that avoids any dependency on an external SaaS. The perpetual license model can also be cheaper than a recurring subscription at high host counts over a multi-year horizon.

When BoxWatch is the better choice

• No infrastructure to operate: BoxWatch is fully hosted. M/Monit requires you to run and maintain a server, database, and TLS termination yourself.
• Built-in cron/heartbeat monitoring with dead-man's-switch semantics for scheduled jobs, which Monit only approximates via program scheduling.
• Native alert integrations (Slack, Discord, PagerDuty, webhooks) configured in a UI rather than custom scripts. M/Monit requires hand-written shell or Ruby scripts for the same integrations.
• Public status pages and uptime SLA reports are included in BoxWatch. M/Monit has no status page feature and SLA reporting is on the roadmap but not yet shipped.
• Flat per-plan pricing with a free tier and no per-host cost scaling. M/Monit has no free tier and the perpetual license scales by host count.

FAQ

Does M/Monit include the Monit agent, or do I need to install them separately?

They are separate products. Monit is the free, open-source agent you install on each server. M/Monit is the commercial dashboard you install on a dedicated host to aggregate data from all your Monit agents. You need both, plus your own server to host M/Monit.

Can M/Monit monitor HTTP endpoints the way BoxWatch's synthetic checks do?

Monit can perform basic HTTP/TCP connection tests as part of a service check, but the check runs from the agent on each individual server, not from an external location. There is no cloud-based probe network. BoxWatch's synthetic checks also run from the agent, meaning you can reach private/internal endpoints, but BoxWatch manages the scheduling and alerting centrally without you running anything extra.

Is there a free trial for M/Monit?

M/Monit does not offer a free tier or publicly documented trial. Monit itself is free and open source, so you can evaluate the agent independently. For the commercial M/Monit dashboard you would need to contact the vendor or purchase a license. BoxWatch has a permanent free Hobby plan for up to 5 servers with no trial expiry.