Getting started

From signup to your first metric on screen, in a few minutes.

1. Create an account

Sign up at app.monitorfree.com/signup with an email and password. You'll get a verification email — click the link within 24 hours to activate the account. Every new account starts on the Free plan (2 servers, no card required).

2. Add a server

From the dashboard, click Add Server and give it a name. You'll be asked to choose how MonitorFree connects to it:

Mode	How it works	Use it when
Agent (default)	A small binary runs on your server and pushes metrics/status to MonitorFree on an interval. No inbound port needed.	You want full monitoring — metrics, remote actions, backups.
SSH	You give MonitorFree an SSH key; the backend connects to your server on demand (used for the web terminal and SFTP browser).	You want terminal/file access to a box without installing anything on it.

The two aren't mutually exclusive — a server can have both an agent installed and SSH credentials configured.

3. Install the agent

After adding a server in Agent mode, the dashboard shows a one-line install command with your server's unique token baked in — copy it and run it on the target machine.

Linux

curl -fsSL https://get.monitorfree.com/install.sh | sudo bash -s -- <your-agent-token>

This downloads the agent binary, installs it as a systemd service (monitorfree-agent), and best-effort installs smartmontools for disk-health reporting if it isn't already present. Requires root (or sudo) to install the service.

Windows

iwr https://get.monitorfree.com/install.ps1 -OutFile install.ps1
.\install.ps1 -AgentToken "<your-agent-token>"

Run from an elevated PowerShell prompt. Installs as a native Windows service.

The agent is a static Go binary — nothing else needs to be installed on your server for it to run (no Python, no Node, no Java).

4. Wait for the first check-in

The agent pushes metrics every 15 seconds by default. Your server's status flips from "pending" to "online" on its first successful push — usually within 30 seconds of the install script finishing. If it stays "pending" for more than a couple minutes, check that outbound HTTPS to api.monitorfree.com isn't blocked by a firewall.

5. Set up your first alert

Every new server gets four default email alerts automatically: offline, CPU > 90% for 5 minutes, backup failed, and monitor down — so you're covered even if you never open the alerts page. Edit or add more from the server's Alerts tab — see Monitoring & alerts for the full list of what you can alert on.

Uninstalling: Linux ships an uninstall.sh alongside the installer; Windows an uninstall.ps1. Both stop the service and remove the binary — your account and history aren't affected, the server just stops reporting.