Nightscout
$9.00 / month with a 7-day free trial and a $1.00 sign-up fee
Self-hosted CGM-in-the-Cloud — your continuous glucose monitor data on your own website, shareable with family / care team / school nurse, integrated with the open Loop / AAPS closed-loop ecosystems.
A managed instance of Nightscout on ElfHosted — the community-built CGM data-sharing platform for Type 1 diabetics and parents of diabetic kids. Real-time glucose graphs, configurable alerts, IoB / COB tracking, predictions, integrations with Dexcom / Libre / Medtronic / Eversense uploaders, and the closed-loop systems (Loop, AAPS, OpenAPS) the Nightscout community helped pioneer. AGPL-3.
10 in stock
"We are not waiting" — the original Nightscout community motto. Diabetes management improved on a community-built timeline, not a medical-device-vendor timeline. Hosted Nightscout is the infrastructure end of that.
What is Nightscout?
Nightscout (often written "CGM-in-the-Cloud") is a self-hosted web application for continuous glucose monitor (CGM) data. It originated in 2014 from a community of parents of Type 1 diabetic kids who wanted to see their child's blood-glucose readings on their phone while the child was at school — Dexcom didn't offer that, so the community built it. The project is now the de-facto standard infrastructure for the open-source diabetes ecosystem, including the closed-loop systems (Loop on iOS, AAPS on Android, OpenAPS) that automate insulin delivery based on CGM trends.
Common deployments: a parent / partner / school nurse / care team monitoring someone else's CGM in real time; an individual with diabetes wanting their own data outside vendor cloud apps; a closed-loop user who needs Nightscout as the data backbone for their loop. AGPL-3 licensed; entirely community-driven; non-commercial in structure.
Important disclaimer up front: Nightscout is not an FDA / TGA / CE-marked medical device. It's a data-sharing tool. Treatment decisions stay with you and your care team; Nightscout shows you the readings, doesn't make medical recommendations. The community's documentation is comprehensive and the CGM in the Cloud Facebook group is the friendliest support channel for new users.
Features
- 📊 Real-time glucose graph — current reading, trend arrow, configurable time window (1h / 3h / 6h / 12h / 24h). Standard CGM-style display.
- 🔔 Configurable alerts — high / low thresholds, urgent low, predicted low, rate-of-change, time-since-last-reading. Push to phone via web push, browser notifications, or via Pushover / Pushbullet / mobile-app integration.
- 💉 IoB / COB / DIA tracking — Insulin on Board, Carbs on Board, Duration of Insulin Action — the variables that closed-loop algorithms depend on.
- 📈 Predictions — short-term glucose prediction based on current trend + IoB.
- 📱 Mobile-friendly responsive UI — works on phone / tablet / smart watch (via dedicated apps that read Nightscout). Add to Home Screen for app-like behaviour.
- 👥 Multi-care-team access — separate access tokens per viewer (parent, school nurse, partner, endocrinologist) with read-only or read-write scopes.
- 📜 Reports for endocrinologist visits — daily / weekly stats, time-in-range, A1c estimate, low/high event counts. Print-friendly.
- 🔗 Closed-loop integration — feeds Loop (iOS), AAPS (Android), OpenAPS, Trio, and other closed-loop systems. Often the data backbone for those systems.
- 📡 Uploader compatibility — Dexcom (G6 / G7) via Spike / xDrip+ / Dexcom Share bridge, FreeStyle Libre via xDrip+ / patched apps, Eversense, Medtronic via NightRider, others via the Nightscout API.
- 🔓 FOSS & AGPL-3 — community-built, no commercial entity, no premium tier.
Nightscout vs Vendor Apps
- vs. Dexcom Clarity / Dexcom Share / Dexcom Follow — Dexcom's official sharing apps work, but they're locked into Dexcom's ecosystem, have limited customisation, can't share with the school nurse without giving them a Dexcom account, and can't integrate with closed-loop systems. Nightscout is the open layer on top.
- vs. Libre LinkUp / FreeStyle Libre apps — Abbott's apps similarly lock into Abbott's ecosystem. Nightscout via xDrip+ or patched Libre apps gives you the same data with more flexibility.
- vs. Tidepool — Tidepool is a more polished / clinical-grade open-source diabetes data platform. Different shape: Tidepool is for retrospective review and clinical sharing; Nightscout is for real-time monitoring and closed-loop integration. Many users use both — Tidepool for endo visits, Nightscout for live monitoring.
- vs. running on a SaaS Nightscout — Heroku used to be the canonical free Nightscout host; their free tier ended in 2022, displacing thousands of Nightscout instances. Many users moved to Railway, Fly.io, Vercel-with-Nightscout-fork, or self-hosted. ElfHosted is purpose-built for the "I want it managed and reliable, not held together with duct tape" path.
Why Run Nightscout on ElfHosted?
Diabetes management is a 24/7 job. The CGM-monitoring infrastructure has to be the most reliable thing in your stack:
- Uptime is the whole point. A Nightscout instance that's down at 3am is the moment you wanted alerts the most. ElfHosted's managed uptime is built-in.
- HTTPS with auto-renewing TLS — required for web push notifications and required for the closed-loop apps to authenticate.
- Persistent backed-up MongoDB — your historical CGM data survives backend failures. The trend data is the input to closed-loop systems and to clinical reviews; it's worth protecting.
- Server-grade resources — Nightscout's predictive features and high-frequency-data plotting need a reasonable CPU. ElfHosted's tier doesn't choke on a year of dense Dexcom data.
- Updates handled — Nightscout's release cycle is community-paced; ElfHosted tracks stable releases and rolls them out.
- Single subscription: $9/month all-in.
- The community-financial-pressure version: Heroku's free tier going away cost the diabetes community thousands of free Nightscout instances. The "we are not waiting" community has always relied on cheap / free hosting. ElfHosted's $9/month is a sustainable, opinionated host that doesn't require duct-tape workarounds, and isn't going to vanish.
Technical Specifications
- 🛠️ Software: Nightscout (cgm-remote-monitor) (FOSS, AGPL-3)
- 📡 CGM compatibility: Dexcom (G6 / G7) via Spike / xDrip+ / Dexcom Share bridge; FreeStyle Libre via xDrip+ / patched apps; Eversense; Medtronic via NightRider; others via the Nightscout REST API
- 🔁 Closed-loop ecosystem: Loop (iOS), AAPS (Android), OpenAPS, Trio
- 📊 Backend: Node.js + MongoDB
- 📱 Clients: responsive web (any browser); standalone apps that read Nightscout API (xDrip+, Spike, Sugarmate, Nightscout Watchface)
- 🔔 Notifications: web push, Pushover, Pushbullet, IFTTT, browser, plus app-side notifications
- 👥 Multi-user: per-token access scopes (read-only viewers, read-write care team)
- 🔑 Subscription: $9/month — Nightscout itself is fully free
- 🌐 Access: HTTPS on your own ElfHosted subdomain
- 🔄 Updates: handled by ElfHosted, tracking upstream stable releases
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I run Nightscout without self-hosting it?
Add it to your ElfHosted subscription — managed Nightscout instance with HTTPS, persistent MongoDB, automatic backups, automatic updates. Configure your CGM uploader (xDrip+ / Spike / Dexcom Share / Libre patched app) to point at your ElfHosted subdomain and the data starts flowing.
Will my Dexcom / Libre / Medtronic CGM work with this?
Yes — Nightscout's whole purpose is being CGM-vendor-neutral. Dexcom users typically run Spike (iOS) or xDrip+ (Android) as the uploader. Libre users run xDrip+ or a patched Libre Link Up. Medtronic users run NightRider. Every supported CGM has a documented uploader path; the Nightscout docs cover each.
Is this safe / reliable for closed-loop (Loop / AAPS) use?
Closed-loop systems already require a comfortable level of self-responsibility and technical understanding — they're not FDA-cleared (in most regions), and the user community knows that. ElfHosted's hosting tier provides the reliable Nightscout backbone closed-loop systems rely on; the loop itself is your tool, your responsibility. The community wisdom is "redundancy matters" — most experienced Loop users have a backup data path (e.g. Dexcom Share + Nightscout) so a single failure doesn't silently break the loop.
Is Nightscout an FDA-approved medical device?
No. It's a data-sharing tool. Treatment decisions stay with you and your endocrinologist / diabetes team. Nightscout shows readings; it doesn't dose insulin or make medical recommendations. The Loop / AAPS / OpenAPS closed-loop systems that build on top of Nightscout are similarly community-built and non-FDA-cleared.
Why not just use Dexcom Clarity / Libre LinkUp?
Vendor apps work for the basic "see my readings" case. Nightscout's reasons-to-exist: share with the school nurse without giving them a Dexcom account; integrate with closed-loop systems; customise alerts beyond what the vendor allows; keep historical data outside the vendor's deletion policy; have one URL that works regardless of which CGM you switch to over the years.
Where do I get help?
The CGM in the Cloud Facebook group is the friendliest support channel — it's where the community originated, and it has parents / patients / clinicians answering questions all day. The official Nightscout docs cover setup. ElfHosted's Discord covers the hosting layer.
Can my child's school nurse access this?
Yes — that's a primary use case. Generate a read-only access token; share the URL with the token. The school nurse sees real-time glucose without needing to install apps or have a Dexcom account.
Nightscout is the community-built CGM-in-the-Cloud platform that the diabetes community has run on since 2014 — the data backbone for parents, partners, care teams, and the closed-loop systems (Loop / AAPS / OpenAPS) that automate insulin delivery. Hosted on ElfHosted with HTTPS, persistent backed-up MongoDB, and the uptime that 24/7 diabetes management actually requires for $9/month.
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