The Dude, in the cloud
A cloud The Dude alternative for MikroTik fleets
The Dude is a great, free network monitor — but it runs as one Windows app watching one site. mikroHUB is a hosted The Dude alternative: multi-site, mobile-accessible, with LTE signal depth, automated backups and alerts across your whole MikroTik fleet.
Where The Dude starts to hurt at scale
None of this makes The Dude bad — it's still the right tool for one LAN. These are the limits you hit once you run routers across many sites, especially LTE.
It lives on one Windows host
The Dude server is a single Windows install (or a CHR package) that someone has to host, patch and keep online. If that box sleeps, reboots or dies, your monitoring goes dark with it.
One site, one map
The Dude shines on a single LAN it can discover and draw. Spread routers across dozens of remote sites and you're stitching together separate instances or VPN reach instead of one fleet view.
No phone, no remote without a VPN
The Dude is a desktop client. To check the network from outside the office — or from your phone at 2 a.m. — you first need a VPN back to that Windows host. There's no native mobile view.
Thin on fleet history and LTE
You get live status and basic graphs, but not long-term per-device trends across the fleet — and no cellular depth. There's no RSRP/RSRQ/SINR history, serving-cell geolocation or multi-SIM tracking for LTE routers.
What mikroHUB adds
mikroHUB connects to your routers over the RouterOS API or a lightweight agent and runs in our cloud — so the same fleet view works from any browser or phone, with no host to babysit.
Cloud, multi-site, mobile
One hosted dashboard for every router across every site, in real time plus historical charts. Open it in a browser or on your phone — nothing to install, nothing to keep running.
Real LTE signal depth
Track RSRP/RSRQ/SINR/CINR with signal history, serving-cell and tower geolocation on a map, data usage, multi-SIM and roaming — the cellular detail The Dude was never built to show.
Backups, alerts, anomaly detection
Scheduled config backups are pulled over each device's own SSH/SFTP and restorable on demand. Anomaly detection plus alerts, notifications and email digests tell you something's wrong before a customer does.
Behind-CGNAT access and multi-tenant
Reach routers stuck behind CGNAT through WireGuard tunnels — no public IP or open ports. Everything is org-scoped with Postgres row-level security, owner/admin/viewer roles, MFA, an audit log and API keys.
Use both, or move over
This isn't a teardown. The Dude is free, ships with RouterOS v7 and is genuinely good at what it does: auto-discovering and drawing a single network, on-premise, with no cloud involved. Plenty of admins keep it on the bench for the office LAN and reach for it when they want a local topology map.
mikroHUB is for the fleet: many sites, LTE routers, remote and mobile access, backups, alerts and multiple organizations. Run them side by side — The Dude for the local map, mikroHUB for everything off-site — or move your fleet over entirely. Start on the free plan and decide for yourself.
Frequently asked questions
Is The Dude discontinued?
No. MikroTik still ships The Dude and it runs on RouterOS v7, so it's actively available. mikroHUB is a cloud alternative and companion, not a replacement for a tool that's gone away.
Can I run The Dude and mikroHUB together?
Yes, and many admins do. Keep The Dude for the local topology map on your office LAN and use mikroHUB for the rest of the fleet — remote sites, LTE depth, backups and alerts. They don't conflict.
Does mikroHUB replace The Dude?
It can, for fleet monitoring across sites, LTE and remote management. The one thing The Dude does that mikroHUB doesn't is draw a fully local, on-premise topology map with no cloud — if that's your priority, keep The Dude alongside.
Do I still need a Windows box?
Not for mikroHUB. It's hosted, so there's no Windows server, no The Dude install and nothing to keep online — it connects to your routers over the RouterOS API or a lightweight agent from our cloud.
Can I see my network on my phone?
Yes. mikroHUB runs in any browser, including mobile, with no VPN back to an office host required. Check fleet status, LTE signal and alerts from your phone wherever you are.
Related
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