Gatus vs Upptime: Which Status Page to Self-Host?
Quick Verdict
Upptime is the zero-infrastructure option — it runs entirely on GitHub Actions, stores history in a Git repo, and hosts your status page on GitHub Pages. No server needed. Gatus is the self-hosted option — it runs on your own server, actively probes endpoints, and gives you fine-grained control over health conditions and alerting. If you want a status page without running any infrastructure, use Upptime. If you want advanced monitoring with custom conditions, response body checks, and 40+ alert integrations, use Gatus.
Overview
Gatus is a developer-oriented health dashboard and status page. You define endpoints and conditions in YAML, and Gatus continuously checks them. It supports HTTP, TCP, DNS, ICMP, gRPC, SSH, and WebSocket probes. Written in Go, it’s exceptionally lightweight — under 50 MB of RAM.
Upptime takes a completely different approach. It runs as a GitHub repository that uses GitHub Actions for monitoring, GitHub Issues for incident management, and GitHub Pages for the status page. Your monitoring infrastructure is GitHub’s infrastructure. No Docker, no server, no database.
| Aspect | Gatus | Upptime |
|---|---|---|
| Architecture | Self-hosted Go binary | GitHub Actions + GitHub Pages |
| Server required | Yes | No |
| Configuration | YAML file | YAML in GitHub repo |
| Storage | SQLite or PostgreSQL | Git repository |
| Cost | Free (your server) | Free (GitHub’s free tier) |
| License | Apache 2.0 | MIT |
Feature Comparison
| Feature | Gatus | Upptime |
|---|---|---|
| Monitoring protocols | HTTP, TCP, DNS, ICMP, gRPC, SSH, WebSocket | HTTP/HTTPS only |
| Check interval | Configurable per endpoint (seconds to hours) | 5 minutes (GitHub Actions cron) |
| Response body validation | Yes (JSON path, regex, exact match) | No |
| SSL certificate monitoring | Yes (expiry alerts) | Yes |
| Custom conditions | Yes (status, response time, body, headers) | Status code and response time only |
| Alert integrations | 40+ (Slack, Discord, PagerDuty, email, Telegram, etc.) | GitHub Issues + optional Slack/Discord/email |
| Incident management | Manual or via alerts | GitHub Issues (automatic + manual) |
| Historical data | SQLite/PostgreSQL | Git commit history |
| Graphs | Response time + uptime graphs | Response time + uptime graphs |
| Status page | Built-in web UI | GitHub Pages (static) |
| Custom status page | Theme via config | Full HTML/CSS customization (Jekyll) |
| Multi-site monitoring | From your server location | From GitHub’s data centers |
| API | Prometheus metrics endpoint | REST API via GitHub |
| RAM usage | ~10–50 MB | 0 MB (runs on GitHub) |
When to Choose Gatus
- You already have a server and want monitoring alongside your other services
- You need to check response bodies, JSON fields, or custom headers
- You need TCP, DNS, ICMP, or gRPC monitoring (not just HTTP)
- You want sub-minute check intervals
- You need 40+ alerting integrations with fine-grained conditions
- You want Prometheus-compatible metrics for Grafana dashboards
- You want to monitor internal/private services not exposed to the internet
When to Choose Upptime
- You don’t want to run any monitoring infrastructure
- You only need HTTP/HTTPS checks against public endpoints
- 5-minute check intervals are sufficient
- You want GitHub Issues as your incident management system
- You want a beautifully simple static status page
- You’re monitoring publicly reachable services (Upptime can’t reach private IPs)
- You trust GitHub’s uptime more than your own server’s
The Infrastructure Trade-off
Gatus has a circular dependency problem: if your server goes down, your monitoring goes down with it. Upptime avoids this entirely because GitHub Actions runs on Microsoft’s infrastructure — it monitors your services from outside your network.
However, Gatus can monitor internal services, local network devices, and private APIs that Upptime can never reach. The tools complement each other more than they compete.
Final Verdict
For self-hosters monitoring their own infrastructure, Gatus is the better tool. It’s lightweight enough to run on any server, the YAML configuration is clean, and the condition system is far more powerful than anything Upptime offers. Add it to your Docker Compose stack and it barely uses any resources.
Upptime is the right choice if you specifically need external monitoring of public services with zero operational overhead. It’s also a great complement to Gatus — use Gatus for internal monitoring and Upptime for external “is my site actually reachable from the internet?” checks.
If you want something with a web UI for configuration instead of YAML files, check Uptime Kuma — it sits between these two in complexity and is the most popular self-hosted status page.
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