Cachet vs Upptime
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted monitoring & status options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Cachet
Open-source status page system for communicating outages
VS
Upptime
GitHub-powered uptime monitor and status page
| Feature | Cachet | Upptime |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | ≈5-minute setup |
| Health score | 76 · Good | 76 · Good |
| Category | Monitoring & Status | Monitoring & Status |
| License | BSD-3-Clause | MIT |
| Language | PHP | Markdown |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 64 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal | one-click, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 15,249 | ★ 17,168 |
| First released | 2014 | 2020 |
| Replaces | Statuspage, Better Uptime | Statuspage, Pingdom |
What are Cachet and Upptime?
Cachet
Cachet is an open-source status page system written in PHP (Laravel) for communicating downtime and incidents. It supports components, incident timelines, scheduled maintenance windows, metrics, and subscriber notifications.
- Public status page
- Incident timeline updates
- Scheduled maintenance windows
- Subscriber notifications
Upptime
Upptime is an uptime monitor and status page powered entirely by GitHub Actions and Issues. It runs checks on a schedule, opens issues for downtime, and publishes a status page with no server required.
- Runs on GitHub Actions
- Auto-generated status page
- Downtime issues and alerts
- No servers to maintain
Cachet vs Upptime: key differences
Cachet is written in PHP, while Upptime is built with Markdown. Licensing differs — BSD-3-Clause for Cachet versus MIT for Upptime. Upptime is the lighter option, starting around 64 MB of RAM against 256 MB for Cachet. Cachet is the more established project (first released 2014), while Upptime arrived in 2020. Cachet lists first-class Docker deployment; Upptime does not.
Why pick each one
Choose Cachet if…
- Polished public-facing page
- REST API
Watch out for
- Development has been intermittent
- Needs a database
Choose Upptime if…
- Completely free hosting
- Zero infrastructure
Watch out for
- Tied to GitHub
- Check interval limited by Actions
Frequently asked questions
Is Cachet or Upptime better?
Upptime is the stronger all-round pick: it has both the larger community and the simpler easy setup. Consider Cachet if its specific feature set fits your needs better.
Are Cachet and Upptime free and open-source?
Yes. Cachet is licensed under BSD-3-Clause and Upptime under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Cachet and Upptime with Docker?
Cachet: yes. Upptime: check the project docs for container support.
Which is lighter on resources, Cachet or Upptime?
Upptime has the smaller minimum footprint at 64 MB of RAM, compared to about 256 MB for Cachet. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.