Gatus vs Lunalytics
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted monitoring & status options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | Gatus | Lunalytics |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 94 · Excellent | 0 · At risk |
| Category | Monitoring & Status | Monitoring & Status |
| License | Apache-2.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Language | Go | CSS |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 64 MB | 256 MB |
| Deployment | docker, binary | docker |
| GitHub stars | ★ 12,145 | ★ 1 |
| First released | 2019 | 2023 |
| Replaces | UptimeRobot, Pingdom | Pingdom, Better Uptime |
What are Gatus and Lunalytics?
Gatus
Gatus is a developer-oriented health dashboard that monitors endpoints and exposes a status page driven by simple YAML config. It targets engineers wanting a config-as-code uptime monitor. It is deployed via Docker or a single binary.
- Configuration entirely as YAML
- Health checks and conditions
- Many alerting providers
- Tiny resource footprint
Lunalytics
Lunalytics is a self-hosted uptime monitoring application that tracks websites and services and notifies you of downtime. It offers a clean interface, multi-user support, and several notification channels.
- Website and API monitoring
- Multi-user access
- Notification integrations
- Clean dashboard
Gatus vs Lunalytics: key differences
Gatus is written in Go, while Lunalytics is built with CSS. Licensing differs — Apache-2.0 for Gatus versus GPL-3.0 for Lunalytics. Gatus is the lighter option, starting around 64 MB of RAM against 256 MB for Lunalytics. Gatus is the more established project (first released 2019), while Lunalytics arrived in 2023. Gatus has the considerably larger community, at 12,145 GitHub stars versus 1.
Why pick each one
Choose Gatus if…
- Config as code
- Extremely lightweight
- Easy to version control
Watch out for
- No UI-based editing
- Basic visualizations
Choose Lunalytics if…
- Easy to set up
- Friendly interface
Watch out for
- Newer project
- Smaller feature set
Frequently asked questions
Is Gatus or Lunalytics better?
Neither is universally better. Gatus has the larger community; both share a easy setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Gatus and Lunalytics free and open-source?
Yes. Gatus is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Lunalytics under GPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Gatus and Lunalytics with Docker?
Gatus: yes. Lunalytics: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Gatus or Lunalytics?
Gatus has the smaller minimum footprint at 64 MB of RAM, compared to about 256 MB for Lunalytics. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.