Gatus vs Monika
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted monitoring & status options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Gatus
Developer-oriented health dashboard and status page
VS
Monika
Synthetic monitoring with HTTP probes from config
| Feature | Gatus | Monika |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 94 · Excellent | 66 · Good |
| Category | Monitoring & Status | Monitoring & Status |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Language | Go | TypeScript |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 64 MB | 128 MB |
| Deployment | docker, binary | docker, binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 12,145 | ★ 628 |
| First released | 2019 | 2021 |
| Replaces | UptimeRobot, Pingdom | Pingdom, Datadog Synthetics |
What are Gatus and Monika?
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
Monika
Monika is a free and open-source synthetic monitoring tool that runs HTTP probes defined in a configuration file and alerts on failures. It checks uptime, response times, and assertions.
- Config-driven probes
- Response assertions
- Many alert channels
- Synthetic monitoring
Gatus vs Monika: key differences
Gatus is written in Go, while Monika is built with TypeScript. Gatus is the lighter option, starting around 64 MB of RAM against 128 MB for Monika. Gatus is the more established project (first released 2019), while Monika arrived in 2021. Gatus has the considerably larger community, at 12,145 GitHub stars versus 628.
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 Monika if…
- Released under the Apache-2.0 license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Written in TypeScript
Frequently asked questions
Is Gatus or Monika 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 Monika free and open-source?
Yes. Gatus is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Monika under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Gatus and Monika with Docker?
Gatus: yes. Monika: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Gatus or Monika?
Gatus has the smaller minimum footprint at 64 MB of RAM, compared to about 128 MB for Monika. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.