Gatus vs PHP Server Monitor
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
PHP Server Monitor
Simple PHP tool for monitoring servers and websites
| Feature | Gatus | PHP Server Monitor |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 94 · Excellent | 19 · At risk |
| Category | Monitoring & Status | Monitoring & Status |
| License | Apache-2.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Language | Go | PHP |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 64 MB | 128 MB |
| Deployment | docker, binary | docker, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 12,145 | ★ 2,188 |
| First released | 2019 | 2010 |
| Replaces | UptimeRobot, Pingdom | Pingdom, UptimeRobot |
What are Gatus and PHP Server Monitor?
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
PHP Server Monitor
PHP Server Monitor is a lightweight script that checks whether websites and servers are up and sends notifications by email, SMS, or messaging services when they go down. It runs on common LAMP hosting.
- Website and port checks
- Email and SMS alerts
- Uptime history
- Runs on shared hosting
Gatus vs PHP Server Monitor: key differences
Gatus is written in Go, while PHP Server Monitor is built with PHP. Licensing differs — Apache-2.0 for Gatus versus GPL-3.0 for PHP Server Monitor. Gatus is the lighter option, starting around 64 MB of RAM against 128 MB for PHP Server Monitor. PHP Server Monitor is the more established project (first released 2010), while Gatus arrived in 2019. Gatus has the considerably larger community, at 12,145 GitHub stars versus 2,188.
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 PHP Server Monitor if…
- Very easy to deploy
- Low resource use
Watch out for
- Basic feature set
- Limited graphing
Frequently asked questions
Is Gatus or PHP Server Monitor 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 PHP Server Monitor free and open-source?
Yes. Gatus is licensed under Apache-2.0 and PHP Server Monitor under GPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Gatus and PHP Server Monitor with Docker?
Gatus: yes. PHP Server Monitor: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Gatus or PHP Server Monitor?
Gatus has the smaller minimum footprint at 64 MB of RAM, compared to about 128 MB for PHP Server Monitor. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.