Gatus vs Prometheus

A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted monitoring & status options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.

Not the right match-up?
FeatureGatusPrometheus
CategoryMonitoring & StatusMonitoring & Status
LicenseApache-2.0Apache-2.0
LanguageGoGo
Setup difficultyEasyMedium
Min. RAM64 MB512 MB
Deploymentdocker, binarydocker, binary, helm
GitHub stars★ 11,748★ 65,616
First released20192015
ReplacesUptimeRobot, PingdomDatadog

Why pick each one

Choose Gatus if…

  • Config as code
  • Extremely lightweight
  • Easy to version control
Gatus details

Choose Prometheus if…

  • Powerful query language
  • Reliable and scalable
  • Huge ecosystem
Prometheus details

Frequently asked questions

Is Gatus or Prometheus better?

Neither is universally better. Prometheus has the larger community, while Gatus is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.

Are Gatus and Prometheus free and open-source?

Yes. Gatus is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Prometheus under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run Gatus and Prometheus with Docker?

Gatus: yes. Prometheus: yes.

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