Upptime vs Vigil
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted monitoring & status options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | Upptime | Vigil |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | ≈5-minute setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 76 · Good | 71 · Good |
| Category | Monitoring & Status | Monitoring & Status |
| License | MIT | MPL-2.0 |
| Language | Markdown | Rust |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 64 MB | 32 MB |
| Deployment | one-click, source | docker, binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 17,168 | ★ 1,948 |
| First released | 2020 | 2018 |
| Replaces | Statuspage, Pingdom | Statuspage, Pingdom |
What are Upptime and Vigil?
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
Vigil
Vigil is a microservices status page that monitors distributed infrastructure and reports outages. It can probe HTTP, TCP, and ICMP endpoints and includes a local Prober for push-based reporting.
- Status page and monitoring
- HTTP, TCP, ICMP probes
- Push reporting with Vigil Reporter
- Alerts to Slack and email
Upptime vs Vigil: key differences
Upptime is written in Markdown, while Vigil is built with Rust. Licensing differs — MIT for Upptime versus MPL-2.0 for Vigil. Vigil is the lighter option, starting around 32 MB of RAM against 64 MB for Upptime. Vigil is the more established project (first released 2018), while Upptime arrived in 2020. Upptime has the considerably larger community, at 17,168 GitHub stars versus 1,948. Vigil lists first-class Docker deployment; Upptime does not.
Why pick each one
Choose Upptime if…
- Completely free hosting
- Zero infrastructure
Watch out for
- Tied to GitHub
- Check interval limited by Actions
Choose Vigil if…
- Very low resource use
- Combines checks and status page
Watch out for
- Configuration via TOML files
- Smaller community
Frequently asked questions
Is Upptime or Vigil better?
Upptime is the stronger all-round pick: it has both the larger community and the simpler easy setup. Consider Vigil if its specific feature set fits your needs better.
Are Upptime and Vigil free and open-source?
Yes. Upptime is licensed under MIT and Vigil under MPL-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Upptime and Vigil with Docker?
Upptime: check the project docs for container support. Vigil: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Upptime or Vigil?
Vigil has the smaller minimum footprint at 32 MB of RAM, compared to about 64 MB for Upptime. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.