Pulsy vs Gatus
A web UI and multi-user accounts on top of the same self-hosted freedom
Gatus is a lean, YAML-configured health dashboard, and if your monitoring belongs in Git alongside your infrastructure it is hard to beat. Pulsy is also open source and also self-hosted, but it is configured through a web UI, isolates monitors per user account, and adds incident history, custom-domain status pages, and a managed option. Different philosophy, same freedom.
Where Pulsy differs from Gatus
- Configure monitors in a web UI instead of editing YAML and redeploying — useful when non-engineers need to add a check.
- Multiple user accounts with per-user isolation of monitors, incidents, and status pages.
- Persistent incident history with an ongoing → resolved lifecycle, not just current state.
- Pulsy Cloud runs the identical AGPL-3.0 code if you would rather not operate the server.
Gatus vs Pulsy, side by side
| Feature | Pulsy (self-hosted) | Pulsy Cloud | Gatus |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free forever — you run it (AGPL-3.0) | Free tier, paid plans from $12/mo | Free — you run it |
| Source code | Open source, AGPL-3.0 | The same AGPL-3.0 code, managed for you | Open source, Apache-2.0 |
| Where your data lives | Your own infrastructure | Hosted by Pulsy, exportable any time | Your own infrastructure |
| Configuration | Web UI, changes take effect immediately | Web UI, changes take effect immediately | YAML file, redeploy to change |
| User accounts | Multiple accounts, per-user isolation | Multiple accounts, per-user isolation | No user model |
| Incident history | Grouped incidents, ongoing → resolved | Grouped incidents, ongoing → resolved | Recent check results |
| Status pages | Included, custom domains | Included, custom domains | The dashboard itself can be exposed |
| Dashboard | Localized (5 languages, RTL) | Localized (5 languages, RTL) | English-first |
Switching from Gatus is painless
Your Gatus YAML already contains everything Pulsy needs: the endpoint, the method, the interval, and the failure conditions. Re-create each one in the Pulsy UI, wire up your notification channels, and run both until you trust the new alerts. Keep Gatus for anything relying on its condition DSL — nothing says you have to pick one.
Frequently asked questions
- Is Pulsy a good Gatus alternative?
- If you want a UI, user accounts, incident history, and hosted status pages, yes. If you specifically want monitoring-as-code checked into Git with no database, Gatus is the better fit and Pulsy will feel heavier than you need.
- Can I configure Pulsy from a file like Gatus?
- Not today — monitors are configured in the UI or through the REST API. The API is the scripting path if you want checks created programmatically.
- Which licence is Pulsy under?
- AGPL-3.0-or-later. Gatus is Apache-2.0, which is more permissive: the AGPL additionally requires that anyone running a modified Pulsy as a network service makes that modified source available.
- Does Pulsy need a database?
- Yes, Postgres — that is what stores check history, incidents, and status-page configuration. Gatus can run without one, which is part of why it is lighter.
Compare Pulsy with other monitors
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