Beszel vs Gatus
Side-by-side comparison of features, pricing, ratings, and alternatives.
Beszel is a free, open-source server monitoring hub built in Go for a tiny resource footprint, with an agent that uses only about 10-15MB of RAM per monitored system. The hub, built on PocketBase, gives a central dashboard for viewing CPU, memory, disk, network, and temperature history, while agents communicate over a minimal SSH connection with no need to expose systems publicly. It tracks Docker and Podman container resource usage individually, sends configurable alerts for CPU, memory, disk, bandwidth, temperature, and status changes, supports multi-user access with OAuth/OIDC login, and includes automatic backups plus a REST API out of the box.
Gatus is a lightweight, self‑hosted monitoring solution that continuously checks the health of your services and endpoints. It provides real‑time status pages and integrates with popular incident management tools. Designed for DevOps engineers and system administrators, Gatus runs on any web server and offers flexible alert routing via Slack, PagerDuty, and email, all without any licensing costs.
- Extremely low resource footprint, runs comfortably on a Raspberry Pi
- Free and open source under the MIT license
- Combines host and per-container Docker/Podman metrics in one dashboard
- Built-in REST API and automatic backups included by default
- Completely free and open‑source
- Easy to self‑host with minimal dependencies
- Flexible alert routing to multiple channels
- Simple YAML configuration for version control
- Primarily designed for Linux hosts; Windows support relies on community forks
- Smaller ecosystem and plugin library than established tools like Zabbix or Netdata
- Alerting is simpler and less feature-rich than dedicated enterprise monitoring platforms
- Limited built‑in visualization compared to commercial tools
- No native mobile app for push notifications
- Requires manual setup of external integrations
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The Verdict
AI-generated from listing dataBeszel offers lightweight host‑and‑container monitoring with built‑in dashboards, while Gatus focuses on endpoint health checks and flexible alert routing; choose based on whether you need per‑system metrics or service‑level availability monitoring.
Key differences
- •Metric scope: Beszel tracks CPU, memory, disk, network, temperature and per‑container usage; Gatus only performs HTTP/TCP/DNS checks.
- •Visualization: Beszel includes a built‑in dashboard for historical graphs; Gatus provides only a simple status page.
- •Configuration: Beszel is managed via UI and REST API; Gatus relies on YAML files edited manually.
- •Alerting channels: Gatus routes alerts to Slack, PagerDuty, email; Beszel’s alerts are limited to built‑in notifications.
- •Ecosystem: Beszel integrates Docker/Podman and S3 backups; Gatus integrates with Prometheus metrics export and TLS monitoring.
Pricing & value
Both are free and open source, offering comparable cost‑free value.
Ease of use / learning curve
Beszel provides a UI and REST API for management, whereas Gatus requires manual YAML editing.
Features & depth
Beszel monitors host resources and containers with historical graphs; Gatus only does health checks.
Integrations & ecosystem
Gatus ships with built‑in Slack, PagerDuty, email routing and Prometheus export; Beszel’s integrations are limited to Docker/Podman, S3, OAuth/OIDC.
Collaboration
Beszel supports multi‑user access with admin roles; Gatus has no mention of user management.
Scalability
Gatus stores configuration in YAML and can be scaled via simple file replication; Beszel runs a lightweight agent per host, potentially limiting large fleets.
Support
Both rely on community support via GitHub issues and documentation.
Security & privacy
Beszel requires no public internet exposure and supports OAuth/OIDC; Gatus does not specify privacy features.
Choose Beszel if…
Homelab operators or small teams needing detailed host and container metrics with a built‑in UI.
Choose Gatus if…
DevOps teams that only need service health checks and want flexible alert routing to Slack/PagerDuty.
Common questions
Is there any cost to use either tool?
Both Beszel and Gatus are free and open source.
Can I monitor Docker containers with Gatus?
No; Gatus performs HTTP/TCP/DNS checks only. Container metrics are a core feature of Beszel.
What alert destinations are available out of the box?
Gatus routes alerts to Slack, PagerDuty, and email; Beszel’s alerts are limited to its built‑in notification system.