When is Instatus the better choice?

You want the most monitors available on a free plan for a small internal status setup. You mainly need a public status page plus email alerts for a handful of services. You have a small team and do not need SAML SSO or custom domains yet. You want a free plan that looks like a practical starter, not a short trial, and likely a lower-cost first paid step.

When is StatusGator the better choice?

You need vendor or third-party service aggregation, not just basic uptime checks. You want historical data on the free tier, even if only 1 month. You need API access and a dashboard/board-oriented workflow. You expect to manage incidents and alerts across hosted apps, cloud services, and websites in one place. You are okay with a tighter free cap in exchange for a more operationally rich product surface.

Instatus vs StatusGator: Free Tier Comparison

Q: How much does Instatus cost after the free tier?

Pro - / month. Instatus uses flat paid tiers and the first meaningful step up is Pro, then Business, then Enterprise. StatusGator also uses flat tiers, but its paid entry point is much higher at $72/month for Starter, then Team and Corporate. Since both are flat-priced, costs do not scale by usage in the data provided, but the gap in entry price is large: StatusGator’s first paid tier is far above Instatus’s unspecified-but-lower Pro tier. For most small teams, Instatus is the cheaper path once the free plan runs out.

Q: How much does StatusGator cost after the free tier?

Starter - $72 USD per month/paid annually. Instatus uses flat paid tiers and the first meaningful step up is Pro, then Business, then Enterprise. StatusGator also uses flat tiers, but its paid entry point is much higher at $72/month for Starter, then Team and Corporate. Since both are flat-priced, costs do not scale by usage in the data provided, but the gap in entry price is large: StatusGator’s first paid tier is far above Instatus’s unspecified-but-lower Pro tier. For most small teams, Instatus is the cheaper path once the free plan runs out.

Quick answer

StatusGator - StatusGator wins for teams that need richer monitoring and API-centric workflows, while Instatus is the better pick for smaller status-page teams that want more monitors at a lower likely paid entry point.

How the free tiers compare

These two free tiers solve related but different problems. Instatus is more of a straightforward incident/status page package: more monitors on the free plan, simple email alerts, a public status page, and a small-team setup that stays usable without a card. It is the lighter option if your main need is to publish outages and cover a modest set of services. StatusGator is more constrained on the free tier, but it is broader in scope: it adds third-party service aggregation, an API, historical data, and more structured alerting and dashboarding. The tradeoff is that its paid plans start much higher, so the free plan can feel like a narrower starting point. If you expect to grow into a paid plan soon, Instatus is cheaper to graduate from; if you need aggregation and API work, StatusGator is the better fit.

Instatus vs StatusGator free tier, side by side

	InstatusFTV 51	StatusGatorFTV 61
Free monitorsInstatus gives much more room for basic monitoring on the free plan.	15	3
Checks / API pollingThese are different units, so they are not directly comparable.	2 minute checks	15 API requests per minute
Team / admin usersStatusGator’s free plan is much more single-admin oriented.	Up to 5 team members	1 admin user
On-call membersOnly count what is explicitly provided.	Up to 2 on-call members	Not listed
SubscribersInstatus allows a larger free audience.	Up to 200 subscribers	100 status page subscribers
Historical dataStatusGator includes a free history window.	Not listed	1 month
Boards / status pagesStatusGator frames this as a board for a single status page.	Public status page	1 board
Credit card required on free tierBoth inputs explicitly say no card is required.	No	No

After you outgrow the free tier

Instatus uses flat paid tiers and the first meaningful step up is Pro, then Business, then Enterprise. StatusGator also uses flat tiers, but its paid entry point is much higher at $72/month for Starter, then Team and Corporate. Since both are flat-priced, costs do not scale by usage in the data provided, but the gap in entry price is large: StatusGator’s first paid tier is far above Instatus’s unspecified-but-lower Pro tier. For most small teams, Instatus is the cheaper path once the free plan runs out.

Instatus next stepPro - / monthFlat monthly

StatusGator next stepStarter - $72 USD per month/paid annuallyFlat monthly

When to pick each one

Pick Instatus when…

You want the most monitors available on a free plan for a small internal status setup.
You mainly need a public status page plus email alerts for a handful of services.
You have a small team and do not need SAML SSO or custom domains yet.
You want a free plan that looks like a practical starter, not a short trial, and likely a lower-cost first paid step.

Pick StatusGator when…

You need vendor or third-party service aggregation, not just basic uptime checks.
You want historical data on the free tier, even if only 1 month.
You need API access and a dashboard/board-oriented workflow.
You expect to manage incidents and alerts across hosted apps, cloud services, and websites in one place.
You are okay with a tighter free cap in exchange for a more operationally rich product surface.

Bottom line

For the most common builder use case, Instatus is the better free-tier choice: it gives you more monitors, more subscribers, and a simpler path from free to paid if you only need a status page and basic incident alerts. StatusGator is the better pick when the product itself matters, not just the page, especially if you need aggregation, history, and API access. If you are starting small and watching costs, Instatus is the safer default.

Read the full listings: Instatus and StatusGator. Scores use the FTV methodology at /ftv. Browse more head-to-heads on /compare, or see the top-ranked free tiers on /top.