Yes: Business and up
Signed SLA statements
Each period's attainment, signed and checkable by anyone without an account.
CompareOpenStatus
Observer vs OpenStatus
OpenStatus is an open-source, monitoring-as-code status page with synthetic checks from many regions. Observer shares the open, engineer-first spirit, but reads the metrics inside your stack.Checked against OpenStatus's own public pages.
Observer ahead on
5of 7
- Signed SLA statementsNo:
- Per-customer statusNo:
- What drives statusPartly:
- Built-in monitoringPartly:
- Signal source & data localityPartly:
- Pricing modelYes:
- Open source & engineer surfaceYes:
OpenStatus's answers from its own public pages, checked .
Verdict
The short answer.
OpenStatus is built for
Synthetic checks from many regions, defined as code, on an open-source stack you can self-host.
Observer instead
Reads the metrics inside your stack through an in-network agent, instead of probing your endpoints.
Pick
Choose OpenStatus if you want open-source synthetic checks defined as code. Choose Observer if the signal lives in your existing metrics and should be read from inside your network.
At a glance
The record first, then the mechanics.
What your customers can check comes first. How the page runs follows.
The record
Signed SLA statements
- Observer
- Yes: Pro plan
- OpenStatus
- No: not listed
Per-customer status
- Observer
- Yes: from Pro
- OpenStatus
- No: one verdict per page
The mechanics
What drives status
- Observer
- Yes: metric + threshold
- OpenStatus
- Partly: synthetic checks
Built-in monitoring
- Observer
- Yes: telemetry + probes
- OpenStatus
- Partly: 28 regions
Signal source & data locality
- Observer
- Yes: inside your network
- OpenStatus
- Partly: external probes
Pricing model
- Observer
- Yes: flat per tier
- OpenStatus
- Yes: self-host or hosted
Open source & engineer surface
- Observer
- Yes: agent, Apache 2.0
- OpenStatus
- Yes: AGPL-3.0
Yes: does itPartly: partlyNo: does notMethod: each answer is graded against a status page with a record customers can check, using the vendor's own public pages. Checked .
Side by side
Line by line.
The same 7 dimensions on every comparison, each with the question it answers.
Dimension
Observer
OpenStatus
The record
Signed SLA statements
Can a customer check the SLA figure without taking your word for it?
Yes: Pro plan
Each period's attainment, with the working shown, hashed and signed. Your customer checks it at /reliability/verify without an account.
not listed
SLA statements are not listed. Its site links an SLA calculator tool.
Per-customer status
Can each customer see their own status?
Yes: from Pro
One probe can publish a different verdict per customer, with its own SLO target, subscribers and access.
one verdict per page
Pages can be password protected, with email or IP restriction as an add-on.
The mechanics
What drives status
What flips a component from up to down?
metric + threshold
Reads the metric your engineers already watch, applies your threshold, and publishes the verdict.
synthetic checks
Synthetic uptime and API checks drive status. Incidents are added on top.
Built-in monitoring
What does it check on its own?
Yes: telemetry + probes
Prometheus, OpenTelemetry, CloudWatch, Loki, Elasticsearch and SQL/NoSQL, plus HTTP, TCP, DNS, TLS, ICMP, gRPC and WebSocket probes.
Yes: 28 regions
HTTP, TCP, DNS and ICMP monitors, defined as code with the CLI or Terraform provider. All 28 regions on Pro and Scale.
Signal source & data locality
Where does the signal come from, and where does it go?
inside your network
The agent runs next to your data and sends readings and verdicts outbound. Database and source credentials stay on the host.
external probes
Probes hit your endpoints from OpenStatus regions, or from private locations inside your network on Pro and Scale.
Pricing model
How does the bill grow?
flat per tier
Free, then $19, $79 or $199 a month, then Enterprise. No per-seat or per-subscriber fees.
self-host or hosted
Self-hostable with Docker, or hosted: a free Hobby plan with one monitor, then paid tiers.
Open source & engineer surface
What can engineers read, script and extend?
Yes: agent, Apache 2.0
Open-source agent on every plan; public API, CLI, MCP server and AI-assistant skills from Starter.
Yes: AGPL-3.0
CLI, Terraform provider, Node SDK and MCP server. Closest in philosophy.
Beyond the page
What Observer adds after the incident.
The reporting customers, procurement and auditors ask for, built on the same measurements as the page.
Yes: Business and up
Reliability Center
Public commitments and attainment, and a private portal per customer.
Yes: Pro and up
Executive summary
Attainment, risk and MTTR across every service, for the board.
Yes: Starter and up
SLOs and error budgets
Budgets read from the same metrics, with burn alerts.
Yes: Pro and up
Status per customer
One probe, each customer judged against their own SLO.
Fair to say
When OpenStatus is the better pick.
Multi-region synthetics
You want checks from 28 regions, defined with a CLI or a Terraform provider.
Self-host everything
You want the whole stack open source and on your servers. Observer's control plane is hosted.
Migration
Moving from OpenStatus.
Run the agent
One container next to the systems you already monitor. It dials out; nothing in your network accepts a connection from Observer.
Map what you watch
Keep your checks as HTTP, TCP, DNS or TLS probes, and add the metrics your dashboards already show.
Publish and route
Group metrics into services and publish the page. Send flips to Slack, PagerDuty, Teams or a webhook; recoveries always deliver.
Switch over
Keep OpenStatus live until the page matches what you would have posted. Then point your status domain at Observer (custom domains are on paid plans).
Questions
Asked before switching.
Is Observer an OpenStatus alternative?
Yes, with a different signal. OpenStatus probes endpoints from many regions; Observer reads the metric your dashboards already show, through an in-network agent.
Is Observer open source like OpenStatus?
Observer's agent is open source (Apache 2.0). The control plane is hosted, with AI-assistant skills, an MCP server that AI apps can connect to on every plan, and a public API from the Starter plan.
Does OpenStatus read internal metrics?
Its monitors are synthetic checks, run from its regions or from a private location. Observer reads Prometheus, OpenTelemetry, CloudWatch, logs, and databases from inside your infrastructure.
Sources
Where the facts come from.
Every statement about OpenStatus on this page was checked against these public pages, most recently on .
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