API Status Check vs Better Stack: Monitor Your Infra AND Your Dependencies
These tools solve different but complementary problems. Better Stack monitors YOUR infrastructure health (uptime, logs, incidents). API Status Check monitors the third-party APIs your app depends on (is Stripe/AWS/GitHub down?). Best practice: use BOTH for complete visibility.
Quick Comparison: API Status Check vs Better Stack
These tools complement each other. Better Stack monitors YOUR infrastructure (uptime, logs, incidents), API Status Check monitors the third-party APIs you depend on. Here's a side-by-side breakdown.
| Feature | API Status Check | Better Stack |
|---|---|---|
| Monitoring focus | Third-party APIs your app depends on | YOUR infrastructure (servers, logs, incidents) |
| Problem solved | Is Stripe/AWS/GitHub down? | Is MY stack healthy? (uptime, logs, alerts) |
| Coverage | 114+ APIs across 18 categories (pre-configured) | Your own endpoints (10 free monitors) |
| Check interval | 5-minute intervals | 3-min free, 30s-1min on paid plans |
| Platform scope | Focused on API status tracking | Full observability (uptime + logs + incidents) |
| Free tier | Unlimited status viewing, badges, RSS | 10 monitors, 3-min checks, basic alerting |
| Paid pricing | $9/$29/$49/mo (Alert Pro/Team/Developer) | $29/$85/$175/mo (Freelancer/Small Team/Business) |
| Unique features | MCP server, per-API RSS, status badges | Logtail logging, incident mgmt, on-call scheduling |
| Setup required | None — 114+ APIs already monitored | Configure your own URLs/endpoints |
| Market position | Indie/bootstrapped, developer-focused | VC-funded, comprehensive observability |
Detailed Feature Comparison
Understanding the difference between Better Stack and API Status Check comes down to monitoring scope: infrastructure you control vs dependencies you rely on. Here's a deeper breakdown.
Core monitoring focus: complementary, not competing
API Status Check: monitor third-party APIs you depend on
API Status Check solves a specific problem: knowing when the third-party APIs your application depends on are experiencing issues. When Stripe payments fail, OpenAI requests timeout, or GitHub Actions stall, you need to know whether the problem is on your end or theirs. ASC monitors 114+ APIs across 18 categories (payments, AI, cloud, CI/CD) with independent endpoint checks every 5 minutes, plus official status page integration. This gives you visibility into your dependencies — the services you rely on but don't control.
Better Stack: comprehensive observability for YOUR infrastructure
Better Stack (formerly Better Uptime) is a full-featured observability platform designed to monitor YOUR infrastructure health. It combines uptime monitoring (is your website/API responding?), log aggregation via Logtail (what's happening in your systems?), incident management (coordinating responses to outages), and on-call scheduling (getting the right people alerted). Better Stack monitors what you control — your servers, applications, and services — providing deep visibility into YOUR stack's health and performance.
The complementary approach: use BOTH for complete visibility
Know when the problem is with your dependencies
When your application starts failing, the first question is: "Is it us or them?" API Status Check answers the "them" part. If your Stripe integration stops working, checking API Status Check tells you whether Stripe is experiencing a broader outage or if the issue is specific to your implementation. This saves debugging time and helps you communicate accurately with users and stakeholders. Without dependency monitoring, you're flying blind when third-party services have issues.
Know when the problem is with your infrastructure
Better Stack answers the "us" part comprehensively. Beyond simple uptime checks, it aggregates logs from your applications, provides incident management workflows for coordinating team responses, and schedules on-call rotations to ensure the right people are alerted. This holistic approach to observability means you can quickly identify whether YOUR infrastructure, code, or configuration is causing issues. Combined with API Status Check, you have full visibility: Better Stack tells you if YOUR stack is healthy, ASC tells you if the APIs you depend on are healthy.
Coverage & service selection
Curated third-party API coverage (114+ APIs, zero setup)
API Status Check focuses on 114+ developer tools and infrastructure APIs that engineering teams rely on: Stripe, PayPal, Plaid (payments); OpenAI, Anthropic, Replicate (AI); AWS, Azure, GCP, Vercel (cloud); GitHub, GitLab, CircleCI (CI/CD); and many more. This curated approach means you get relevant, actionable data about the services your application actually depends on. You don't configure these monitors — they're already running, and you just subscribe to the ones you care about.
Monitor your own endpoints (bring your own URLs)
With Better Stack, you define the monitors: add your website URLs, API endpoints, servers, or services you want to track. Better Stack supports HTTP(S) checks, keyword monitoring, SSL certificate tracking, and custom heartbeats. This flexibility means you can monitor anything you control, but you have to configure each monitor manually. Better Stack is ideal for ensuring your own infrastructure is responsive and healthy, but it doesn't monitor third-party services for you.
Pricing & free tier
Free status viewing + paid alerts ($9-$49/mo)
API Status Check has a genuinely free tier: browse all status data, use RSS feeds per API, and embed status badges in docs without creating an account. Paid plans start at $9/mo (Alert Pro) for email/Slack/Discord alerts on your watched APIs, $29/mo (Team) for team alerting and priority support, and $49/mo (Developer) for advanced integrations and API access. No per-service limits — you can monitor as many APIs as you need within your plan. Pricing is designed for indie developers and small teams.
Free 10 monitors + paid plans $29-$175/mo
Better Stack offers 10 monitors for free with 3-minute check intervals and basic alerting, which is solid for small projects. Paid plans start at $29/mo (Freelancer) for 20 monitors with 1-minute checks, $85/mo (Small Team) for 50 monitors and team features, and $175/mo (Business) for 100 monitors, on-call scheduling, and advanced incident management. Pricing reflects Better Stack's comprehensive feature set — you're paying for uptime monitoring, log aggregation (Logtail), incident workflows, and on-call management in one platform.
Developer integrations & unique features
MCP server, per-API RSS feeds, status badges
API Status Check provides unique developer-focused integrations: a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that lets AI coding assistants (Claude, Cursor) check API status in real-time during development, per-API RSS feeds for automation and dashboard integration, and embeddable status badges for docs and READMEs. These tools are designed to surface API status signals where developers already work, without requiring manual checks or custom integrations. The focus is on making dependency status frictionless and accessible.
Logtail logging, incident management, on-call scheduling
Better Stack goes beyond uptime monitoring with Logtail (log aggregation and analysis), incident management (workflows for coordinating responses, post-mortems, status pages for YOUR services), and on-call scheduling (rotations, escalation policies, integrations with PagerDuty, Opsgenie). These features make Better Stack a comprehensive observability platform, not just an uptime checker. If you need to understand what's happening inside YOUR infrastructure and coordinate team responses, Better Stack provides the full toolkit.
Alerts & notifications
Email, Slack, Discord, webhooks for dependency outages
API Status Check alerts you when the third-party APIs you depend on experience issues. Get notified via email, Slack, Discord, or webhooks when Stripe, AWS, or OpenAI report incidents or fail endpoint checks. This proactive alerting means you can inform users, pause affected workflows, or switch to fallback providers before your support channels explode. Alerts are contextual — you only get notified about the services you actively use.
Email, SMS, Slack, phone calls, on-call escalations
Better Stack provides comprehensive alerting for YOUR infrastructure: email, SMS, Slack, Discord, phone calls, webhooks, and integrations with incident management tools. On-call scheduling ensures the right team members are alerted based on time of day, rotation schedules, and escalation policies. This is critical for production systems where response time matters. Better Stack's alerting is designed for teams that need reliable, sophisticated notification workflows for their own services.
Market maturity & funding model
Newer, indie-built, developer-focused
API Status Check is a newer entrant (launched 2024-2025) built specifically for developers who need visibility into third-party API dependencies. It's indie/bootstrapped, which means rapid iteration, developer-friendly design, and transparent pricing without VC pressure. The focus is on solving a specific problem that larger monitoring tools overlook: tracking the health of APIs you depend on but don't control. The trade-off is less brand recognition compared to established, VC-backed players.
VC-funded, established observability platform
Better Stack is a well-funded, rapidly growing observability platform with backing from venture capital. This funding enables aggressive feature development, enterprise-grade reliability, and comprehensive tooling (uptime, logs, incidents, on-call). VC backing means Better Stack can move fast and invest heavily in infrastructure, but pricing reflects the need to deliver returns to investors. For teams that need a mature, fully-featured observability platform for their own stack, Better Stack delivers professional-grade tooling.
🏗️When to Use Better Stack
Better Stack is a comprehensive observability platform for YOUR infrastructure. If you need uptime monitoring, log aggregation, incident management, and on-call scheduling in one place, Better Stack delivers professional-grade tooling.
Monitor YOUR infrastructure health
If you need to ensure YOUR website, API, or servers are responding and healthy, Better Stack is purpose-built for this. Uptime checks, log aggregation, and incident workflows give you comprehensive visibility into your own infrastructure.
Log aggregation & analysis (Logtail)
Better Stack includes Logtail, a powerful log aggregation platform that collects, indexes, and searches logs from your applications and infrastructure. This is essential for debugging issues in YOUR code and understanding system behavior.
Incident management & on-call scheduling
Better Stack provides full incident management workflows, on-call scheduling, escalation policies, and status pages for YOUR services. If you need to coordinate team responses to outages and communicate with customers, Better Stack excels here.
Comprehensive observability platform
For teams that want uptime monitoring, logging, and incident management in one platform, Better Stack offers a unified, professional-grade solution. You get deep visibility into YOUR infrastructure without stitching together multiple tools.
✅When to Use API Status Check
API Status Check solves a different problem: monitoring the third-party APIs your application depends on. When Stripe, AWS, GitHub, or OpenAI experience issues, you need to know immediately — not after your support channels explode.
Monitor third-party APIs you depend on
If your application relies on Stripe, Twilio, OpenAI, AWS, GitHub, or any of 114+ APIs, API Status Check gives you visibility into whether those services are experiencing issues. This is critical for distinguishing "us vs them" problems and communicating accurately with users.
MCP integration for AI coding assistants
API Status Check provides an MCP server that lets AI assistants (Claude, Cursor) check API status in real-time during development. This unique integration surfaces dependency health directly in your coding workflow — something Better Stack doesn't offer.
Zero-setup monitoring (114+ APIs pre-configured)
Unlike Better Stack where you configure your own endpoints, API Status Check monitors 114+ APIs out of the box. Just browse the dashboard, subscribe to the APIs you care about, and get alerts. No setup, no configuration.
Per-API RSS feeds & status badges
Free embeddable status badges let you show API health in documentation, READMEs, or dashboards. Per-API RSS feeds enable automation and custom integrations without account setup or API keys. Lightweight, developer-friendly integrations.
🎯The Complete Monitoring Stack
Most engineering teams need BOTH types of monitoring. Here's the ideal setup:
Better Stack
Monitor YOUR infrastructure:
- →Uptime checks for your website/API
- →Log aggregation via Logtail
- →Incident mgmt & on-call scheduling
API Status Check
Monitor YOUR dependencies:
- →Stripe payments are processing
- →AWS services are operational
- →GitHub/OpenAI/Twilio are responsive
= Complete visibility into "Is it us or them?"
Ready to Monitor Your Dependencies?
API Status Check gives you real-time visibility into 114+ third-party APIs your application depends on. Independent endpoint checks every 5 minutes, MCP server integration, per-API RSS feeds, and embeddable status badges — all starting free.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Common questions about choosing between Better Stack and API Status Check for complete monitoring coverage.
1.Is API Status Check a replacement for Better Stack?
No, they're complementary. Better Stack monitors YOUR infrastructure (your servers, applications, logs, incidents). API Status Check monitors THIRD-PARTY APIs your app depends on (Stripe, AWS, GitHub, etc.). Best practice: use BOTH. Better Stack tells you if YOUR stack is healthy, ASC tells you if the APIs you depend on are healthy.
2.Can I use Better Stack to monitor third-party APIs like Stripe or AWS?
Technically yes — you could configure Better Stack to ping Stripe or AWS endpoints. But API Status Check does this automatically for 114+ APIs with contextual data from official status pages, independent endpoint checks, and developer integrations (MCP, RSS, badges). You'd have to manually configure and maintain those checks in Better Stack, and you wouldn't get the contextual status page data or API-specific insights.
3.What's the biggest difference between Better Stack vs API Status Check?
Monitoring scope. Better Stack is a comprehensive observability platform for YOUR infrastructure (uptime, logs, incidents, on-call). API Status Check monitors third-party APIs you DON'T control but depend on. They solve different problems: "Is MY infrastructure healthy?" (Better Stack) vs "Are the APIs I depend on healthy?" (API Status Check).
4.Which one should I choose?
Use both! Better Stack for monitoring your own infrastructure health (uptime, logs, incidents), API Status Check for monitoring your dependencies (Stripe, AWS, OpenAI). Together they give you complete visibility. If you can only choose one: pick Better Stack if your main concern is YOUR stack's health and observability, pick API Status Check if your main concern is third-party API outages affecting your users.
5.How does pricing compare?
Better Stack: Free (10 monitors, 3-min), $29/mo Freelancer, $85/mo Small Team, $175/mo Business (includes uptime + logs + incidents). API Status Check: Free (all status data, badges, RSS), $9/mo Alert Pro, $29/mo Team, $49/mo Developer. Better Stack is more expensive but includes comprehensive observability features. ASC is more affordable for focused API dependency monitoring.
6.Better Stack is VC-funded, API Status Check is indie. Does that matter?
It depends on your priorities. Better Stack's VC funding enables rapid feature development, enterprise-grade reliability, and comprehensive tooling. API Status Check is indie/bootstrapped, which means developer-friendly design, transparent pricing, and no pressure to upsell or over-engineer. Both approaches work — choose based on whether you value comprehensive features (Better Stack) or focused simplicity (ASC).
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