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Watchtower vs What's Up Docker: catalog facts
Watchtower	What's Up Docker
Free Free and open source.	Free Free and open source under the MIT licence.
Linux, Self-hosted	Web, Self-hosted
Keeps running containers updated without manual pulls Actively maintained continuation of the original Watchtower	Supports Docker, Compose, Swarm, Kubernetes and Nomad Works with most public registries and self-hosted OCI registries
Automatic updates can introduce breaking changes without warning Not designed for controlled rollouts in larger production environments	Needs to run as its own container or service Automatic updates can break setups if images change behaviour
Self-hosted	Self-hosted
Open source	Open source
License: Apache-2.0	License: MIT
No account needed	Not stated if an account is needed
Not stated if it works offline	Not stated if it works offline
Official website Full listing and sources Checked October 1, 2026	Official website Full listing and sources Checked September 23, 2026

Catalog facts only. Anything “not stated” is unconfirmed. Check full listings for details.