// guide
What is a status page?
Last updated: August 2026
A status page is a public web page where a software company reports, in real time, whether its services are working — and communicates incidents (outages, degraded performance, maintenance) as they happen, with timestamped updates until resolution.
You've seen them: status.anthropic.com, githubstatus.com, status.stripe.com. When something breaks, customers check the status page instead of emailing support — and the company posts updates in one place instead of answering the same question hundreds of times.
A status page is not a monitoring tool. Monitors (UptimeRobot, Checkly, Pingdom) detect problems; the status page communicates them. The two connect via webhooks, so a failed check can flip your public status automatically.
What a status page contains
- Components — your individual services (Website, API, Database) each with a current status
- An overall banner — "All Systems Operational" or the current problem, at a glance
- Incidents — reports with a standard lifecycle: Investigating → Identified → Monitoring → Resolved
- Uptime history — typically 90 days of per-component records
- Subscriptions — email notifications to customers when incidents are reported, updated, or resolved
Your options in 2026, compared
| Option | Typical cost | Setup | Ongoing effort |
|---|---|---|---|
| DIY static page you edit by hand | $0 | Hours | High — manual edits during every incident |
| Self-hosted open source (e.g. Cachet) | Server costs | Hours–days | You maintain the thing that must not go down |
| Enterprise hosted (Statuspage, BetterStack) | ~$29–99+/mo for full features | Minutes–hours | Low |
| Small-team hosted (GreenPing) | $0 free / $9–29/mo | ~2 minutes | Low — webhooks automate status changes |
Competitor pricing is indicative as of August 2026 and varies by tier and team size.
Common questions
What is the difference between a status page and monitoring?
Monitoring tools (UptimeRobot, Checkly, Pingdom) check your servers and alert you when something breaks. A status page is the communication layer on top: it tells your customers what's happening and what you're doing about it. They pair together — monitors detect, status pages communicate.
What should a status page include?
The essentials: a list of your services (components) with current status, an overall banner, incident reports with timestamped updates, uptime history, and a way for customers to subscribe to notifications. Custom domains (status.yourcompany.com) make it look native to your brand.
Do free status pages exist?
Yes. GreenPing's free plan includes one full status page with 10 components, 100 email subscribers, and webhook automation. Most hosted tools offer some free tier; the differences appear in custom domains, branding removal, and subscriber limits, which typically move to paid plans.
How do status pages update automatically?
Via webhooks from your monitoring tool. When a check fails, the monitor sends an HTTP POST to your status page provider, which flips the affected component, opens an incident, and notifies subscribers. When the check recovers, the incident auto-resolves the same way.
When does a small team actually need a status page?
The first time a customer emails 'is it down for everyone or just me?' — that question is the product's whole job. Practically: once strangers depend on your service, a status page converts every outage from a support-ticket pile into one link you update.
See one live: status.greenping.live — or make your own free page in about two minutes.
Start freeRelated: free status page · cheap status page · Statuspage alternative · documentation