In this guide · 8 sections
Short answer
You need a status page if customers rely on a system you run, such as online booking, a client portal or an app. A brochure website doesn't. Free plans from UptimeRobot, Better Stack and Atlassian Statuspage are enough to start; post short, timed updates during an outage.
Does a small business need a status page?
A status page earns its keep when outages generate support messages and customers can't tell whether the problem is on their side or yours. If your site is only a brochure, a phone number and WhatsApp button do the same job.
| Your business runs | Status page? | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Brochure website | Not needed | Customers just call or message if it's down |
| Online booking or appointments | Useful | Customers can see bookings are paused and when to retry |
| Client portal or customer logins | Recommended | Logged-in users notice outages first |
| SaaS product or mobile app | Expected | Users need a way to check status without contacting you |
| Online store | Optional | Helpful during payment provider or checkout outages |
A status page also covers outages that aren't yours. If your payment provider, Microsoft 365 or a delivery partner is down, one post saves answering the same question many times. Our guide to business continuity during the July 2026 Microsoft 365 outage shows how much of that traffic one outage can create.
Free and low-cost status page tools compared
Prices below are from each vendor's pricing page, in US dollars, approximate, as of October 2026.
UptimeRobot
Easiest startFree; Solo from US$9/mo
- Free: 50 monitors at 5-minute intervals, basic status pages
- Solo: 3 status pages on your own domain
- Team (US$35/mo annual): 100 white-label status pages
- Monitoring and status page in one tool
Best for: A business that wants monitoring and a simple public page together.
Better Stack
Free; from US$29/mo per responder
- Free: 10 monitors and heartbeats, 1 status page
- 1,000 subscribers included on paid plans
- Extra public status pages US$12-15/mo each
- Removing the Better Stack footer costs extra
Best for: Teams who also want on-call alerts and incident management.
Atlassian Statuspage
Free; Hobby US$29/mo
- Free: 100 subscribers, 25 components, 2 team members
- Hobby adds custom domain and 250 subscribers
- Startup (US$99/mo) adds SMS and webhook notifications
- No monitoring built in; you update it yourself or via integrations
Best for: Businesses with business customers who expect a familiar status page.
Sources: UptimeRobot pricing, Better Stack pricing and Atlassian Statuspage pricing. For monitoring options on their own, see our uptime monitoring tools guide.
Automatic or manual updates?
Tools that combine monitoring and a status page, such as UptimeRobot and Better Stack, can flip a component to "down" automatically when a check fails. That is fast but blunt: a five-minute blip turns your page red, and a check can pass while customers still can't log in.
Statuspage-style tools rely on you, or an integration, to post incidents. That's slower but every message is deliberate. A practical mix for SMEs: automatic monitoring alerts to your team, and a person posting the public update within minutes.
What to post during an incident
Customers mainly want to know three things: is it you, is someone on it, and when should they check back. Keep updates short and timed.
Post within minutes: Investigating
"Online booking is not loading for some customers. We are investigating. Next update by 10:30." Post this even if you don't know the cause yet.
Identified: say what is affected
Name the feature (bookings, logins, payments), not the technical cause. Say what still works, for example "you can still book by WhatsApp".
Give a workaround if there is one
A phone number, a WhatsApp link or a manual form keeps business moving while the fix happens.
Update on the time you promised
Even "still working on it, next update by 11:00" is better than silence. Missed update times cause more messages than the outage itself.
Resolved: confirm and close
Say when service returned and whether customers need to do anything, such as re-submitting a booking made during the outage.
Follow up for big outages
For long or repeated outages, post a short summary of what happened and what you changed. Keep it factual; you don't need to publish internal details.
If the outage involves a data breach rather than downtime, the status page is not the place to work it out. Follow your incident response plan first and get advice on any PDPA notification before you post.
Planned maintenance and where to link the page
Status pages also announce planned maintenance. Posting "Bookings unavailable Sunday 2:00 to 4:00 for upgrades" a few days ahead heads off messages and lets subscribers plan around it.
- Footer of your website and your app's login page
- Your help or FAQ page, next to the contact details
- Automatic replies on your support email and WhatsApp Business away message
- The error page your app shows when something fails
- Onboarding emails for new customers of your portal or app
Invite customers to subscribe by email if the tool supports it. Subscribers hear about incidents without checking the page, which is where most of the saved support time comes from.
A simple setup in an afternoon
For a business running one booking system or portal, this is enough:
Status page setup checklist
Do it yourself or get help?
Setting up a free status page takes an hour or two: create the account, add components, point a subdomain at it and link it from your site. The harder part is monitoring the right pages and making sure someone gets the alert.
Our Monitor plan (S$29 a month) checks your site every 5 minutes, alerts you on SSL and domain expiry and email blacklisting, and sends a monthly health report. It doesn't include a public status page, but it gives you the alert that tells you when to post one. IT Sorted is a Singapore-based team of developers with over 10 years of experience; you order online, pay upfront and brief us in writing.
Frequently asked questions
A status page is a public web page that shows whether a service is working. During an outage it shows what is affected, that someone is working on it and when the next update will be. Customers can often subscribe to get updates by email. It is usually hosted separately from the main system so it stays online during outages.
Yes. As of October 2026, UptimeRobot's free plan includes 50 monitors and basic status pages, Better Stack's free plan includes 10 monitors and one status page, and Atlassian Statuspage's free plan allows 100 subscribers and 25 components. Paid plans add your own domain, more subscribers, SMS alerts and branding removal.
Automatic updates from monitoring are fast, but they can show short blips as outages or miss problems a simple check can't see. Many small teams let monitoring alert staff instantly and have a person post the public update within minutes. That keeps messages accurate while still being quick.
On a separate hosted service, not on the same server as your website or app. If they share hosting, the status page goes down at the same time. Most tools let you point a subdomain such as status.yourcompany.com at their hosted page with a CNAME record, so the address still looks like yours.
Say what customers are seeing, that you are investigating, and when the next update will be. For example: online booking is not loading, we are investigating, next update by 10:30. You don't need to know the cause yet. Adding a workaround, such as booking by WhatsApp, makes the update more useful.