Best Uptime Monitoring Tools with Built-in Status Pages

Why Status Pages Matter

When your service goes down, users want to know:

1. Are you aware? — Is anyone even working on this?
2. What's affected? — Is it just me or everyone?
3. When will it be fixed? — Should I wait or find alternatives?

Status pages answer these questions publicly. They turn frustrated users into informed users.

What to Look For

Essential Features

• Component status: Show individual service health
• Incident management: Create, update, and resolve incidents
• Automatic updates: Status changes when monitors fail
• Custom domain: Use status.yourdomain.com
• SSL included: HTTPS by default

Nice-to-Have Features

• Subscriber notifications: Email/SMS when status changes
• Scheduled maintenance: Announce planned downtime
• Historical uptime: Show reliability over time
• Custom branding: Match your company look
• Multiple pages: Different pages for different products

Best Tools with Built-in Status Pages

1. Wakestack

Best for: Combined server monitoring + uptime + status pages

One dashboard for infrastructure monitoring, uptime checks, and status pages. Add a monitor, it shows on your status page automatically.

Status page features:

• Public or private pages
• Custom domain support
• Component grouping
• Automatic status updates
• Incident management

Pricing: Free tier includes status pages

2. Better Stack (Uptime)

Best for: Modern teams wanting polished status pages

Better Stack's status pages are beautifully designed out of the box. Strong focus on incident communication.

Status page features:

• Clean, modern design
• Subscriber notifications
• Scheduled maintenance
• Historical uptime display
• Custom branding

Pricing: From ~$24/month with status pages

3. UptimeRobot

Best for: Simple, free status pages

UptimeRobot's free tier includes basic status pages. Good enough for startups and small projects.

Status page features:

• Simple component list
• Public status pages
• Custom logo
• Incident history

Limitations: Limited customization on free tier

Pricing: Free for basic pages, $7/month for custom domain

4. Hyperping

Best for: Design-conscious teams

Hyperping emphasizes clean design across both monitoring and status pages.

Status page features:

• Beautiful default design
• Custom CSS support
• Subscriber notifications
• Scheduled maintenance
• Multiple pages

Pricing: From $12/month

5. Checkly

Best for: Developer teams with API-heavy products

Checkly combines API monitoring with status pages. Good for technical products.

Status page features:

• Component-based status
• Automatic updates from checks
• Custom domain
• Scheduled maintenance

Pricing: Free tier available, paid from $30/month

6. Instatus

Best for: Teams wanting status page flexibility

Instatus started as a status page tool and added monitoring. More status page features than most.

Status page features:

• Highly customizable
• Multiple page support
• Subscriber management
• Third-party integrations
• Components and groups

Pricing: From $20/month

Comparison Table

How Automatic Status Updates Work

The key benefit of combined monitoring + status pages:

1. Monitor fails → Check determines service is down
2. Component updates → Status page shows degraded/down
3. Incident created → Optional automatic incident
4. Monitor recovers → Status page shows operational
5. Incident resolved → Automatic or manual close

This automation prevents:

• Forgetting to update status page
• Status page showing "operational" during outages
• Delayed communication to users

Status Page Best Practices

Group Components Logically

Website
├── Homepage
├── Dashboard
└── API

Infrastructure
├── Database
├── CDN
└── Email Service

Users care about what they use, not your internal architecture.

Write Useful Incident Updates

Bad: "We're investigating an issue"

Good: "API requests are timing out. We've identified the cause as database connection exhaustion and are scaling capacity. ETA: 15 minutes."

Keep It Updated

An outdated status page is worse than none. If you can't commit to updates, keep it simple.

Show Historical Uptime

Displaying 99.9% uptime over 90 days builds confidence. Hiding history suggests you have something to hide.

When to Use Standalone Status Pages

Consider dedicated status page services when you need:

Advanced Subscriber Management

• Segment subscribers by component
• SMS and webhook notifications
• Subscription preferences

Multiple Status Pages

• Different pages for different products
• Internal vs external pages
• White-label for customers

Deep Customization

• Full CSS/HTML control
• Custom components and widgets
• Embedded status widgets

Compliance Requirements

• SLA reporting
• Audit logs
• Advanced access controls

Popular standalone options: Statuspage (Atlassian), Instatus, Sorry, Cachet (self-hosted)

Implementation Tips

Start Simple

Launch with:

• 3-5 key components
• Automatic status updates
• Basic incident template

Add complexity when you need it.

Use Custom Domain

status.yourdomain.com looks more professional than yourcompany.statuspage.io

Test Your Process

Before a real incident:

1. Create a test incident
2. Update it
3. Resolve it
4. Delete it

Make sure you know the workflow.

Document Internally

Create a runbook for status page updates:

• Who updates it?
• What warrants an incident?
• Template messages for common issues

Summary

The best monitoring tools with built-in status pages:

• Wakestack: Full monitoring suite with clean status pages
• Better Stack: Modern design, strong incident management
• UptimeRobot: Free basic status pages
• Hyperping: Design-focused, good customization
• Checkly: Developer-friendly, API-focused

For most teams, built-in status pages are sufficient. Choose based on your monitoring needs first, status page features second.

The goal is simple: when something breaks, your users should know before they have to ask.