Introduction
Status Page are crucial cogs in your Incident Communication process, they serve as vital channels to keep your stakeholders informed during periods of downtime. Although there are many proficient tools in the market, such as Atlassian Status Page and Status.io, these standalone Status Page can come with a hefty price tag, with various pricing plans and tiers for both Public and Private Status Page. Additionally, being standalone products, these tools often lack functionalities found in comprehensive solutions that include On-Call Management, Incident Response and SRE (Site Reliability Engineering).
The Status Page alternatives we delve into below have been evaluated based on the expansiveness of their functionalities and cost-effectiveness. We also touch upon a few open-source Status Page, but be forewarned that building your own Status Page comes with its own challenges. As building one from scratch may sound feasible in theory, you would invariably end up investing countless hours to customize it to your specifications.
Let's explore the diverse alternatives to Atlassian Status Page.
Squadcast
Squadcast is among the top end-to-end Incident Management tools in the market, Squadcast combines On-Call Management, Incident Response, and SRE features like Unlimited Public and Private Status Page - all in one comprehensive reliability workflow solution.
With enriched On-Call Management features such as Schedules, Escalation Policies, Unlimited alerting, and much more, Squadcast offers a holistic solution. For Incident Response, it provides comprehensive ChatOps Integrations with Slack and MS teams, a Mobile App, and a multitude of options to enhance your Incident Response. Squadcast also offers a host of SRE features, including Automation Rules, SLO Dashboard, Runbooks, Postmortems, Analytics, and more.
Creating on-brand beautiful Status Page with a customizable domain is a breeze with Squadcast. You can display whichever part of your Services or Components you desire on your Status Page with granular control. Moreover, the Services and Components come with the option to showcase Uptime history for up to 90 days.
One of the defining features of Squadcast Status Page is to ensure that your customers and stakeholders remain informed about your Services and Components at every stage; upcoming and Scheduled Maintenance Windows have been built keeping this in mind, allowing your stakeholders and customers to subscribe to each Maintenance Window.
The Issue History timeline categorizes and outlines timelines of different Incidents/Issues and status update announcements. Additionally, you can allow subscriptions to each component on your Status Page
Cost:
Designed for Enterprises, Squadcast offers an unlimited number of Status Page (both Public and Private), along with On-Call Management, and Incident Response to customers on their Enterprise plan, priced at $21/user. This plan also permits up to 10,000 subscribers.
Main Features:
- Public and Private Status Page
- Service/Component Display
- 90 Day Uptime History
- Maintenance Windows
- Issue/Incident History Timeline
- Custom Domain
- Customizable Themes
- Over 10,000 Subscribers
- Password-Protected Private Status Page
- Custom Billing
- Access to Rest APIs
Better Stack
While looking at Better Stack Status Page, the first thing that will stand out is their neat User Interface. Better Stack is a popular Incident Management platform that serves up both Public and Private Status Page, making them a worthy inclusion in this list.
In Better Stack Status Page, the status of the services displayed is directly linked to monitoring tools. This can potentially lead to confusion, as non-critical downtime registered by the monitoring tool might be perceived as critical downtime by customers and stakeholders due to its immediate reflection on the Status Page. Furthermore, Better Stack's limited compatibility with various Infrastructure Monitoring tools presents another challenge. If your services are monitored by a tool that isn't supported by Better Stack, any resulting downtime wouldn't be displayed on the Status Page, potentially leading to discrepancies.
Despite these challenges, Better Stack does offer appealing features such as a large number of subscribers, password-protected Private Status Page, customizable themes, and more, available within their higher pricing plan.
Cost
The cost factor plays in Better Stack's favor as unique Status Page with custom domains can be created by all users on the free plan. Their paid plan, offering five Status Page along with a custom domain and customizable theme, starts at $24 for a single user account.
Main Features:
- Public and Private Status Page
- Free Status Page
- Custom Domain
Rootly
Rootly operates in the Incident Management space and offers a Status Page alongside Incident Response features. With a user-friendly interface, they provide both Public and Private Status Page.
One of the standout features of Rootly's Status Page is the capability to publish incidents not only via the web user interface but also through Slack. This can prove to be beneficial during critical incidents as it allows team members to stay within their familiar communication platform.
However, it's worth noting that Rootly doesn't provide the option to subscribe to individual services or components directly from the Status Page. Furthermore, their documentation can be improved.
Cost
As for the cost, Rootly only has one paid plan, which includes unlimited Private and Public Status Page along with other Incident Response features. Detailed pricing information, however, is available only upon contacting their Sales team.
Main Features:
- Public and Private Status Page
- Custom Domain
- Incidents Published via Slack
- Display of Services and Incident Status
Cachet (Open Source)
Cachet is a name that might ring a bell if you're into the open-source scene. It features a clean design for its Status Page, displaying components, past incidents, and even a detailed progression of each incident.
They offer basic uptime monitors and provide an appealing visual display of your metrics. Through their API, you can conveniently set up the metrics that matter to you. A couple of standout features that Cachet brings to the table are two-factor authentication for account security and support for 10+ languages for your Status Page.
Cost
As for the price tag, though Cachet is an open-source tool, the installation of its Status Page starts at $249.
Main Features
- Service and Components Display
- Detailed Incident Progression Timeline
- Maintenance Windows
- Metrics Display
- Two-factor Authentication
Staytus (Open Source)
Staytus offers you the ability to create neat Status Page, with customizable themes to fit your brand.
One of the best parts about Staytus is its flexibility. You have the option to either manually add issues/incidents through the Web UI or directly link your services to your own monitoring systems. It's entirely free and comes with features that can really level up your Status Page game.
Main Features:
- Service/Components Display
- Maintenance Windows
- E-mail Subscriptions
- JSON API for updating statuses from external applications & sources
Conclusion
In conclusion, each alternative offers unique features and the choice of making the right decision depends on your organization’s specific needs, budget, preference for proprietary or open source-tools. We recommend that you explore different tools; opt for demos, interact with the sales team, and consider doing a free trial if available. At Squadcast, you can get started with our Status Page and other offerings with a 14 day free trial.