StillOnline?

Best uptime monitoring for small SaaS startups without a DevOps team

Your SaaS runs on Vercel, the team is three people, and nobody wants Grafana at 2 a.m. When prod fails, customers DM support before your phone buzzes. Uptime monitoring for a small startup is an external HTTP check on a schedule plus a public status page customers can bookmark — not a full observability stack. Below: Better Stack, UptimeRobot, Instatus, and StillOnline compared, plus a first-week checklist you can finish without hiring SRE.

Quick answer

A 2–5 person revenue SaaS needs one prod URL, a hosted status page, and owner alerts in Telegram or Slack — not PagerDuty on day one. UptimeRobot Free still lists 50 monitors, but commercial revenue sites are banned on Free since December 2024. StillOnline Free gives one project, one URL, automatic public page, and B2B use at $0; Pro $9/mo covers ten URLs flat. Better Stack fits richer incident flow; Instatus ~$20/mo when branded pages with passwords matter. Ship the page before your first enterprise demo — status page at first revenue.

Build minimum monitoring for a 2–5 person team

You do not need Prometheus, Kubernetes, or an on-call rotation yet. You need external proof the product answers HTTP 200 and a page that shows history when it does not.

ComponentWhy the startup needs itWhat to skip early
External HTTP checkSees DNS, TLS, and CDN — not only "process alive" inside the VPSHost-only internal ping
Public status pageCuts "is it down?" tickets when probes are greenStatus updates only on Twitter
Owner alertsYou hear about the outage before the customerSMS to the whole team on Free
24h+ historyEvidence for B2B due diligencePromising SLA without data

Do: start with the prod URL that reflects real user experience — often /health or the main app entry. Do not: buy enterprise observability on pre-revenue day one.

Compare Better Stack, UptimeRobot, Instatus, and StillOnline

All four cover uptime monitoring + status page for teams without DevOps. The gap is bundled pricing, commercial Free rules, and setup time.

CriterionBetter StackUptimeRobotInstatusStillOnline
Free for revenue SaaS10 monitors, 1 status page50 monitors; commercial banned on FreeTrial, not long-term free1 project, 1 URL, B2B OK
Status page bundledYes; +$12–15/mo per extra pageBasic page on Solo $9/moCore productAuto with each project
Check interval3 min Free, 30s paid5 min Free, 60s SoloPlan-dependent5 min Free, 1–5 min Pro+
AlertsSlack, email, on-callEmail, Slack, SMS add-onEmail, Slack, subscribersEmail, StillOnline bot on Telegram, Slack
Entry paid all-inResponder ~$29/moSolo $9/mo~$20/mo ProPro $9/mo
Without DevOpsRicher incident UI, steeper curveFamiliar UI, monitor countStrong brand, less infraGoogle sign-in, page in minutes

Verdict: StillOnline when you want one product, public page, and flat $9 without add-on math. UptimeRobot Solo when monitor count (staging + API + landing) beats status workflow. Better Stack when the team already lives in their Slack incident flow. Instatus when enterprise buyers demand logo, password gate, and email subscribers on the page.

Do: recalculate all-in cost at purchase time. Do not: keep paying SaaS on UptimeRobot Free after the commercial rule change.

Launch the status page before PagerDuty

PagerDuty assumes rotations, escalation policies, and managers who approve on-call pay. At 2–5 people you need: external check → alert the founder → banner on the status page → short incident post. That covers most customer comms without $20+/seat/mo.

Workflow without PagerDuty: probe fail → Telegram/Slack to founder → open incident on status page → email or post "we are on it" → fix → close incident → short post-mortem in Notion.

Solo-founder playbook: on-call without PagerDuty. Pre-launch steps: launch checklist status page.

Do: publish the status link in docs and onboarding before the first paying enterprise buyer. Do not: buy PagerDuty "for later" in week one — you will not configure rotation and it will not page anyone.

Configure owner alerts: email, Telegram, Slack

Alerts must reach whoever can redeploy or roll back — usually the CTO or founder, not every Slack channel.

  • Email — universal, easy to miss in noise.
  • Telegram — fast mobile push; StillOnline ships an official bot (no BotFather on Free).
  • Slack — natural if the team already lives in a workspace; StillOnline Free allows one owner channel total.

Step-by-step: Telegram uptime alerts · public status page guide.

Do: wire one primary channel and test by failing a staging health route. Do not: enable SMS on UptimeRobot Free without budget — credits burn fast.

First-week setup checklist

Seven days after prod launch is enough to close monitoring without a Terraform weekend.

  1. Day 1: Pick the health URL (/ or /health returning 200) and document it in README.
  2. Day 1: Sign up, create a project on the prod URL.
  3. Day 2: Wait 2–3 probe cycles; confirm green status.
  4. Day 2: Copy the public status URL into docs and onboarding email.
  5. Day 3: Connect Telegram or Slack alert for the founder.
  6. Day 4: Simulate failure (503 on staging or pause check) and confirm the alert fires.
  7. Day 5: Write a short runbook in Notion: who fixes, where logs live, status link.
  8. Day 7: Review the plan — still on Free or time for Pro $9/mo?

Start on StillOnline: dashboard · pricing $0 / $9 / $29. Ultimate ($29) when you need a second product or sub-5-minute checks.

Do: finish the checklist before the first B2B demo. Do not: defer the status page "until after the round" — due diligence asks for the link earlier.

What to do after week one

When a second critical URL appears (API gateway, billing webhook), compare Pro vs Ultimate limits. If enterprise asks for status.yourcompany.com, StillOnline v1 does not offer a custom domain on the status page — say that upfront and evaluate Instatus. If you only need monitors without a bundled page, UptimeRobot Solo stays in the shortlist.

Broader indie comparison: best uptime monitoring indie SaaS 2026 · StillOnline vs alternatives.

Minimum monitoring without DevOps is discipline: one check, one page, one alert — then scale.

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FAQ

Can StillOnline Free run a commercial revenue SaaS?

Yes — one prod URL with a public status page; B2B commercial use is allowed. Upgrade to Pro ($9/mo) for a second URL, private page, or API/MCP — pricing.

Why is UptimeRobot Free wrong for a startup with revenue?

Since December 2024, Free is only for personal, OSS, edu, and nonprofit use. Paying SaaS needs Solo ($9/mo) or another vendor. Verify before launch.

Do I need PagerDuty at startup stage?

Not for a 2–5 person team. Telegram/Slack owner alerts plus a public status page cover most cases. Add PagerDuty when formal on-call rotation and contractual SLA fines exist — solo on-call guide.

Why does Better Stack cost more in practice?

Extra status pages add about $12–15/mo each per Better Stack pricing, plus password-protected pages and monitor packs. Headline Free is not all-in for multiple services.

When pick Instatus over StillOnline?

When buyers require custom branding, password on the page, and email subscribers — Instatus Pro ~$20/mo. StillOnline is faster for a hosted stillonline.tech/.../s/... URL without DNS work. StillOnline does not offer a custom domain on the status page.

What must work in the first week after setup?

Green status after 2–3 probes, a real alert on a test failure, status link in docs, and a runbook. Without that, monitoring is decorative — launch checklist.

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