How to Set Up a Status Page That Your Users Will Actually Trust

Every service has downtime. What separates mature organizations from the rest is how they communicate about it. A well-maintained status page is your most important communication tool during incidents, and it builds trust even when everything is working fine.

But most status pages are terrible. They are perpetually green, updated hours after users notice problems, and written in vague corporate language that tells users nothing. Here is how to do better.

Why Status Pages Matter

During Incidents

When your service goes down, the first thing users do is check your status page. If it says “All Systems Operational” while they cannot log in, you have lost their trust. If it says “We are aware of login issues affecting some users and are actively investigating,” you have earned their respect.

Between Incidents

A status page with historical data showing 99.95% uptime over 90 days tells prospects and existing customers that you take reliability seriously. It is proof, not a marketing claim.

For Your Team

A status page creates accountability. When the status page says “Investigating,” your team knows the clock is ticking on a public commitment. It drives faster resolution.

Status Page Architecture

Components

Break your service into user-meaningful components:

Good component structure:

Web Application
API
Dashboard
Webhooks
Email Notifications
Data Processing

Bad component structure:

Server 1
Server 2
Database Primary
Redis Cluster
Worker Node 3

Users do not care about your infrastructure topology. They care about whether the features they use are working.

Status Levels

Use clear, consistent status levels:

Status	Meaning	Visual
Operational	Everything working normally	Green
Degraded Performance	Working but slower than usual	Yellow
Partial Outage	Some functionality affected	Orange
Major Outage	Service is significantly impaired	Red
Under Maintenance	Planned downtime in progress	Blue

Incident Updates

Each incident should follow a lifecycle:

Investigating: We know about the problem and are looking into it
Identified: We found the root cause
Monitoring: We have applied a fix and are watching for recurrence
Resolved: The issue is fully resolved

Include timestamps with every update. Users want to know when you last looked at the problem.

Writing Effective Status Updates

Be Specific

Bad: “We are experiencing some issues with our platform.”

Good: “We are investigating increased error rates on our API affecting approximately 15% of requests in the US-East region.”

Be Honest About Impact

Bad: “Some users may experience intermittent issues.”

Good: “Users are unable to log in. We have identified the issue as a database connection pool exhaustion and are working on a fix. Current ETA: 30 minutes.”

Provide ETAs (Carefully)

Users want to know when the problem will be fixed. Providing an ETA is risky but appreciated:

Only provide ETAs when you have reasonable confidence
Pad your estimate — if you think 30 minutes, say 45
Update the ETA if it changes: “Our initial estimate of 30 minutes was optimistic. We now expect resolution within 90 minutes.”

Avoid Blame-Shifting

Bad: “Our cloud provider is experiencing issues.”

Good: “We are experiencing an outage due to an issue with our infrastructure provider. We are in contact with their team and exploring workarounds.”

Follow Up After Resolution

Post a summary after every significant incident:

What happened
When it started and ended
Total duration and impact
Root cause
What you are doing to prevent recurrence

This builds enormous trust. It shows users you take incidents seriously and are actively improving.

Status Page Setup with StatusApp

StatusApp includes status pages on all plans. Here is how to set one up:

1. Define Components

Map your user-facing services to status page components. Start with 4-8 components — too many creates noise, too few lacks specificity.

2. Connect Monitors

Link each component to the relevant monitors. When a monitor fails, the component status updates automatically. You can also update component status manually for issues that monitoring does not catch.

3. Custom Domain

Set up a custom domain for your status page:

status.yourdomain.com → StatusApp status page

This keeps users within your brand and is easier to remember than a third-party URL.

4. Subscriber Notifications

Enable email and SMS notifications so users can subscribe for updates. During an incident, subscribers receive automatic notifications, reducing support ticket volume.

5. Incident Templates

Create templates for common incident types:

## Investigating
We are aware of [issue description] affecting [scope]. 
Our team is investigating and we will provide updates as we learn more.

## Identified
We have identified the root cause as [brief description]. 
We are implementing a fix. Estimated time to resolution: [ETA].

## Resolved
The issue has been resolved. [Brief description of fix]. 
We apologize for the inconvenience and will be implementing 
additional measures to prevent recurrence.

Best Practices

Update Frequently During Incidents

Even if you have no new information, update every 30 minutes during an active incident. A simple “We are continuing to work on the issue. No new updates at this time.” tells users you have not forgotten about the problem.

Never Leave the Page Perpetually Green

If your status page never shows anything but “All Systems Operational,” users will not trust it. They will assume it is not actively maintained. If you have a minor degradation, show it. Transparency builds trust.

Announce Scheduled Maintenance

Give users advance notice of planned downtime:

72+ hours advance notice for major maintenance
24 hours for minor maintenance
Include the expected duration and scope
Update when maintenance completes (or if it runs long)

Make the Page Fast and Independent

Your status page should be hosted independently from your main application. If your app goes down, users need to be able to access the status page. This is why hosted status page services like StatusApp work well — the status page is on separate infrastructure.

Link to Your Status Page

Make it easy to find:

Add a “Status” link in your app’s footer
Include the URL in your support documentation
Reference it in your incident response communications
Add it to your email signatures for support staff

Measuring Status Page Effectiveness

Track these metrics:

Time to first update: How quickly do you post the first incident update?
Update frequency: How often do you update during incidents?
Subscriber count: Are users signing up for notifications?
Support ticket reduction: Do tickets decrease when you post status updates?
Page views during incidents: Are users finding and using the page?

The Anti-Status Page

Avoid these common mistakes:

The “Everything Is Fine” page: Perpetually green despite known issues
The ghost page: Not updated for months
The vague page: “Some users may experience issues” without specifics
The late page: Updated 2 hours after Twitter already knows
The overloaded page: 50 components that nobody can parse
The corporate page: Written by legal, not engineers

A status page should be your fastest, most honest communication channel. Treat it that way.

Set up a status page your users will trust. Start with StatusApp — status pages are included free on every plan.