Getting Started with StatusApp

Welcome!

StatusApp is an enterprise-grade monitoring platform that helps you track the health and performance of your websites, APIs, servers, and infrastructure. Whether you're monitoring a single website or managing hundreds of services across multiple regions, StatusApp provides real-time insights into uptime, performance, and incidents.

Setting Up Your Account

1. Creating Your Account

Visit StatusApp and create an account using your email address
You'll receive a verification email - click the link to confirm your email address
All new accounts start on the Starter plan with 10 monitors included
You can upgrade to a paid plan anytime to access more features and monitors

2. Understanding the Dashboard

After signing in, you'll see your main dashboard with several key sections:

Dashboard: Real-time overview of all your monitors, incidents, and system health
Monitors: Create and manage all your monitoring checks (HTTP, API, DNS, Port, SSL, Heartbeat, GraphQL, Domain, Server)
Incidents: Track detected incidents and their resolution status with full lifecycle management
Status Pages: Create public status pages to keep customers informed about service health
Analytics: View detailed performance metrics, response times, uptime statistics, and MTTR tracking
Notification Channels: Configure how and where you receive alerts (Email, Slack, Discord, Telegram, SMS, PagerDuty, OpsGenie, Microsoft Teams, Webhooks)
Settings: Configure your account, billing, team members, API keys, and integrations

Creating Your First Monitor

Choose Your Monitor Type

StatusApp supports multiple monitor types to suit different monitoring needs:

WEBSITE (HTTP/HTTPS) - Monitor website availability and response codes
API - Monitor REST API endpoints with authentication, assertions, and response validation
GraphQL - Monitor GraphQL endpoints with query and mutation validation
PING (ICMP) - Monitor server connectivity and network latency
PORT (TCP/UDP) - Monitor TCP/UDP ports (databases, SSH, mail servers, Redis, etc.)
DNS - Monitor DNS resolution and record validation (A, AAAA, CNAME, MX, TXT)
SSL_CERT - Monitor SSL certificate expiration with configurable warning days
CRON (Heartbeat) - Monitor scheduled jobs and background tasks via reverse pings
DOMAIN - Monitor domain expiration, WHOIS changes, and blacklist status
SERVER - Monitor server resources (CPU, memory, disk) with agent installation

Basic Monitor Setup

Click Create Monitor from the dashboard
Choose your monitor type (e.g., WEBSITE for a basic website check)
Enter a name for your monitor (e.g., "My Website - Production")
Enter the URL to monitor (e.g., https://example.com)
Set the check interval (how often to check):
- Starter Plan: 60 seconds minimum
- Professional Plan: 30 seconds minimum
- Business Plan: 10 seconds minimum
- Enterprise Plan: 5 seconds minimum (or custom)

Advanced Monitor Configuration

Multi-Region Monitoring

Monitor from multiple geographic locations to detect regional outages:

North America: United States (multiple regions), Canada
Europe: UK, Germany, France, Ireland
Asia Pacific: Singapore, Tokyo, Sydney
South America: Brazil
Africa: South Africa

Timeout Settings

Set how long to wait before marking a check as failed (default: 30 seconds)

Response Validation

Status Code Checking: Verify specific HTTP status codes (200, 301, etc.)
Response Body Validation: Check for specific text or patterns in responses
Schema Validation: Validate JSON/GraphQL responses against schemas
Assertions: Create custom validation rules for API responses

Authentication Options (For API/HTTP monitors)

Bearer Token: JWT or API tokens
Basic Authentication: Username and password
API Key: Custom API key headers
OAuth 2.0: OAuth token authentication
Custom Headers: Add any custom authentication headers

Understanding Monitor Status

Your monitors display real-time status indicators:

✅ UP: Service is responding normally
⚠️ DEGRADED: Service is responding but with performance issues or partial failures
❌ DOWN: Service is not responding or returning errors
⏸️ PAUSED: Monitor is temporarily paused (no checks being performed)
🔄 CHECKING: Monitor check is currently in progress

Setting Up Notification Channels

StatusApp uses a flexible notification channel system that lets you configure where alerts are sent.

Creating Notification Channels

Go to Settings → Notification Channels
Click Create Channel
Choose your channel type and configure it:

Email Notifications

Add one or more email addresses (comma-separated)
Supports team distribution lists
HTML-formatted incident reports

Slack Integration

Connect your Slack workspace
Choose specific channels for alerts
Rich message formatting with status colors

Discord Integration

Create a Discord webhook URL
Configure rich embeds with color-coded alerts
Direct channel notifications

Telegram Integration

Connect your Telegram bot
Get chat ID for your group or channel
Markdown-formatted messages

SMS Alerts (Professional+)

Add your phone number with country code
Receive critical alerts via SMS
Available on Professional plans and above

Advanced Integrations

PagerDuty: Create incidents and trigger on-call escalations
Opsgenie: Alert management with priority routing
Microsoft Teams: Incoming webhooks to Teams channels
Custom Webhooks: Send alerts to any HTTP endpoint

Assigning Channels to Monitors

After creating notification channels:

Edit any monitor
Go to the Notifications tab
Select which channels should receive alerts for this monitor
Save your changes

You can assign different notification channels to different monitors, allowing flexible alert routing.

Understanding Incidents

When a monitor detects a problem, StatusApp automatically creates an incident:

Automatic Detection: Incidents are created when monitors fail based on your confirmation threshold
Severity Levels: Incidents are categorized as LOW, MEDIUM, HIGH, or CRITICAL
Status Lifecycle: INVESTIGATING → IDENTIFIED → MONITORING → RESOLVED
MTTR Tracking: Automatic Mean Time To Resolution calculation
Root Cause Categories: Categorize incidents (DNS, Network, Server, Application, Database, SSL, Configuration, Deployment, Third-Party, Infrastructure, DDoS, Maintenance)
Status Updates: Post public or private updates to keep stakeholders informed

Incidents can be managed from the Incidents dashboard where you can:

View all active and resolved incidents with filtering
Add comments and status updates (public or private)
Assign incidents to team members
Document root causes and prevention steps
Track affected regions and failed checks
Mark false positives or maintenance incidents

Best Practices for New Users

1. Start with Critical Services

Begin by monitoring your most important services first:

Production websites and APIs
Customer-facing applications
Critical infrastructure components
Database servers and core services

2. Use Multi-Region Monitoring

For critical services, enable monitoring from multiple regions to:

Detect region-specific outages
Understand global performance
Avoid false positives from single-region issues
Provide better insights for CDN performance

3. Configure Appropriate Check Intervals

Critical Services: 1-2 minute intervals
Standard Services: 5 minute intervals
Background Services: 10-15 minute intervals
Heartbeat Jobs: Match your job schedule (daily, hourly, etc.)

4. Set Up Multiple Notification Channels

Create redundant alerting to ensure you never miss critical issues:

Primary: Email and Slack for team awareness
Critical: SMS for urgent alerts
Escalation: PagerDuty or Opsgenie for on-call rotations

5. Create Status Pages

Keep customers informed during incidents:

Create public status pages for customer-facing services
Subscribe customers to incident updates
Maintain transparency during outages
Build trust through proactive communication

6. Review Analytics Regularly

Use the Analytics dashboard to:

Identify performance trends
Spot degradation before it becomes critical
Understand uptime patterns
Calculate SLA compliance
Optimize check intervals based on actual needs

7. Invite Team Members

Collaborate effectively by inviting team members:

Assign appropriate roles (Owner, Admin, Member, Viewer)
Distribute monitoring responsibilities
Enable team members to respond to incidents
Share knowledge base access

Quick Start Checklist

Create your first monitor for a critical service
Enable multi-region monitoring for production services
Set up at least 2 notification channels (e.g., Email + Slack)
Create a public status page for customer communication
Invite team members if applicable
Configure monitor timeout and validation settings
Test notifications to ensure they're working
Review the Analytics dashboard to understand baseline performance

Next Steps

Now that you've set up your first monitor, explore these guides to get the most out of StatusApp:

Understanding Monitor Types - Learn about all available monitor types and when to use each one
Creating Status Pages - Set up public status pages for your services
Incident Management Basics - Learn how to manage and resolve incidents effectively
Setting Up Notifications - Configure advanced notification channels and alert routing
Understanding Analytics - Interpret uptime metrics and performance trends
API Reference Guide - Access StatusApp programmatically via our REST API
Understanding Billing Plans - Learn about plans, features, and pricing

Need Help?

If you have questions or need assistance:

Knowledge Base: Browse our comprehensive articles for detailed guides
Support: Email support@statusapp.io for direct assistance
Status Page: Check status.statusapp.io for platform status
Documentation: Visit our docs for technical references

Welcome to StatusApp! We're excited to help you monitor your services and maintain high availability.