If you're shopping for a free status page tool for your SaaS, here's what the comparison articles don't tell you: most of them are out of date, and at least one of the tools they recommend doesn't exist anymore.
Quick summary before we get into it:
- Freshping shut down March 6, 2026. Any article still listing it hasn't been updated.
- BetterStack's free check interval is 3 minutes, not 30 seconds. The 30-second interval is a paid feature — widely misreported.
- UptimeRobot banned commercial use on the free plan in December 2024. If you're running a SaaS on their free tier, you've been in ToS violation for months.
Here's what each tool actually gives you.
The comparison table
| Tool | Monitors | Interval | Status Pages | Slack | Incident Updates | Commercial |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stillup | 3 | 1 min | 1 | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Instatus | 15 | 2 min | 1 | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ |
| UptimeRobot | 50 | 5 min | 1 (basic) | ❌ | Limited | ❌ |
| BetterStack | 10 | 3 min | 1 | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Pulsetic | 10 | 5 min | 3 | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ |
What each tool is actually good for
Stillup — Built specifically for indie SaaS. 3 monitors at 1-minute intervals, status page that auto-updates when a monitor fires, Slack alerts, commercial use allowed. The monitor count is low but the integration between monitoring and the status page is the key differentiator — no other free tool updates the status page automatically on downtime.
Instatus — Best free status page design. 15 monitors at 2-minute intervals, 200 email subscribers, up to 5 team members. Email-only on free — no Slack or Discord. If your team uses Slack and you need alerts there, you'll hit a wall. Best for: polished customer-facing status pages where the design matters.
UptimeRobot — 50 monitors is genuinely generous, and it's the obvious choice if monitor count is your main concern. But: 5-minute check intervals mean a 299-second worst-case detection gap, no Slack on free, and since December 2024 the free plan is explicitly restricted to personal non-commercial use. For a SaaS product this is now a ToS issue, not just a feature limitation.
BetterStack — The free tier (10 monitors, 3-minute checks) is a limited preview of an excellent product. On-call scheduling, log management, and post-mortem tooling are best-in-class on paid plans. Good choice if you expect to scale fast and want to start with a tool you'll grow into rather than migrate away from.
Pulsetic — Three status pages on a free plan is the unique angle. Useful if you're running multiple products and need separate public status pages for each. The limitation: no incident update posts on free, no Slack, and 5-minute check intervals. Status pages are essentially static indicators rather than active incident communication tools until you pay.
The check interval problem
A 5-minute check interval creates a 299-second worst-case detection gap. If your endpoint goes down one second after a check completes, you won't know for another 299 seconds.
Cockroach Labs' State of Resilience 2025 found the average outage lasts 196 minutes. For 41% of companies, customers detect the problem before the internal team does. Slower check intervals directly contribute to that number.
For production SaaS, shorter intervals matter. Stillup (1 min) and Instatus (2 min) give you meaningfully faster detection than the 5-minute tools — at $0.
The commercial use question
Only Stillup, Instatus, BetterStack, and Pulsetic allow commercial use on free plans.
UptimeRobot updated their ToS in October 2024, effective December 1, 2024: the free plan is now personal and non-commercial use only. If you're running a paid SaaS, monitoring it with their free plan puts you in violation. The HN thread on this (thread #42244667, titled "UptimeRobot offers a fake free plan") has the full community reaction if you want context.
Bottom line
For a single SaaS product on a free plan: Stillup if you want monitoring + status page working together and Slack alerts without paying. Instatus if the status page design is the priority and email notifications are enough.
For multiple products: Pulsetic for 3 status pages on free, accepting the 5-minute interval and no incident update capability.
For a tool you'll grow into: BetterStack — the paid product is excellent even if the free tier is limited.
Canonical post: The 5 Best Free Status Pages for SaaS in 2026 on stillup.org
