Better Stack
Uptime monitoring, incident management, on-call scheduling, and status pages.
Best for small teams who want uptime monitoring with built-in incident management and status pages.
Use Cases
Free Tier
10 monitors, 3-minute checks, status pages, email/Slack alerts
How to Maximize the Free Tier
Better Stack's 10 free monitors are best used for your most critical endpoints — homepage, API health check, login flow. Use the status page feature immediately (it's included free) to give users visibility during outages. The 3-minute check interval means you won't catch sub-minute downtime, so pair Better Stack with a synthetic monitoring tool like Checkly for detailed assertions.
Getting Started
Sign up → add URL to monitor → choose check interval (3 min default) → configure alert channels (email, Slack, webhook) → create status page → it auto-updates on incidents.
Pros
- Status pages: Status page builder included on the free tier — auto-updates when incidents are detected or resolved
- Incident management: Built-in incident management with on-call scheduling, escalation policies, and alert routing
- Modern UI: Clean, modern interface that's pleasant to use daily — unlike many monitoring tools that feel dated
Cons
- Monitor count: Only 10 monitors on the free tier — limited for teams managing more than a handful of services
- Check frequency: 3-minute check interval means downtime may go undetected for up to 3 minutes
- Alert routing: Advanced alert routing and notification policies require a paid plan — limited customization on free