A status page is a dedicated page, usually on a separate hostname such as status.example.com, that shows whether your service is operational, lists ongoing incidents with updates and keeps a history of past ones.
Why it matters
During an outage, people ask the same question many times: "is it down for everyone?" A status page answers that once, cuts support tickets and shows customers you know about the problem. Honest, timely updates build more trust than silence, and the history doubles as evidence for SLA discussions.
Example
A good incident entry names the impact, the state and the next update time:
Investigating - 14:05 UTC
Some users see errors when logging in. We are investigating.
Next update by 14:35 UTC.
Identified - 14:22 UTC
A failed database migration is the cause. We are rolling it back.
Resolved - 14:41 UTC
Logins are working normally. A full write-up will follow.Common mistakes
- Hosting the status page on the same server or domain as the product, so it goes down with it.
- Updating it by hand only, so it lags reality. Connect it to monitoring.
- Vague wording like "some issues" with no scope, time or next update.
- Never marking resolved, or deleting incidents afterward, which erodes credibility.
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