Free tool · runs in your browser

Write the outage update while you fix the outage

Pick where you are (investigating, identified, monitoring, resolved), say what customers see and when the next update is due. You get the status page text, a customer email, a short post and, once it's over, an outline for the write-up. Plain words, a time zone on every time, and a line about data, because that's what people worry about first.

Everything stays in this browser. Nothing is sent to us.

Where are you?

You see the symptoms, not the cause.

What's happening

ProductAs customers know itWhat customers seeNot "degraded performance"AffectedThe parts of the productNot affected (optional)Saves a lot of support emailsWorkaround (optional)Something they can do meanwhileDataThe first thing people worry about

Times

Time zoneUTC unless your customers are all in one placeStartedHH:MM, first failureThis updateHH:MMNext update in (minutes)30 to 60, and keep it

Email signed byA person, not "The team"

Put the time of this update (HH:MM). Every update needs a time with a time zone.

When did it start? Customers check whether their failed attempt was part of it.

Copy this

Investigating - [time] UTC
Some customers are having problems with [Product]. We are looking into it now.
Data you had already saved is not affected as far as we can tell.
Next update within 30 minutes.

Before the next outage

Put the status page on hosting that doesn't share your servers, turn on email subscriptions, and keep an export of every customer's admin contact outside the product. Decide who writes updates while someone else fixes. The first update goes out within half an hour, even if all it says is that you are looking into it.

The timeline, what Atlassian, Cloudflare and GitLab did in public and how to handle credits are in our article after the outage: what a small SaaS publishes, and when. For what buyers ask about incidents before they sign, see the security baseline check.

Templates, not a status page. More free tools: biz59.net/tools.