The Instatus alternative with on-call and server monitoring
Status pages backed by uptime, certificate, DNS and server monitoring, with escalation paths and phone calls. Private pages and phone calls are both on Team at €48 a month.
Which one fits you
Instatus: Instatus is a status page service with built-in monitors, on-call members and subscriber notifications. Pro covers public pages and Private Pro adds private pages; SAML SSO and phone call alerts are on Business.
Choose Spectate when
- You want private status pages and phone call alerts on one plan, without paying $300 a month.
- You want escalation paths with branches by priority and working hours.
- You want a server agent, mail server checks and certificate chain monitoring next to your status page.
- You want incidents with roles, postmortems and a Slack channel per incident.
Choose Instatus when
- You mainly need a public status page with basic monitors: Instatus Pro is $20 a month.
- You want a free plan: Instatus Starter has a public page with 200 subscribers and 15 monitors.
- You need 5,000 subscribers on a small plan.
Spectate vs Instatus, feature by feature
Instatus pricing: Instatus has a free Starter plan. Pro is $20 a month ($15 billed yearly) with 50 monitors and 5,000 subscribers, or $50 ($37.50) with private pages; Business is $300 a month ($225 billed yearly) with phone calls and SAML SSO (checked October 2026).
| Feature | Spectate | Instatus |
|---|---|---|
| Monitoring | ||
| Built-in uptime monitors | Yes | Yes |
| Shortest check interval | 30sTeam and Business; 60s on Starter | 30sPro and Business; 2m on Starter |
| Server monitoring agent | Yes | No |
| Failure screenshotsInstatus keeps logs and screenshots from its monitors. | Yes | Partly |
| Alerting and on-call | ||
| On-call | Unlimited on Team | 20 on-call members on Pro |
| Escalation paths with branches | Yes | Partly |
| Phone calls | Yes | Business |
| Alerts from Grafana, Prometheus and Sentry | Yes | Partly |
| Incidents | ||
| Incidents with roles and postmortemsPostmortems on every Instatus plan; incident roles aren't listed. | Yes | Partly |
| Status pages | ||
| Custom domain | Yes | From Pro |
| Private status pages | Team and Business | Private Pro ($50) and Business |
| Subscribers | 250, 2,500 or 25,000 | 200, 5,000 or 25,000 |
| Status page languages | 6 | From Pro |
| Pricing | ||
| Price for 50 monitors and 5 responders | €48 a monthTeam: 50 monitors is under the 80-monitor minimum, so 80 × €0.60 = €48 a month (€480 a year). Unlimited members, so 5 or 50 responders cost the same. | $20 a monthPro: 50 monitors, 50 team members, 20 on-call members; $15 a month billed yearly. No phone calls or private pages. |
| Price with private pages and phone calls | €48 a monthTeam | $300 a monthBusiness; $225 billed yearly |
| Per-user pricing | No | No |
| Free plan | No | Yes |
| Billing currency | EUR | USD |
| Data and compliance | ||
| Headquarters | Netherlands | United States |
| Invoiced from the EU, in euros | Yes | No |
Checked in Oct 2026 from Instatus's public pages (instatus.com/pricing). Prices change: if something here is out of date, tell us at hello@spectate.net and we'll fix it.
Moving from Instatus
Most teams run both side by side for a week. Email help@spectate.net if you'd like a hand.
- 01Start a 14-day trial; no card needed.
- 02Create your status page and components, and recreate your monitors. There is no importer; help@spectate.net can help with larger setups.
- 03Set up on-call and an escalation path, and connect Slack, email and phone numbers.
- 04Point your status page domain at Spectate with one DNS record, then switch off the old page.
Spectate and Instatus
Is Spectate cheaper than Instatus?
Not for a basic public page: Instatus Pro is $20 a month and Spectate starts at €15, or €48 for Team. A private page costs about the same: $50 a month on Instatus Private Pro, €48 on Spectate Team. Once you need phone calls too, Spectate Team is far below Instatus Business at $300.
Can I import my status page from Instatus?
There is no importer. Components, monitors and settings take a few minutes to recreate, and help@spectate.net can help. Past incidents don't come along.
Does Spectate have a free plan like Instatus?
No. Spectate has a 14-day trial without a card, then plans from €15 a month for 20 monitors with one status page.
What can Spectate monitor?
Websites and APIs over HTTP(S) with keyword checks, ping, TCP ports, DNS records with alerts when answers change, SMTP, IMAP and POP3 servers, TLS certificate chains, domain expiry through RDAP and WHOIS, and servers through an open-source agent.
Other tools teams switch from
Try Spectate next to Instatus.
Set up your first monitor in under a minute. 14 days free, no credit card.