Quick answer
Instatus - Instatus wins for most builders because its free tier is much more usable for an actual status page and small incident workflow, while IncidentHub is better only if you mainly need third-party monitoring plus Slack or Discord alerts.
How the free tiers compare
These two free tiers aim at the same broad problem, but they start from different places. IncidentHub’s free plan is a narrow monitoring starter: 5 monitors and Slack or Discord alerts, with the status-page and incident features mostly reserved for paid plans. Instatus gives you a fuller free operating surface: 15 monitors, 2-minute checks, email alerts, a public status page, 5 team members, 2 on-call members, and 200 subscribers. That makes Instatus easier to use as the actual home for a small team’s status updates and lightweight incident coordination. IncidentHub’s upside is its clean path into third-party vendor monitoring and private status ingestion at lower paid entry, but the free tier itself is much more limited. If you want a free tier that can support real internal and customer-facing use, Instatus is the stronger default.
IncidentHub vs Instatus free tier, side by side
| IncidentHubFTV 47 | InstatusFTV 51 | |
|---|---|---|
| Free monitorsInstatus gives 3x as many monitors on the free plan. | 5 | 15 |
| Alert channels in free tierIncidentHub limits free alerts to chat channels; Instatus uses email alerts. | Slack and Discord | |
| Status page in free tierInstatus includes a public status page; IncidentHub does not list one in free. | Not listed | Public status page |
| Team members in free tierOnly Instatus states a team-member limit in the free tier. | Not listed | Up to 5 |
| On-call members in free tierOnly Instatus states on-call limits in the free tier. | Not listed | Up to 2 |
| Subscribers in free tierOnly Instatus includes subscriber capacity on free. | Not listed | Up to 200 |
| Checks cadence in free tierInstatus specifies the monitoring interval; IncidentHub does not. | Not listed | 2-minute checks |
| Credit card required for free tierBoth inputs explicitly say no credit card is required. | No | No |
After you outgrow the free tier
IncidentHub uses simple flat monthly pricing, starting at $35/month for Starter, then $60/month, $75/month, and $90/month as monitor and team capacity rise. Instatus shows a free forever Starter plan, but the paid prices are not provided in the input for Pro, Business, or Enterprise, so the dollar step-up is unclear from this data. Based on what is available, IncidentHub is the more transparent paid path, while Instatus is the stronger free plan but with unspecified paid cost. For small teams staying free, Instatus is cheaper in cash terms because it stays free; once you need a defined paid budget, IncidentHub gives you a clear floor.
Cost at real usage
| Usage | IncidentHub | Instatus |
|---|---|---|
| 5 monitors, Slack or Discord alertsIncidentHub fits exactly at the free limit; Instatus can also handle this within free capacity. | Free (within tier) | Free (within tier) |
| 15 monitors, public status page, email alertsIncidentHub free does not list a public status page or email alerts. | Not supported in free; paid plan needed | Free (within tier) |
| 50 monitors, one public status pageIncidentHub Starter includes 50 monitors and 1 status page. | $35/mo | Paid plan needed, price not provided |
| 100 monitorsIncidentHub Pro covers 100 monitors; Instatus Business covers 1,000 monitors but no price is provided. | $60/mo | Paid plan needed, price not provided |
Estimates, not quotes. Usage-based rates change - verify with the vendor's pricing page before committing.
When to pick each one
Pick IncidentHub when…
- You only need to watch a few external services and get outage pings in Slack or Discord.
- You are testing a vendor-monitoring workflow before committing to a paid plan.
- You care more about third-party status ingestion than running a full public status page on day one.
- You expect to upgrade quickly and want a low-cost paid entry at $35/month for 50 monitors.
Pick Instatus when…
- You want a usable free status page for customers right away.
- You need email alerts, not just Slack or Discord, in the free tier.
- You have a small team that needs multiple members and on-call roles without paying yet.
- You want more monitors and more operational room before hitting the paid wall.
- You are experimenting with incident coordination as well as uptime monitoring.
Bottom line
For the most common builder use case, Instatus is the better free-tier pick because it gives you more monitors, a public status page, email alerts, and small-team controls before you pay. IncidentHub is the better choice only if your main job is watching a handful of external services and routing outages into Slack or Discord. If you want a free plan that can actually serve as a lightweight status and incident tool, Instatus has the clearer edge.
Read the full listings: IncidentHub and Instatus. Scores use the FTV methodology at /ftv. Browse more head-to-heads on /compare, or see the top-ranked free tiers on /top.