Frequently asked questions

How do checks work?

StatusOwl runs monitoring agents distributed across multiple geographic regions. At each check interval, every region assigned to a monitor runs the check independently and writes its result back to a time-series store. The dashboard shows the per-region timeline so you can see exactly where a failure happened — see Multi-region checks for the full breakdown.

How does StatusOwl avoid false positives?

Auto-incidents open after 3 consecutive down results on a monitor (across all assigned regions, in arrival order). A single transient blip from one region won't open an incident — by the time the third in-a-row fails, you're looking at a real, sustained problem.

This is a consecutive-failure threshold, not a regional vote. If you want strict regional consensus before paging, use a custom webhook integration and apply your own logic downstream.

For status-page consumers, you can also opt-in to auto-creating a public incident on the same 3-strike threshold — see Incidents for the per-page toggle.

How long is monitoring data retained?

Retention is per plan and is configured on the plan itself (data_retention_days). The current allotments are shown on the pricing page. Time-series data older than the plan's retention window is removed automatically; status, incidents, and audit logs follow the same window.

Which alert channels do you support?

All plans include email alerts. The full set — Email, Discord, Slack, Microsoft Teams, ntfy, and custom Webhooks — is documented in the integrations overview. Channel availability per plan is on the pricing page.

Can I monitor my own servers?

Yes. Watch Owl is a small Linux agent that reports CPU, memory, disk, and network metrics from your hosts back to StatusOwl, with a server-side rule engine for threshold alerts. Dockman does the same for Docker containers. See Watch Owl overview and Dockman.

Do you have a public API?

Yes — a read-only REST API is live at https://api.statusowl.net/v1. Start at API authentication. API access is on Team and above.

Can I cancel at any time?

Yes. Open Account → Billing and click Manage subscription to launch the Stripe customer portal, where you can cancel, change plans, or update your payment method. Cancellation is immediate; you'll keep access through the end of the current period — see Billing for the full flow.