How to show clients their website uptime
The simplest way to show clients their website uptime is to monitor their sites and share a status page for each client: one link that shows the current status, daily uptime and past incidents, with no login. A monthly report, alert forwarding or a client portal can work too.
Start with what to monitor
Whatever you show the client, it's only as good as the checks behind it. Monitor the pages that matter most to the client: the home page and key pages like contact, booking or checkout. A basic HTTP(S) check confirms the page returns the expected status code. A keyword check goes further by confirming the page contains (or doesn't contain) a word you choose, which catches a page that loads but shows an error.
Five ways to show clients their uptime
1. A monthly uptime report
Send a short summary each month, by email or as part of a care-plan report: was the site up, what went wrong, and what you did about it.
- Good for: care and maintenance plans, where the client wants to see the work.
- Trade-offs: it takes time to write each month, and between reports the client has nothing to check.
2. Forwarding alerts to the client
Add the client to your monitoring alerts, so they hear about problems as you do.
- Good for: technical clients who want to know about every problem.
- Trade-offs: raw alerts can be noisy and alarming, and the client may contact you about a problem you're already fixing.
3. A shared status page for each client
Publish a public status page for each client and send them the link once. They can bookmark it and check it any time.
- Good for: freelancers and agencies who want clients to check for themselves. It stays current on its own and needs no login.
- Trade-offs: it's one more thing to set up for each client, and it shows the bad days as well as the good ones, so it works best with a short note from you when something goes wrong.
4. A client portal or dashboard login
Give the client a login to a portal or monitoring dashboard where they can see their sites.
- Good for: agencies that already run a client portal for other work.
- Trade-offs: clients may not log in often, you have logins to manage, and a monitoring dashboard is often more detail than a client wants.
5. Answering when they ask
Check your monitoring tool when the client asks, and send a screenshot or a quick reply.
- Good for: a single client with a simple site.
- Trade-offs: it's reactive, it's hard to answer "how has the site been this month?", and a screenshot of a tool doesn't look like part of your service.
Options 1 and 3 also work well together: the status page keeps the record, and the monthly report links to it with a short summary.
What a client-facing uptime page should show
- The current status of the site and each service you monitor.
- Uptime history for each service, so the client can see how the site has been doing.
- Incident history, so the client can see what happened and when it was resolved.
- Your client's logo and brand colour, if you can, so the page feels like part of your service (paid plans in Greenbar).
How it works in Greenbar
Greenbar is one way to do option 3. It's built for freelancers and small agencies that look after client sites.
- Add monitors. Add a client and paste their URLs. Greenbar starts checking them when you add them, with HTTP(S) checks on the status code and optional keyword checks. Paid plans include 1-minute checks and Free includes 5-minute checks.
- Create the client's status page. Each client gets a public page at a usegreenbar.com address, like yourclient.usegreenbar.com. It shows their services, the current status, daily uptime bars for each service and the incident history. Check history covers 90 days on paid plans and 7 days on Free. On paid plans, you can add the client's logo and brand colour, and hide the "Powered by Greenbar" line. On Free, the page shows a small "Powered by Greenbar" line.
- Share the link. Send the link to your client once. When something breaks, Greenbar opens an incident on its own, you get the alert, and the page updates. Email alerts come on every plan. Slack and signed webhook alerts come on paid plans.
See a sample client status page on the live demo.
What it costs
- Free: $0. 1 client status page, 5 monitors, 5-minute checks, email alerts and 7-day check history. Shows "Powered by Greenbar".
- Freelancer: $15/month or $150/year. 10 client status pages, 50 monitors, 1-minute checks, email, Slack and signed webhook alerts, and 90-day check history. Client logo and brand colour, and the option to hide "Powered by Greenbar".
- Agency: $35/month or $350/year. 30 client status pages, 150 monitors and the same paid features, plus up to 3 logins.
Prices are in USD and exclude applicable taxes. New accounts start with $100 in free credit, no card needed. See pricing for the full details.
More on setting this up: Greenbar for agencies and Greenbar for freelancers.
FAQ
What's the easiest way to show a client their website uptime?
Share a status page for that client. It shows the current status, uptime history and past incidents at one link, and it stays up to date on its own.
Do clients need a login to see their uptime?
No. A Greenbar status page is public at a usegreenbar.com address, like yourclient.usegreenbar.com, so you just share the link.
What should I monitor on a client's website?
The pages that matter most to the client, such as the home page and key contact, booking or checkout pages. Add a keyword check to catch a page that loads but shows an error.
Can the status page show my client's logo and brand colour?
Yes, on paid plans. On Freelancer and Agency, each client's page can show the client's logo and brand colour, and you can hide the "Powered by Greenbar" line. On Free, the page shows a small "Powered by Greenbar" line.
How much check history do I get, and how often are sites checked?
Check history covers 90 days on paid plans and 7 days on Free. Paid plans include 1-minute checks and Free includes 5-minute checks.