Updated 2026-06-22
Status supports two kinds of alert channel — email and webhook — and either can be attached to any number of checks.
Email channels
An email channel is a single address. Before it can receive alerts, it must be verified with a 6-digit code sent to that address — this stops the channel from being used to spam an address that doesn't belong to you. Your plan sets how many email channels you can create.
Webhook channels
A webhook channel posts to a URL you control, with a fully customizable payload. See Customizing webhook payloads and security for the payload template engine, signing, and delivery details. Your plan sets how many webhook channels you can create.
Attaching channels to checks
A channel isn't useful until it's attached to at least one check. Each check can have multiple channels attached (up to a plan-dependent limit), and an account-level default policy can auto-attach your usual channels to every new check so you don't have to wire it up by hand each time.
A check with no channels attached still records incidents in its history — the dashboard just shows a warning that no alerts are configured for it.
When alerts don't go out immediately
If your account has sent a lot of alert emails within the last hour, further individual emails are folded into a single digest for the rest of that hour instead of flooding your inbox, then a summary email goes out once the window rolls over. Webhooks are not subject to this — a webhook channel is the right choice if you need every event delivered individually at volume.
When a channel stops firing
If a webhook channel fails 10 delivery attempts in a row, Status disables it automatically, emails the account owner, and logs the event — this protects your systems from a broken receiver silently swallowing every alert. The dashboard shows the disabled state along with the last error, and re-enabling it is one click. See Why didn't I get paged? if you think this may have happened to you.