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Free Uptime Monitor with Slack Integration: 2025 Incident Playbook

5 min read•
Morten PradsgaardBy Morten Pradsgaard

Wire Exit1.dev's free uptime monitor to Slack and make outages impossible to ignore.

Free Uptime Monitor with Slack Integration: Ship Alerts Your Team Actually Sees

Slack is where the real work chatter happens. If you still expect engineers to babysit inboxes, you deserve the downtime surprises you keep getting. Wire Exit1.dev’s free uptime monitor into Slack and you’ll stop guessing who saw the alert—because everyone will. Still need inbox records or community broadcasts? Pair this setup with the email alert workflow and the Discord integration so every stakeholder sees the hit.

Slack Beats Pager Spam. Here’s Why.

  • Visibility you can’t ignore: Alerts drop into the same channels where code reviews and deployment debates already live. No more “missed the email” excuses.
  • Context in one place: Threads keep the timeline, runbooks, and status updates glued to the original alert. If you need long-form archives, mirror the final summary using the email discipline playbook.
  • Automation ready to fire: Slack workflows, bot users, and custom reactions trigger the next move without touching a dashboard.

Exit1.dev ships Slack webhooks on the free tier. No upsell. No nickel-and-diming. Plug it in and get on with building.

Set Up Exit1.dev → Slack in Five Minutes

  1. Create a Slack incoming webhook
    • Head to Slack’s Incoming Webhooks page and add a new app to your workspace.
    • Pick the channel where you want truth to land: #incidents, #platform-oncall, whatever cuts through the noise.
  2. Copy the webhook URL
    • Slack hands you a long HTTPS URL. Treat it like a token; anyone holding it can post as you.
  3. Drop it into Exit1.dev
    • Edit your monitor, open Notifications, choose Slack webhook, and paste the URL.
    • Decide which events matter: downtime, recovery, SSL expiry, performance regression. Keep the list tight.
  4. Punch the test button
    • Fire a test alert or toggle maintenance mode to simulate downtime. If the message doesn’t hit Slack, fix it now—not at 2 a.m.

That’s the setup. No scripts. No Lambda detours. Just working alerts.

Architect Your Channels Like You Mean It

  • Dedicated incident channel: A public #incidents channel keeps everyone honest. Hide nothing; you’ll move faster.
  • Focused product streams: Multiple apps? Split channels like #checkout-uptime or #api-monitoring so owners stay accountable.
  • Stakeholder digest: Pipe resolved alerts to a read-only #status-feed for support and exec updates. They get signal without hijacking the incident room.

Use Slack permissions. Stop random chatter from burying the messages that matter.

Automate the Next Move

  • Threads or it didn’t happen: Spin up a thread for every alert. Drop runbooks, timelines, screenshots—build the postmortem as you fight the fire.
  • Emoji routing: Make :eyes: assign the incident commander. Let :rotating_light: trigger escalation workflows. Human intent, automated follow-through.
  • Slash command shortcuts: Wire /pagerduty, /statuspage, or custom commands to update external tools without leaving Slack.
  • Reminder discipline: Schedule reminders on open threads. Stale incidents are a choice.

Steal This Slack Alert Template

:rotating_light: *Production API DOWN*
Service: api.exit1.dev
Regions: US-East, EU-West, APAC
Error rate: 65% (threshold 5%)
Detected: 2025-01-14 09:43 UTC
Runbook: https://runbooks.exit1.dev/api-outage

Tweak the copy so it screams severity. Add owner tags or runbook links. If someone has to guess what to do next, you failed.

Keep Signal High, Noise Low

  • Short polling for critical paths: Mission-critical APIs deserve 30-second checks. Brochure sites can chill at 60 seconds.
  • Confirmation probes: Require two regions to agree before firing. False positives destroy trust faster than downtime.
  • Segment by severity: Performance warnings go to a quieter channel. Hard downtime hits the main incident room.
  • Review weekly: Audit alert accuracy in ops reviews. Slack isn’t a landfill; take out the trash.

Spread the Visibility

  • Customer success: Mirror high-severity alerts into their channel so they can call customers before Twitter does.
  • Sales: Give reps a read-only feed. Nothing kills a renewal like “let me check with engineering.”
  • Leadership: Send automated digests summarizing uptime and incidents. Facts beat status theater.

When You Actually Need Paid Tools

Exit1.dev’s free plan handles unlimited monitors, global probes, Slack webhooks, and status pages. Pay up only if you need:

  • Complex on-call rotations with SMS/phone escalation.
  • Compliance evidence beyond Slack’s retention limits.
  • Full observability stacks—traces, logs, the works.

Until then, keep your cash and run with the free stack.

Do the Work Now

  1. Create your free Exit1.dev account.
  2. Paste the Slack webhook into your monitor.
  3. Fire a test, document the workflow, and make the team practice once.

That’s the whole playbook. Free uptime monitoring plus Slack alerts means incidents stop slipping through the cracks, and you stay focused on shipping real features.

Morten Pradsgaard is the founder of exit1.dev — the free uptime monitor for people who actually ship. He writes no-bullshit guides on monitoring, reliability, and building software that doesn't crumble under pressure.