status.yourcompany.com, with a certificate you never have to think about.
A status page on someone else's domain is the moment a customer starts wondering whether the outage notice is even real. Put it on yours. Certificates issue and renew automatically, and it is on every plan — including Free.
Point a CNAME at us and the page is yours.
Everything else in the flow exists to prove ownership and get a certificate issued. This is the record that actually carries traffic, and it stays put.
Your page keeps its statusowl.app address as well, so links you have already shared keep resolving while DNS propagates.
| Type | Name | Value |
|---|---|---|
| CNAME | status.acme.com | status-pages.statusowl.app |
The target is status-pages.statusowl.app. If you have seen a different value published anywhere, it is out of date — the dashboard always shows the current one for your hostname.
Three stages, and each one deletes its own instructions.
Most DNS setup screens hand you every record at once and leave them on screen forever, so you can never tell what is still outstanding. StatusOwl shows you the stage you are on. When it verifies, it goes away.
A one-off TXT record proves the hostname is yours before anything is pointed at us. Once it resolves, the record has done its job and the instruction disappears.
| Type | Name | Value |
|---|---|---|
| TXT | _cf-custom-hostname.status.acme.com | 9b6c1f2e-4a77-4c31-9f0d-2b8e5a41d7c3 |
The CNAME is what actually routes visitors to your page. It stays in place for as long as the domain is in use.
| Type | Name | Value |
|---|---|---|
| CNAME | status.acme.com | status-pages.statusowl.app |
The ACME challenge record is what the certificate authority reads before issuing. It is only needed while the certificate is being issued, so it clears itself too.
| Type | Name | Value |
|---|---|---|
| TXT | _acme-challenge.status.acme.com | 0J1kQe6VbLpqR3xN7tYc4mA8sZfH2dWu5gEoP1nB |
The dashboard shows each record name in full, exactly as Cloudflare returns it — for example _acme-challenge.status.acme.com. If your DNS provider expects a name relative to your zone, drop the trailing zone before pasting. Every value has a copy button, because a mistyped validation token is the single most common reason a certificate never issues.
The screen updates itself every ten seconds.
You do not refresh, and you do not guess. StatusOwl re-reads the hostname state and the certificate state every 10 seconds while setup is in progress, so the moment your DNS provider catches up, the page moves on.
Hostname and certificate polled separately
They fail for different reasons. A hostname can be active while the certificate is still pending validation, and the screen says exactly that rather than one vague spinner.
Renewal is automatic
Once issued, the certificate renews without you doing anything. There is no expiry to diarise and nothing to install on your side, because the certificate does not live on your infrastructure.
Removal tears it down
Remove the domain and StatusOwl deletes the custom hostname at the edge; the certificate goes with it. Your page keeps working on its statusowl.app address and you can drop the DNS records.
- Hostname
- active
- Certificate
- pending_validation
- Poll interval
- 10 s
- Last checked
- 3 s ago
caa_error: issuance for "status.acme.com" is forbidden by a CAA record on acme.com
That is the message the certificate authority returned, passed through without rewording. A generic “verification failed” would have cost you an afternoon; this one tells you the fix is a CAA record on the parent zone.
Custom domains are on every plan, including Free.
Most of this category treats your own domain as the first upgrade lever. We think a status page on a subdomain you do not own is a worse product, not a cheaper one.
status.yourcompany.com. Certificates issue and renew with nothing to install.
Acme Status
OperationalUptime · 30 days
Where the custom domain stops.
It changes the address and the certificate. It does not change who can read the page.
Putting an internal page on status.internal.yourcompany.com does not put a login in front of it. Private pages today return a 404 to anyone without the link — there is no password and no SSO gate. That is on the roadmap, and until it ships you should treat an unlisted URL as unlisted, not as secret.
Propagation is your provider’s clock
StatusOwl polls every 10 seconds, but it can only see what resolvers have. If your provider caches aggressively, verification waits. The screen keeps telling you which stage is outstanding rather than timing out and making you start again.
One hostname per page
Each status page carries its own custom domain. If you run several pages — one per product, per region or per customer — each one gets its own hostname and its own certificate. How multiple pages work.
Your domain. Your certificate. Nothing to renew.
Add the CNAME, watch the stages clear themselves, and hand your customers a link on your own domain. Free forever on one page.