# Get started with Instatus

Source: https://instatus.com/help/index

***Get ready for downtime.*** Instatus helps you monitor your services, fix incidents with your team, and share your status with customers.

- **Monitoring**: Be the first to know when there's an outage! Set up alerts, and take actions quickly to avoid downtime.
- **Incident response**: Fix incidents with your team! Set up on-call schedules to notify the right person. Manage incidents from our dashboard, Slack and more!
- **Status pages**: Create one place for your customers to check your current status and subscribe to updates. Be proactive and build trust.

![Status page created](https://instatus.com/help/get-started.png)

Here's the whole setup, start to finish. Each step is broken out below.

[Watch the video](https://instatus.com/help/get-started/tour.mp4)

## Sign up to Instatus

Go to [Instatus](https://instatus.com/signup) and click **Sign up**. 

Add your email address, and you'll get a magic link to verify your account.

You can also sign up with Google.

![Sign up](https://instatus.com/help/get-started/signup.png)

Then you'll add your name and the products you're interested in. We support:

- Uptime monitoring
- Incident response
- Status page

![Let's get to know you](https://instatus.com/help/get-started/1.png)

## 1. Add your first monitor

Choose a monitor type, and add your website. Let's put [orbitid.com](https://orbitid.com) as an example.

![Add your first monitor](https://instatus.com/help/get-started/2.png)

Then, **run** the monitor to check if it's successful. If everything is working, you'll get a screen to show you that the monitor is ready to go!

![Monitor is ready to go](https://instatus.com/help/get-started/3.png)

Click **Add monitor** and it joins your list.

![Monitor added](https://instatus.com/help/get-started/4.png)

## 2. Add a test incident

Next, let's add a test incident. You can add a **title**, **description**, select **affected components**, and then click **Add test incident**!

![Create an incident](https://instatus.com/help/get-started/5.png)

Let's say you were able to resolve the issue, you can **resolve** the incident by adding a new update.

![Resolve the incident](https://instatus.com/help/get-started/6.png)

## 3. Set up your status page

Now you can enter your status page **name** and **subdomain**.

![Setup your status page](https://instatus.com/help/get-started/7.png)

Upload your **logo** and **favicon**. Then choose your **brand** and **operational** colors.

![Customize your page](https://instatus.com/help/get-started/8.png)

## 3, 2, 1 liftoff!

Congratulations! You're now ready to use Instatus. 

You'll now be able to monitor different services, respond to incidents with your team and, communicate your status with your customers.

![3, 2, 1 liftoff](https://instatus.com/help/get-started/9.png)

You're all set with your Instatus account! 🧑‍🚀

**Jump into a guide:**

- [Uptime monitoring](https://instatus.com/help/monitoring)
- [Incident response](https://instatus.com/help/incident-response)
- [Status pages](https://instatus.com/help/status-page)