Subscribers and notifications
Your status page is only as useful as the people who see it. Notifications are what close the gap. Real-time, multi-channel updates are how you turn a status page into a proactive communication tool that keeps your customers informed.
Sorry™ and Atlassian Statuspage handle subscriber notifications differently. Sorry™ anchors everything to a single subscriber profile tied to an email address. Statuspage treats each notification channel (email, SMS, Slack) as its own independent subscription. Depending on how you manage subscribers and at what scale, that distinction matters.
This guide breaks down how each product handles notification channels, subscriber management, and the overall subscriber experience to help you decide which approach is right for your stakeholders and team.
The importance of status page notifications
A status page without notifications puts the burden on your customers to check it. Notifications flip that dynamic. They push updates out the moment you update the status page, reducing inbound support volume and keeping users informed without requiring them to do anything.
When evaluating notifications and subscription management capabilities, a few variables matter: which channels are available, how much control subscribers have over their own preferences, and how well the system scales as your subscriber base grows.
Functionality comparison
Here's a breakdown of subscribers and notifications across both products.
| Feature | Sorry™ | Atlassian Statuspage |
|---|---|---|
| Email notifications | ||
| SMS | (Twilio or Nexmo) | (Built-in, country restrictions apply) |
| Slack | ||
| Microsoft Teams | ||
| Google Chat | ||
| Webhook subscriptions | (Business+ only) | |
| RSS/Atom feed | ||
| Status API | (With request builder) | (No request builder) |
| Unified subscriber profile | ||
| Magic link authentication | ||
| Cross-channel subscriber visibility | ||
| Bring your own email provider | ||
| Bring your own SMS provider | ||
| Component-level targeting | (Always included) | (Business+ only) |
| Collection subscription management | N/A | |
| CSV subscriber import |
Feature setup and availability
Both tools support core notification channels such as SMS, Email, Slack, and Teams, but availability and configuration vary by plan.
Sorry™ enables email, Slack, Google Chat, and Teams out of the box, but they can be toggled on/off per page. Component-level subscriptions — allowing subscribers to choose which services they're notified about — are included on all plans.
Statuspage locks some of its more advanced notification features behind higher-tier plans. Component subscriptions and webhooks, for example, require a Business plan or above.
If component-level notifications are important to you without paying a premium, that's worth factoring into your evaluation.
The admin experience: managing subscribers and notifications
Here's how each product handles notification, subscriber visibility, and channel management from the admin side.
Managing subscribers and notifications in Sorry™
Sorry™ anchors everything to a single subscriber profile tied to the subscriber's email address. From the admin UI, you can see each subscriber's active channels (email, SMS, Slack, Teams, Google Chat), all associated with one identity. You can also see what components each user is subscribed to. That visibility makes it easier to understand who's subscribed and how, without piecing it together across separate lists.
Team members are auto-subscribed and don't count toward your subscriber limit. For email delivery, Sorry™ offers Email by Sorry™, powered by Postmark. This is enabled by default, but you can also configure your own Mailgun or Sendgrid account. Sorry™ includes SMS on Enterprise accounts with more control over country coverage and sender reputation. Lower tiers require a Twilio or Nexmo account to power SMS notifications.
For teams using Collections, the profile extends across all pages. One subscriber profile covers all the pages and components within a Collection, so subscribers don't need to manage separate subscriptions for each page.
Managing subscribers and notifications in Statuspage
Statuspage doesn't have a unified subscriber profile. Each notification channel (email, SMS, Slack) is its own independent subscription, with no way to link them to a single identity. From an admin perspective, that means no cross-channel view of an individual subscriber.
Statuspage also supports webhooks and RSS/Atom feeds, which Sorry™ doesn't offer natively. If your team relies on either for custom integrations or internal tooling, that's a real differentiator worth weighing.
Custom email providers are not supported. You're limited to using Statuspage's delivery infrastructure regardless of plan.
The subscriber experience: subscribing and managing preferences
Here's what it looks like to subscribe, manage preferences, and receive notifications as an end user in each product.
The subscriber experience in Sorry™
Subscribing on Sorry™ follows a straightforward flow: enter your email, confirm it, then choose which channels and components you want notifications for. For Collections, there’s an additional step of choosing the page you’re subscribing to. From there, everything is managed from one profile.
Sorry™ notification emails include "magic links" that log subscribers in automatically — no password required. Slack DMs work the same way. Subscribers also only see the components they're actually subscribed to in their notifications, which keeps things clean and relevant.
For teams using Collections, the profile extends across all pages within that Collection. Subscribers manage everything — channels, components, multiple pages — from a single place, without needing to navigate to each status page individually.
The subscriber experience in Atlassian Statuspage
Statuspage works on a per-page, per-channel basis. Subscribing to email notifications is a separate action from subscribing to SMS or Slack. Each notification channel is an independent subscription. There is no login or profile concept, which means you need to return to the page itself to manage preferences.
For subscribers monitoring a single service on one channel, this is perfectly functional. It becomes more cumbersome if they're tracking multiple services or want to manage preferences across channels.
Webhooks, RSS, and APIs
This is an area where Statuspage shines. Webhooks and RSS/Atom feeds are supported natively, making it straightforward to pipe status updates into external systems or internal tooling without custom development.
Sorry™ doesn't offer webhooks or RSS. However, the Status API includes a built-in request builder, which gives developers flexibility for custom integrations. Both products have a public status API that anyone can access.
The Sorry™ approach to notifications
The decision to anchor everything to an email address was intentional. It gives admins a clear view of who's subscribed and how. It gives subscribers a simpler experience across channels, and creates a foundation that scales naturally into status page Collections. The option to bring your own email provider gives enterprise customers more control over delivery and data residency.
No webhooks or RSS will be a dealbreaker for some teams. If those are requirements, Statuspage's built-in support for both might be worth it, even at the premium cost.
The right choice comes down to what your team prioritizes: channel flexibility and a simpler subscriber experience, or broader native integration support.
Additional resources
See Sorry™ notifications in action
The best way to understand how Sorry™ handles subscriptions is to try it. Reach out to schedule a demo, or start a free trial and set up your first status page in minutes.