# How to Get Started with IsDown

Set up IsDown in just a few minutes. Follow these steps to start monitoring your services and receiving real-time alerts.

1.  **Add Services to Your Dashboard**

* Select the [services](/cloud-monitoring/how-to-monitor-3rd-party-services.md) you want to monitor. 

<figure><img src="/files/a7S6kufpMCVJYUyWo0X1" alt="" width="563"><figcaption></figcaption></figure>

2. **Set Up Notifications**

* By default, you’ll receive outage alerts via **email**.
* Customize notifications in the [**Alerts & Integrations**](https://isdown.app/p/notifications) section to receive alerts via **Slack, Microsoft Teams, PagerDuty, Datadog**, and more.

<figure><img src="/files/35JCBUZXvmpCydn2hCiy" alt="" width="563"><figcaption></figcaption></figure>

3. **Customize Alerts**

* Tailor notifications by:

  **Components** – Get alerts only for specific service components.

  **Severity** – Choose to receive only **major outage** alerts.

<figure><img src="/files/0AxdYyXo1xLPUm6vuVjO" alt="" width="563"><figcaption></figcaption></figure>

4. **Create a Status Page**

* Want to share the dashboard with your team or clients?
* Go to the **Status Page** section in the sidebar and follow the setup steps.

<figure><img src="/files/s4gMr5qkqdDfK33YK1eV" alt="" width="563"><figcaption></figcaption></figure>

***

**Related Articles**

* [**How to Add a Team Member**](https://help.isdown.app/accounts/how-to-add-a-team-member)
* [**Start Monitoring a 3rd-Party Service**](https://help.isdown.app/cloud-monitoring/start-monitoring-a-3rd-party-service)
* [**Enable Subscribers on Your Status Page**](https://help.isdown.app/status-page/enable-subscribers)​


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