# SLOs for small apps

> You don't need a reliability team to use SLOs. Two indicators and one honest target are enough to start.

URL: https://pagerless.dev/guides/slos-for-small-apps
Updated: 2026-10-22

1. **Pick what users feel** Share of requests that succeed, and share of checkouts that succeed.
2. **Pick a realistic target** 99.5% or 99.9% over 30 days. Each extra nine costs far more than the one before.
3. **Know your budget** 99.9% over 30 days allows about 43 minutes of failure. Use the [uptime calculator](https://pagerless.dev/tools/uptime-calculator).
4. **Use it** Budget left: ship. Budget gone: slow down and fix reliability first.

The Google SRE book notes that users on an imperfect phone network often can't tell 99.99% from 99.999%.

Sources:
1. [Google SRE book, ch. 4: Service Level Objectives](https://sre.google/sre-book/service-level-objectives/)
2. [Google SRE book, ch. 3: Embracing Risk](https://sre.google/sre-book/embracing-risk/)