Best PagerDuty Alternatives for On‑Call Teams: Speed & Cost

PagerDuty was a foundational tool in establishing the incident management and on-call alerting space. As a long-standing market leader, it has set the standard for many organizations. However, the landscape is evolving. Many on-call teams are now exploring PagerDuty alternatives due to factors like rising costs, platform complexity, and a growing demand for more integrated solutions that cover the entire incident lifecycle [1].

This article compares some of the best PagerDuty alternatives, focusing on criteria crucial for modern engineering teams: speed, cost, and overall value. We'll explore why teams are making a switch and what to look for in the best oncall software for teams.

Why Teams Are Looking for PagerDuty Alternatives

Choosing the best incident management platform is a critical decision for any SaaS company or enterprise. While PagerDuty is powerful, several key drivers are pushing users to evaluate other options.

1. High and Complex Pricing Models

Cost is a significant factor driving teams to seek alternatives. PagerDuty's pricing can become prohibitive, especially as teams grow [2]. Its plans often gate essential features behind higher tiers, forcing organizations to upgrade. For example, the basic plan, which starts at $21 per user per month, lacks many features teams consider standard, pushing them toward more expensive options [5]. This pricing structure makes it difficult for organizations to scale their incident management practices without incurring substantial costs.

2. Need for an Integrated, All-in-One Platform

Modern incident management extends far beyond simple on-call alerting. Teams today want a single, unified platform that manages the entire incident lifecycle, from detection and response to resolution and learning. The trend is moving away from a fragmented toolkit where alerting, communication, retrospectives, and analytics are handled by separate, siloed applications. A complete platform like Rootly streamlines the entire process, providing a central hub for all incident-related activities.

3. Complexity and Feature Gaps

While some organizations find PagerDuty overly complex for their specific needs, others find it lacks the flexibility and modern automation capabilities they require [4]. Teams want to move past manual, repetitive tasks and embrace automated workflows that reduce cognitive load and accelerate resolution. This gap has created an opportunity for more modern tools that prioritize automation and ease of use.

Top Incident Management Tools: A Comparison of PagerDuty Alternatives

For top incident management tools for saas companies, the choice often comes down to finding the right balance of features, usability, and cost. Below is a comparison of leading alternatives.

1. Rootly: The Best All-in-One Incident Management Platform

Rootly stands out as a leading PagerDuty alternative by offering a comprehensive, all-in-one incident management platform that seamlessly integrates on-call scheduling and alerting with end-to-end incident response.

• On-Call & Alerting: Rootly provides robust on-call management features, including flexible schedules, multi-level escalation policies, and reliable notifications across Slack, SMS, and voice. Teams can get started quickly to configure schedules and ensure the right person is always notified.
• Workflow Automation: The platform's key differentiator is its powerful, no-code workflow engine. This allows teams to automate dozens of manual tasks, such as creating dedicated Slack channels, paging responders, updating status pages, and generating Jira tickets. These automated incident workflows are the backbone of a fast and consistent response.
• Cost-Effectiveness: By combining on-call management, incident response, retrospectives, and analytics into a single package, Rootly delivers a superior total cost of ownership compared to juggling multiple point solutions.
• Best For: Teams of all sizes seeking a modern, integrated, and automation-first platform to consolidate their incident tooling and streamline response.

2. Opsgenie: The Atlassian Suite Player (and Its Future)

Opsgenie has been a popular PagerDuty alternative, particularly for teams heavily invested in the Atlassian ecosystem (Jira, Confluence). However, its future is now uncertain. Atlassian has announced plans to discontinue Opsgenie as a standalone product, with new sales ending in June 2025 and a full shutdown by April 2027 [6]. This makes it a risky choice for new adoption and a primary reason current customers are actively seeking Opsgenie alternatives.

• Best For: Historically, it was a good fit for Atlassian-centric teams. Now, it's a platform that existing users will need to migrate away from.

3. Zenduty: A Strong Contender for SRE Teams

Zenduty is a fast-growing PagerDuty and Opsgenie alternative that focuses on SRE best practices, fostering a strong post-mortem culture, and providing significant cost savings. It positions itself as a powerful option for fast-growing teams [3]. For teams looking to migrate, Zenduty also offers a migration script to ease the transition from Opsgenie [7].

• Best For: SRE and DevOps teams that need a cost-effective solution with a strong emphasis on post-incident analysis and continuous improvement.

4. Squadcast: The Cloud-Native Option

Squadcast is a modern, API-first incident management platform designed for cloud-native environments. It integrates on-call management, incident response, and status pages into a single offering. As a strong Opsgenie alternative, it emphasizes developer-friendliness and collaboration [8]. Its competitive pricing and API-first design make it an attractive choice for engineering teams that value flexibility and control.

• Best For: Cloud-native companies and engineering teams that prioritize an API-first architecture and developer-centric workflows.

How to Choose the Best Incident Management Platform for Your Team

Selecting the right tool requires a thoughtful evaluation of your organization's unique needs. For enterprise incident management solutions, the decision impacts reliability, efficiency, and team morale.

Step 1: Evaluate Your Current Incident Lifecycle

Before comparing tools, map your current incident management process from initial alert to the final retrospective. Identify the pain points:

• Where is time wasted on manual tasks?
• Which steps are inconsistent or error-prone?
• Where does information get lost between tools or teams?

Use an ideal incident lifecycle as a model to pinpoint gaps in your current approach.

Step 2: Compare Core On-Call and Alerting Features

In any alert management software comparison, look for these essential features:

• Flexible on-call scheduling with support for rotations, overrides, and multiple time zones.
• Multi-level escalation policies to ensure alerts are never missed.
• Reliable, multi-channel notifications (SMS, voice, push, Slack).
• Alert noise reduction through features like grouping, deduplication, and suppression.

Step 3: Assess Automation and Integration Capabilities

Automation is no longer a luxury; it's a necessity for reducing Mean Time to Resolution (MTTR) and minimizing cognitive load on responders. The best platforms integrate seamlessly with your existing tech stack (e.g., Slack, Jira, Datadog, GitHub). Look for a tool with customizable incident workflows that can standardize your response processes, enforce best practices, and handle repetitive tasks automatically.

Step 4: Analyze Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)

Look beyond the per-user, per-month price tag. A true TCO analysis includes:

• Subscription Fees: The direct cost of the platform.
• Integration Costs: The price of any additional tools needed to fill feature gaps (e.g., separate status page or retrospective software).
• Human Cost: The operational overhead of manual work, context switching, and training teams on multiple disparate systems. A unified platform like Rootly significantly reduces this hidden cost.

Conclusion: Move Beyond Alerting with a Modern Platform

While PagerDuty pioneered the on-call alerting market, the needs of modern engineering teams have evolved. The best PagerDuty alternatives are not just cheaper clones; they are integrated platforms that manage the entire incident lifecycle, from on-call alerting to automated response and continuous learning.

For teams looking to improve response speed, reduce costs, and empower engineers with automation, a comprehensive solution is the clear path forward. Rootly provides a leading platform that combines robust on-call management with end-to-end incident response automation, offering a modern, cost-effective, and powerful alternative.

Ready to see how an all-in-one platform can transform your incident management? Book a demo of Rootly today.

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