PagerDuty is a well-known name in incident management, but many engineering and SRE teams are now exploring alternatives. The primary drivers for this shift are often high costs, overly complex features, or the search for a more integrated, modern solution. When evaluating PagerDuty alternatives, teams are prioritizing tools that deliver on three core criteria: speed for faster resolution, better pricing and value, and ease of use for smoother workflows.
This guide will break down the top incident management tools and help you compare oncall platforms to find the best fit for your team.
Why Teams Are Looking for PagerDuty Alternatives
Common pain points with legacy incident management tools often drive the search for a replacement. A significant drawback for many teams is PagerDuty's pricing model, where essential features are frequently locked behind expensive enterprise plans or require costly add-ons [2]. This can make the platform prohibitively expensive, especially for growing teams.
While PagerDuty has strong brand recognition, the market is evolving. Many competitors offer more innovative, flexible, and cost-effective solutions [1]. There's a growing demand for platforms that provide end-to-end incident management—covering everything from the initial alert to the final retrospective—rather than just basic alerting.
What to Look for in On-Call and Incident Management Software
When conducting an alert management software comparison, it's crucial to establish key criteria to find the right tool. Here's what matters most:
- Speed and Efficiency: The best tools help teams dramatically reduce Mean Time to Resolution (MTTR). Look for powerful automation features that handle repetitive tasks, such as creating incident channels, pulling in the right responders, and notifying stakeholders. This allows engineers to focus on how to resolve the incident instead of on manual coordination.
- On-Call Management: A core function is the ability to reliably manage on-call schedules, rotations, and escalation policies. The goal is to ensure the right person is notified immediately through multiple channels (SMS, push, phone call) without any manual intervention. A platform should make it easy to get started with scheduling and alerts.
- Ease of Use and Integration: A platform must integrate seamlessly into your team's existing workflows, especially within communication hubs like Slack. An intuitive, user-friendly interface reduces the learning curve and encourages adoption across the organization.
- Price and Value: Look beyond the sticker price to consider the total cost of ownership. Transparent pricing models that don't gatekeep critical features offer far better long-term value and predictability for your budget.
Top PagerDuty Alternatives for 2026
Each of these alternatives offers a unique set of strengths tailored to different team needs and priorities.
1. Rootly
- Best for: Engineering and SRE teams seeking a comprehensive, automated incident management platform.
- Overview: Rootly is an all-in-one solution that natively combines on-call scheduling and alerting, automated incident response, and action-oriented retrospectives.
- Key Features:
- Powerful workflow automation to handle hundreds of manual tasks, from incident declaration to resolution.
- Deep and native Slack integration that allows teams to manage the entire incident lifecycle without leaving the app.
- Integrated on-call scheduling, escalations, and multi-channel notifications.
- Automated post-incident reviews and analytics to help teams learn from incidents and improve reliability.
- Why it's a top alternative: Rootly provides a modern, integrated experience that goes far beyond simple alerting. By focusing on the entire incident lifecycle, it helps teams improve key metrics like MTTR and build a culture of continuous improvement, which is why it stands out in any incident management platform showdown.
2. Opsgenie
- Best for: Teams heavily invested in the Atlassian ecosystem (Jira, Confluence).
- Overview: As an Atlassian product, Opsgenie is a strong contender known for its robust on-call management and alerting. Many teams look for Opsgenie alternatives when they need similar functionality outside the Atlassian suite.
- Key Features:
- Flexible on-call scheduling and alert routing rules.
- Deep integration with Jira Service Management and other Atlassian products.
- A wide range of integrations with third-party monitoring tools.
- Why it's a top alternative: Its seamless connection with Atlassian tools makes it a natural choice for teams that already use Jira for ticketing and project management [4].
3. Better Stack
- Best for: Teams looking for a unified platform for observability and incident management.
- Overview: Better Stack combines monitoring, logging, and on-call alerting into a single product.
- Key Features:
- A clean and user-friendly interface that is often praised for its design [7].
- Integrated status pages to keep customers informed during outages.
- Competitive and transparent pricing model.
- Why it's a top alternative: It simplifies the tech stack by bundling observability and response capabilities, making it an attractive option for startups and smaller teams who want to consolidate tools.
4. incident.io
- Best for: Organizations that are heavily Slack-centric.
- Overview: incident.io is a Slack-native platform designed to manage incidents entirely from within Slack channels.
- Key Features:
- Allows teams to declare, manage, and resolve incidents without context switching.
- Automates incident timeline generation and stakeholder updates.
- Includes built-in workflows and tools for post-incident analysis.
- Why it's a top alternative: Its Slack-native approach is highly intuitive for teams that already live in Slack, minimizing disruption and streamlining communication during a crisis [7].
Feature Comparison Table: PagerDuty vs. Top Alternatives
This table helps compare oncall platforms at a glance.
Feature
PagerDuty
Rootly
Opsgenie
Better Stack
On-Call Scheduling
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Automated Workflows
Limited/Add-on
Yes (Extensive)
Basic
Limited
Native Slack Integration
Limited
Yes (Comprehensive)
Yes
Limited
Integrated Retrospectives
No
Yes (Automated)
No
No
Unified Observability
No
No
No
Yes
Pricing Model
Tiered/Complex
Transparent/Flexible
Tiered
Transparent
How to Choose the Best On-Call Software for Your Team
Making the final decision requires careful consideration of your team's specific needs. Here's how to choose the best oncall software for teams:
- Assess your primary need: Are you looking for a simple alerting tool, or do you need a full incident management lifecycle platform? A comprehensive platform can deliver far more value by standardizing your entire response process.
- Evaluate integrations: Ensure the tool connects seamlessly with your critical software, including monitoring tools (Datadog, New Relic), ticketing systems (Jira), and especially chat platforms like Slack or Microsoft Teams.
- Consider team size and workflow: A small startup has different needs than a large enterprise. Choose a tool that fits your current workflow but can also scale with you as your team and systems grow more complex.
- Prioritize automation: The more a platform can automate, the better. Automating repetitive tasks saves valuable engineering time, reduces the chance of human error, and allows your team to focus on what matters most: resolving the incident.
Conclusion: A Modern Approach to Incident Management
While PagerDuty remains a recognizable name, modern alternatives like Rootly offer a more comprehensive, user-friendly, and cost-effective solution for today's engineering teams. The market for top incident management tools has matured, giving organizations powerful options that go beyond basic alerting.
The best choice ultimately depends on your team's unique requirements. However, platforms that natively integrate on-call management, automated incident response, and continuous learning provide the most significant long-term value.
Ready to see how a modern incident management platform can transform your response process? Get started with Rootly to explore a faster, smarter, and more automated way to manage incidents.