Effective on-call software is critical for maintaining system reliability and enabling rapid incident response. While PagerDuty has long been a familiar name in this space, the landscape of incident management has evolved. Modern teams need more than just basic alerting; they require comprehensive platforms that support the entire incident lifecycle. Many organizations are now seeking alternatives because of high costs and feature limitations [1]. This guide explores what makes the best on-call software for teams today and why Rootly offers a superior, all-in-one solution.
What to Look for in the Best On-Call Software
Evaluating on-call solutions requires looking beyond simple notification delivery. The right tool should empower teams to resolve issues faster, collaborate seamlessly, and learn from every incident.
Beyond Basic Alerting: Integrated Incident Management
Top-tier software doesn’t just send alerts; it integrates them into a complete incident management workflow. This includes automating communication, tracking resolution tasks, and generating post-incident retrospectives. Switching between separate tools for alerting, collaboration, and documentation is inefficient and slows down response times. A unified platform streamlines the entire process, from detection to resolution.
Human-Centric Scheduling and User Experience (UX)
A modern, intuitive user interface is essential. On-call management shouldn't require a steep learning curve or complex configuration [5]. The best tools offer flexible scheduling that adapts to how real teams work, with features like simple overrides, vacation-aware calendars, and straightforward escalation policies. This human-centric design reduces friction and helps prevent burnout.
Collaboration and Cross-Functional Alignment
Incidents are team-wide events, not just engineering problems. The best on-call software facilitates collaboration across departments, including engineering, support, and communications. Native integrations with tools where teams already work, like Slack, are crucial for breaking down silos and ensuring everyone is aligned during a critical event.
Transparent and Scalable Pricing
Cost is always a factor. Teams should look for transparent pricing without hidden fees or expensive add-ons for essential features. Some tools advertise a low entry price but require costly upgrades for necessary functionalities [3]. True value comes from a comprehensive feature set at a reasonable and predictable cost that can scale with your team.
Why PagerDuty is No Longer the Best Choice
While a pioneer in the space, PagerDuty has not kept pace with the needs of modern teams. Its older design and pricing model present significant drawbacks compared to newer, more integrated solutions. A detailed PagerDuty vs. Rootly comparison highlights these shortcomings.
It's Just an "Expensive Phone Call"
A common criticism of PagerDuty is that it functions primarily as a costly alerting tool. Core incident management features often come at an extra cost, forcing teams to piece together a workflow using other tools. As detailed in our PagerDuty vs. Rootly comparison, many teams receive a page from PagerDuty only to immediately switch to Slack for actual collaboration and resolution, making PagerDuty an expensive first step in the process.
Dated UI and Configuration Complexity
PagerDuty's user interface is often described as dated, unintuitive, and difficult to configure [4]. The platform can feel cumbersome, especially when setting up or modifying on-call schedules, overrides, and escalation policies. This complexity creates a poor user experience and adds unnecessary management work.
Siloed for Engineering Teams
PagerDuty was designed primarily for engineering teams, which can create information silos during an incident. Non-technical stakeholders in support, communications, or leadership often find the platform difficult to navigate. This design hinders the cross-functional collaboration that is essential for effective communication and rapid response.
Rootly: The Best On-Call Software for Modern Teams
Rootly is the modern, all-in-one alternative that addresses PagerDuty's shortcomings. It provides a complete incident management platform designed for collaboration, ease of use, and end-to-end resolution.
A Complete End-to-End Incident Platform
Rootly goes beyond basic paging to offer a complete solution for managing the entire incident lifecycle. Unlike tools that only handle alerting, Rootly provides an integrated platform that includes automated communication workflows, collaborative incident channels in Slack, task tracking, and powerful retrospectives. This ensures a seamless process from the first alert to the final lessons learned, as seen in this PagerDuty vs. Rootly comparison.
Core On-Call Features, Done Right
Rootly unifies all the critical components for reliable on-call management into a single, intelligent decision engine. You can get started quickly and configure a system that works for your team.
- Flexible On-Call Schedules: Schedules are the foundation of on-call management. Rootly supports multi-person rotations, layered coverage, business-hour logic, and time-zone awareness, making it easy to create schedules that match your team's needs.
- Reliable Escalation Policies: Define clear escalation paths to ensure an alert always reaches a human. Escalation policies in Rootly eliminate dropped alerts and help combat pager fatigue by routing notifications intelligently.
- Multi-Channel Delivery: Rootly uses a variety of notification channels—including voice, SMS, Slack, push notifications, and email—to ensure critical alerts are never missed.
- Advanced Capabilities: Go beyond standard features with capabilities like Live Call Routing, which turns an incoming phone call into a page, and Heartbeats, which proactively monitor systems to detect silent failures.
Built for Collaboration in Slack
Rootly is designed to be simple and modern, making it easy enough for even non-engineers to use. By deeply integrating with Slack, it allows teams to collaborate where they already work. You can page teams, individuals, or entire services directly from Slack, streamlining communication and breaking down silos between departments. This makes it easier for everyone to stay informed and contribute to the resolution process while managing teams.
Unique Features for Smarter Scheduling
- Schedule Gap Detection: Rootly automatically identifies any gaps in your on-call coverage and notifies the schedule owner, preventing situations where no one is on call.
- Seamless Overrides: Requesting an override for a shift is as simple as a single click, making it easy for team members to find coverage when needed.
- Cycle-Based Round Robin: This feature automatically rotates on-call duties to ensure responsibilities are distributed fairly, helping prevent individual burnout.
How Rootly Compares to Other PagerDuty Alternatives
While several alternatives to PagerDuty exist, Rootly stands out by providing a truly all-in-one platform [6]. The table below compares Rootly to PagerDuty and another popular alternative, Opsgenie.
Feature
Rootly
PagerDuty
Opsgenie
All-in-One Platform
Yes
No - Add-on Costs
Integrated w/ Atlassian
UX / Ease of Use
Modern & Intuitive
Dated & Complex
Moderate
Slack-Native Collab
Yes
Limited
Good
Pricing Model
Transparent
Opaque
Per User
Schedule Gap Detection
Yes
No
No
As the table shows, Rootly provides the most modern, comprehensive, and cost-effective package for teams looking for the best on-call software.
What Our Customers Are Saying
Teams that switch to Rootly see immediate improvements in their incident management process. You can find more details on how companies are benefiting on our customer stories page.
"We no longer need to have engineers maintaining an in-house solution - we could never catch up to the number of features Rootly was shipping..."
— Canva
"The single most impressive thing about Rootly is how fast they ship. At times we’ve reported a bug or feature request only to have it fixed live within 10-15 minutes."
— Replit
"With Rootly, incident spin-up time has been reduced from minutes to seconds and it covers over 90% of our needs. Overall, Rootly is the best tool currently available in the market."
— Upstart
Conclusion: Make the Switch to a Modern On-Call Solution
Legacy tools like PagerDuty are no longer sufficient for modern, collaborative teams. Their focus on basic alerting, complex UIs, and siloed design create friction and slow down incident response.
Rootly offers a complete, end-to-end incident management platform that is intuitive, collaborative, and cost-effective. By combining best-in-class on-call scheduling and alerting with a powerful, Slack-native incident response workflow, Rootly provides everything your team needs to improve reliability. It's the best on-call software for teams ready to move beyond outdated tools and embrace a modern approach to incident management.
Ready to see the difference? Get started with Rootly and transform your on-call and incident response processes today.