Pagerly vs Grafana OnCall

Short answer: Grafana OnCall OSS is archived and unsupported as of March 2026, and the maintained path is the paid Grafana Cloud IRM. Pagerly is a fully maintained, Slack-native on-call and incident tool that needs no self-hosting, with automatic @oncall usergroup sync and flat per-team pricing. If you are leaving Grafana OnCall OSS, Pagerly is the strongest landing spot.

Key takeaways

Why Grafana OnCall users need an alternative now

Grafana OnCall OSS entered maintenance mode in March 2025 and was archived on March 24, 2026. Its cloud connection for SMS, phone, and push notifications was turned off, so self-hosted users lose reliable notification delivery. Grafana now directs users to the paid Grafana Cloud IRM. Teams that relied on the open-source version need a maintained replacement, and waiting risks missed pages from an unsupported tool.

Real problems teams hit with Grafana OnCall

1. The OSS version is archived. It is no longer actively maintained, and notification delivery for self-hosters has been disrupted.
2. Self-hosting overhead. Running and patching the OSS app is operational work most teams would rather avoid.
3. The maintained path costs money. Grafana Cloud IRM is the supported route, so the free OSS advantage is gone.
4. Alert-focused in Slack. The Slack experience centers on alerts rather than a full incident workflow.

The migration fit framework: what actually matters

Score any Grafana OnCall replacement against these factors.

1. Active maintenance

Choose a tool that is supported and updated. An archived, unsupported codebase is a reliability risk for something as critical as paging.

2. No self-hosting

A managed tool removes the infrastructure, patching, and uptime burden of running your own on-call system.

3. Slack-native workflow

On-call and incidents should run in Slack if that is where your team works, rather than in a separate console.

4. Usergroup automation

The current on-call engineer should sync into a Slack usergroup automatically so mentions always reach the right person.

5. Predictable pricing

Flat, per-team pricing avoids per-seat growth and surprise renewals.

Grafana OnCall overview

Grafana OnCall was the on-call component of the Grafana observability stack, available as open source and as a cloud service.

Key features

• On-call schedules and escalation
• Alert routing from Grafana and other sources
• Integration with the Grafana stack

Pros

• Useful for teams deep in the Grafana ecosystem
• Was free as open source

Cons

• OSS version archived as of March 24, 2026
• Self-hosting and maintenance overhead
• Cloud connection for notifications turned off for OSS
• No automatic Slack usergroup sync

Pricing

The open-source version was free but is now archived. The maintained path is Grafana Cloud IRM, which is paid. Verify current pricing on the Grafana website.

Best for

Existing self-hosters who need a short bridge before migrating to a maintained tool.

Pagerly overview

Pagerly is a Slack-native on-call and incident management platform used by more than 1,000 organizations, including teams at 1Password, Disney+, Spotify, and Loom. It is fully managed, so there is no infrastructure to run.

Key features

• On-call scheduling and round-robin rotations in Slack
• Automatic @oncall Slack usergroup sync as shifts change
• Paging by call and SMS with multi-level escalation
• Incident response with channel creation and role assignment
• AI-generated RCA and post-mortems with MTTA and MTTR tracking
• Integrations with Datadog, Sentry, Grafana, AWS, and Jira

Pros

• Fully maintained, no self-hosting
• Flat, per-team pricing with unlimited users and incidents
• Full workflow runs inside Slack
• Automatic usergroup sync keeps @oncall accurate
• Set up in minutes

Cons

• Best suited to teams that already use Slack

Pricing

Pagerly uses flat, per-team pricing. The incident plan is 500 US dollars per month with unlimited incidents and users, and on-call paging is 4 US dollars per user per month. Verify current pricing on pagerly.io.

Best for

Teams leaving Grafana OnCall OSS that want a maintained, Slack-native tool.

How to migrate from Grafana OnCall to Pagerly

1. Add Pagerly to your Slack workspace.
2. Recreate or import your rotations in Pagerly.
3. Connect monitoring tools such as Grafana, Datadog, Sentry, and AWS.
4. Enable automatic @oncall usergroup sync.
5. Decommission the self-hosted OnCall OSS instance once paging is verified.

Because Pagerly is managed and Slack-native, you remove both the self-hosting overhead and the separate dashboard.

Pricing compared: what you actually save

Grafana OnCall OSS was free but is now archived, so the real comparison is against the paid Grafana Cloud IRM or another per-seat tool. Pagerly is flat. The table uses an approximate 20 US dollars per user per month against Pagerly at a flat 500 US dollars per month.

Beyond direct cost, dropping self-hosting also removes the engineering time spent maintaining the OSS deployment, which is a real saving that does not show up on an invoice.

Use-case cheat sheet

• Self-hosting OnCall OSS today: Pagerly, to escape the archived codebase and infra overhead.
• Slack-first team: Pagerly.
• Team that wants @oncall usergroup sync: Pagerly.
• Team committed to the full Grafana Cloud stack: Grafana Cloud IRM may fit.
• Team that wants AI post-mortems: Pagerly.
• Growing team that wants predictable pricing: Pagerly.

Frequently asked questions

Basics

Is Grafana OnCall OSS still supported? No. The open-source version was archived on March 24, 2026.

Is Pagerly a good Grafana OnCall alternative? Yes. It is maintained, Slack-native, and needs no self-hosting.

Features

Does Pagerly integrate with Grafana? Yes. Pagerly connects with Grafana and other monitoring tools to create incidents.

Migration

Do I have to self-host Pagerly? No. Pagerly is fully managed.

Pricing

Does Pagerly charge per user? No. The incident plan is flat with unlimited users, with optional paging at 4 US dollars per user per month.

Which should you choose?

• Team that wants a maintained, managed tool: Choose Pagerly.
• Slack-first team: Choose Pagerly.
• Team committed to the full Grafana Cloud stack: Grafana Cloud IRM may fit.

Why Pagerly is the best choice

Grafana OnCall OSS is archived, and self-hosting an unsupported tool is a risk. Pagerly is a maintained, Slack-native replacement with no infrastructure to run. You get on-call scheduling, automatic @oncall usergroup sync, paging and escalation, AI post-mortems, and flat per-team pricing. Teams at 1Password, Disney+, Spotify, and Loom already trust it, and you can be live in Slack in minutes. Add Pagerly to Slack for free and move off Grafana OnCall OSS to a maintained tool.