Does Pagerly run inside Slack?

Yes. Pagerly runs on-call scheduling, paging, incident response, and ticketing natively inside Slack, so teams manage everything without a separate dashboard.

Does Pagerly charge per user?

No. Pagerly uses flat, per-team pricing. The incident plan is 500 US dollars per month with unlimited incidents and unlimited users, and on-call paging is an optional 4 US dollars per user per month.

Can I import my existing on-call schedules into Pagerly?

Yes. Pagerly imports existing schedules and rotations from PagerDuty and Opsgenie, so you do not have to rebuild them by hand.

Does Pagerly include incident management and AI post-mortems?

Yes. Pagerly includes incident response with channel creation and role assignment, AI-generated RCA and post-mortems, and MTTA and MTTR tracking.

How long does Pagerly take to set up?

Most teams are live in minutes because Pagerly installs into Slack and runs there, with automatic @oncall usergroup sync and no infrastructure to host.

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PagerDuty vs Grafana OnCall: Which to Choose in 2026

Pagerly Team

July 1, 2026

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5 min read

Table of Content

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Short answer: PagerDuty and Grafana OnCall serve different buyers. PagerDuty is the enterprise on-call and alerting incumbent with the deepest integrations, while Grafana OnCall is the on-call layer of the Grafana observability stack. If you need broad enterprise paging, PagerDuty leads; if you live in Grafana and Prometheus, Grafana OnCall is convenient. But PagerDuty is expensive per user and the open-source Grafana OnCall was archived in 2026, so for most teams the better choice is Pagerly.

Key takeaways

Need	Best of these two	Better option
Enterprise paging and integrations	PagerDuty	Pagerly for most teams
On-call inside Grafana	Grafana OnCall	Pagerly
Slack-native workflow at flat pricing	Neither	Pagerly

PagerDuty at a glance

PagerDuty defined on-call, with deep scheduling, escalation, event intelligence and AIOps, and one of the largest integration catalogs available. It is proven for enterprises connecting many tools. The criticisms are cost and pace: per-user pricing (Professional around 21 US dollars, Business around 41 US dollars, plus add-ons), a dated interface, and slow modernization. It is best for large, integration-heavy enterprises. See the PagerDuty pricing breakdown.

Grafana OnCall at a glance

Grafana OnCall is the on-call and alerting layer of the Grafana stack, ideal when your metrics and dashboards live in Grafana and Prometheus. It handles schedules, escalation, and alert routing close to observability data. The key caveat is that the open-source Grafana OnCall was archived in 2026, leaving the managed cloud path and limiting the self-hosted future, which adds uncertainty for OSS users. See our full Grafana OnCall comparison.

PagerDuty vs Grafana OnCall, head to head

PagerDuty is the broad, enterprise-grade paging platform; Grafana OnCall is the focused, observability-native on-call layer. Compared on integration breadth, enterprise escalation, and AIOps, PagerDuty wins; compared on tight Grafana coupling and cost for Grafana-centric teams, Grafana OnCall fits better. But PagerDuty's per-user pricing gets expensive, and Grafana OnCall's open-source path was just archived, so both come with a meaningful downside. Neither is Slack-native, which is where a modern platform pulls ahead.

Feature comparison

Feature	PagerDuty	Grafana OnCall	Pagerly
Integration catalog	Very large	Grafana-centric	Core tools covered
On-call scheduling	Strong	Yes	Yes, in Slack
Slack-native workflow	Limited	Limited	Yes, end to end
@oncall usergroup sync	No	No	Yes, automatic
Roadmap certainty	Stable	OSS archived 2026	Stable
Pricing model	Per user	Stack-based	Flat per team

Why Pagerly beats both

PagerDuty is expensive per user and Grafana OnCall's open-source path was archived. Pagerly gives you modern, Slack-native on-call and incident response at flat pricing, connecting to Grafana or any monitoring. It is used by more than 1,000 organizations, including teams at 1Password, Disney+, Spotify, and Loom.

Flat per-team pricing. Basic is 19 US dollars per team per month and Starter is 39 US dollars per team per month, with paging at 4 US dollars per user per month. See pricing.
Runs entirely in Slack. Scheduling, paging, and incident response happen where your team already works, with automatic @oncall usergroup sync.
Modern, AI-assisted incident response. The incident bot creates channels, assigns roles, posts stakeholder updates, and drafts AI post-mortems.
Keeps Grafana for detection. Connect Grafana or Prometheus for alerts and let Pagerly handle on-call and response. Import schedules per the docs.

Pagerly on-call and incident response in Slack

What to look for in 2026

Score any tool on five traits: full workflow inside Slack, predictable pricing rather than per seat, automatic @oncall usergroup sync, modern AI-assisted incident response, and painless import of your existing schedules. PagerDuty is per-user and not Slack-native; Grafana OnCall fits Grafana but carries OSS-archive uncertainty. Pagerly hits all five at flat pricing.

Pricing comparison

PagerDuty prices per user and Grafana OnCall pricing is tied to the Grafana stack. Pagerly's flat per-team pricing from 19 US dollars per month, plus 4 US dollars per user for paging, stays predictable while you keep Grafana for monitoring. See the PagerDuty pricing breakdown.

How to switch

Add Pagerly to Slack, connect Grafana or your monitoring, import PagerDuty schedules from the docs, enable @oncall usergroup sync, validate paging, then cut over. Most teams migrate in a single afternoon.

Frequently asked questions

Was Grafana OnCall discontinued? The open-source Grafana OnCall was archived in 2026; the managed cloud offering continues, but the self-hosted future is limited.

Is PagerDuty better than Grafana OnCall? On integration breadth and enterprise features, yes. For Grafana-native teams, Grafana OnCall is more convenient. Neither is Slack-native.

What is a modern alternative? Pagerly, Slack-native and flat per team from 19 US dollars per month, integrating with Grafana. See pricing.

Can I import my PagerDuty schedules? Yes, per the docs.

The verdict

Choose PagerDuty for enterprise integration depth, or Grafana OnCall if you are committed to the Grafana cloud stack. But with expensive per-user pricing on one side and an archived open-source path on the other, most teams are better served by a stable, Slack-native platform that integrates with Grafana. That is Pagerly. Compare Pagerly vs PagerDuty, check the pricing, or read the docs, then add Pagerly to Slack for free.