Best PagerDuty Alternatives in 2025: Top Incident Tools

Category
Falit Jain
October 3, 2025
5 min read
Best PagerDuty Alternatives in 2025: Top Incident Tools
Table of Content

The Best PagerDuty Alternative in 2025: Why Pagerly is the Smarter, Cheaper, and Faster Choice

Every business today is a digital business. Whether you’re a SaaS platform, an e-commerce store, or a cloud service provider, your uptime is directly linked to customer trust and revenue. A single minute of downtime can cost companies thousands — sometimes millions — in lost revenue and reputation.

That’s why incident management platforms are critical. They ensure that when something breaks, the right people are notified instantly, the issue is resolved quickly, and customers are kept in the loop through status pages and communication tools.

For years, PagerDuty has been the dominant player in this space. But in 2025, teams across the globe are searching for better PagerDuty alternatives. The reasons are clear: high costs, complexity, and a growing need for user-friendly, cost-effective, and flexible solutions.

Among all the options, Pagerly is emerging as the best alternative to PagerDuty. It’s faster, cheaper (up to 80% cost savings), and built for modern DevOps and IT teams.

In this guide, we’ll go deep into:

  • Why teams are leaving PagerDuty
  • The essential features of incident management software
  • A detailed breakdown of PagerDuty alternatives (Opsgenie, Grafana OnCall, Splunk On-Call, ServiceNow, Datadog, New Relic, and more)
  • Why Pagerly stands out as the best fit for small teams, large enterprises, and everyone in between
  • Best practices for incident management in 2025
  • FAQs that answer real buyer questions

Why Teams Are Moving Away from PagerDuty

PagerDuty is powerful, but teams increasingly find themselves asking: “Do we really need to pay this much?”

Here are the main pain points:

1. High Costs and Budget Constraints

  • PagerDuty pricing is tiered per user, and costs grow rapidly as teams scale.
  • For smaller teams, PagerDuty often costs more than monitoring tools combined.
  • Enterprises report budget overruns due to unexpected add-ons (like status pages).

2. Complex User Experience

  • Engineers often complain that PagerDuty’s interface is too complex and cluttered.
  • Learning curves delay onboarding, leading to slower adoption across teams.

3. Limited Flexibility for Smaller Teams

  • Not every business needs AI-driven automation. Many need simple escalation policies and on-call schedules.
  • PagerDuty feels over-engineered for teams under 50 people.

4. Hidden Costs in Add-Ons

  • Status pages, advanced analytics, and enterprise features are often paid extras.
  • This creates a mismatch between what businesses need and what they pay for.

5. Alert Fatigue

  • Teams experience alert fatigue when every notification looks equally urgent.
  • Engineers begin ignoring alerts, leading to missed critical incidents.

Essential Features of a PagerDuty Alternative

When evaluating alternatives, these are the non-negotiable features:

  1. On-Call Scheduling & Escalation
    • Drag-and-drop calendars
    • Flexible shifts across time zones
    • Escalation policies that notify the right person if the first responder misses an alert
  2. Incident Management Workflows
    • Detect incidents from monitoring tools like Datadog, New Relic, Grafana, AWS CloudWatch
    • Route alerts to the right team members
    • Track the entire incident lifecycle
  3. Multi-Channel Alerts
    • Push notifications
    • Phone calls (for SEV1 critical incidents)
    • Slack/Microsoft Teams integrations
    • SMS and email
  4. Status Pages
    • Public pages to keep customers informed
    • Internal pages to update executives and non-technical stakeholders
    • Reduce support load during downtime
  5. User Experience & Collaboration
    • Intuitive interface to minimize errors
    • Built-in collaboration tools
    • Mobile app for on-the-go response
  6. Cost-Effective Plans
    • Free trial / free plan for smaller teams
    • Paid plans that scale with usage
    • Enterprise plan for compliance-heavy industries

PagerDuty Alternatives in 2025: The Landscape

Let’s look at the main alternatives businesses consider:

Grafana OnCall (Open-Source)

  • Strengths: Free, integrates with Grafana stack.
  • Limitations: Requires DevOps expertise, lacks enterprise support.
  • Best Fit: Startups already using Grafana.

Splunk On-Call (VictorOps)

  • Strengths: Mature tool, trusted by large companies.
  • Limitations: High cost, not ideal for small teams.
  • Best Fit: Large enterprises with Splunk monitoring.

Opsgenie (Atlassian)

  • Strengths: Jira/Confluence integration, flexible incident workflows.
  • Limitations: Steeper pricing, less intuitive UI.
  • Best Fit: Atlassian-heavy organizations.

ServiceNow Incident Management

  • Strengths: Enterprise-grade ITSM platform.
  • Limitations: Overkill for most DevOps teams.
  • Best Fit: Large IT departments with ITIL workflows.

Datadog Incident Management

  • Strengths: Integrated within Datadog monitoring.
  • Limitations: Lock-in; not as flexible for non-Datadog users.
  • Best Fit: Teams already using Datadog extensively.

New Relic Incident Management

  • Strengths: Strong monitoring + alerting in one platform.
  • Limitations: Less customizable workflows.
  • Best Fit: Smaller dev teams running on New Relic.

Open-Source Solutions (Cabot, OpenDuty, Alerta)

  • Strengths: Free, customizable.
  • Limitations: Lack of customer support, missing enterprise features.
  • Best Fit: Hobby projects or startups with strong DevOps capacity.

Why Pagerly is the Best PagerDuty Alternative

Pagerly stands out because it balances affordability, usability, and power.

1. 80% Cost Savings

Pagerly’s transparent pricing ensures businesses save up to 80% compared to PagerDuty.

  • Free plan for startups and small teams
  • Paid plans that grow with your team size
  • Enterprise pricing without hidden costs

2. Faster Incident Response

  • Real-time alerts across multiple channels
  • Escalation policies ensure no incident slips through
  • Phone calls for critical SEV1 issues

3. Status Pages Built-In

  • Public status pages included (no extra charge)
  • Customer communication handled directly within the platform

4. Mobile-First Experience

  • Clean, modern mobile app for Android & iOS
  • Engineers can acknowledge or reassign incidents on the go

5. Seamless Integrations

  • Slack & Microsoft Teams native integrations
  • Connect to Datadog, New Relic, Grafana, AWS, ServiceNow
  • Open APIs for custom requirements

6. Flexible for All Teams

  • Small businesses: free and low-cost plans
  • Medium teams: full-featured incident workflows at 1/5th the cost
  • Enterprises: compliance features, machine learning, advanced analytics

Case Study 1: A Small Startup Switching from PagerDuty

A SaaS startup with 15 engineers was spending $2,500/month on PagerDuty. Their main needs:

  • On-call schedules
  • Phone alerts for SEV1 issues
  • Public status page

They switched to Pagerly and reduced costs to $500/month — saving 80%. Their incident response times dropped by 30%, thanks to a simpler UI and integrated status pages.

Case Study 2: A Global Enterprise with Thousands of Engineers

A Fortune 500 company was using PagerDuty across multiple departments. Pain points:

  • High costs across thousands of seats
  • Complex workflows slowing down adoption
  • Status page add-ons creating billing headaches

After a pilot with Pagerly, they migrated 500 users. Results:

  • $1M annual cost savings
  • Improved uptime reporting via status pages
  • Faster onboarding for new engineers

Pagerly vs PagerDuty vs Opsgenie vs Grafana OnCall

FeaturePagerDutyOpsgenieGrafana OnCallPagerlyOn-Call Scheduling✅✅✅✅ (simpler)Escalation Policies✅✅Limited✅ FlexibleStatus PagesPaid❌❌✅ Built-InMicrosoft Teams Support✅Limited❌✅ NativePricing$$$$$Free💰 80% cheaperFree Plan❌✅✅✅ YesMobile App✅✅❌✅ ModernOpen APIs✅✅Limited✅ YesBest ForEnterprisesAtlassian usersGrafana usersAll teams

Best Practices for Incident Management in 2025

  1. Define Clear Escalation Policies
    • Primary, backup, and management-level escalation.
  2. Prioritize Alerts to Reduce Fatigue
    • SEV1 (Critical), SEV2 (Major), SEV3 (Minor).
  3. Use Public Status Pages
    • Proactively inform customers, reduce ticket volume.
  4. Integrate with Collaboration Tools
    • Slack, Microsoft Teams, and Discord for real-time collaboration.
  5. Adopt Transparent Pricing
    • Avoid lock-in; choose platforms with clear per-user costs.

FAQs on PagerDuty Alternatives

Q1: What is the best free PagerDuty alternative?
Pagerly offers a free plan with essential features like on-call scheduling and real-time alerts. Grafana OnCall is another open-source option.

Q2: How does Pagerly save 80% compared to PagerDuty?
Pagerly bundles features (like status pages) that PagerDuty charges extra for, and scales pricing fairly for small teams and large enterprises.

Q3: Can Pagerly handle enterprise-level needs?
Yes. Pagerly’s enterprise plan supports machine learning insights, advanced reporting, open APIs, and compliance requirements.

Q4: Which is better for Atlassian users — Opsgenie or Pagerly?
If you’re heavily tied into Jira/Confluence, Opsgenie is a good fit. For broader DevOps teams looking for cost savings, Pagerly is superior.

Q5: Does Pagerly integrate with Microsoft Teams?
Yes. Pagerly has native Microsoft Teams integration, unlike many open-source or mid-tier alternatives.

The Future of Incident Management: Why Pagerly is Ahead

The next decade will demand:

  • Smarter escalation policies with machine learning
  • More integrations across monitoring and ITSM tools
  • Faster, mobile-first user experiences
  • Transparent, predictable pricing models

Pagerly is already ahead in all these areas, making it the ideal long-term alternative to PagerDuty.

Final Verdict: Pagerly is the Best PagerDuty Alternative

PagerDuty paved the way for modern incident management, but in 2025, it no longer matches the specific needs of cost-conscious, agile teams.

Pagerly combines:

  • 80% cost savings
  • Real-time alerts and escalation policies
  • Built-in status pages
  • Seamless integrations with Slack, Microsoft Teams, and monitoring tools
  • Plans for small teams, mid-sized companies, and enterprises

👉 Whether you’re a startup with budget constraints or a global enterprise needing robust features, Pagerly is the best PagerDuty alternative in 2025.

Start your free trial of Pagerly today and transform your incident management workflows into a faster, cheaper, and smarter system.

View all
Design
Product
Software Engineering
Customer Success

Latest blogs

Best and Top 5 Alternatives to Pingdom in 2025
October 22, 2025

Best and Top 5 Alternatives to Pingdom in 2025

Best and Top 5 Alternatives to Pingdom in 2025
How to create Rotation or Shift Schedule on Calendar easily
October 22, 2025

How to create Rotation or Shift Schedule on Calendar easily

How to Create Rotation or Shift Schedules on Calendar Easily