In today's fast-paced tech world, keeping services online and running smoothly is non-negotiable. For Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) and DevOps teams, this means having the right tools to manage incidents effectively. The goal is always to minimize downtime and reduce Mean Time to Resolution (MTTR). For years, PagerDuty has been a go-to tool for on-call management and alerting. However, the landscape of incident management software is evolving. Modern platforms like Rootly offer a more comprehensive approach, going beyond simple alerts to manage the entire incident lifecycle, making them powerful PagerDuty alternatives.
This article compares PagerDuty and Rootly to help you decide which platform is the best fit for your team.
What are PagerDuty and Rootly? An Overview of Top Incident Management Tools
Before diving into a feature-by-feature comparison, let's understand the core purpose of each platform. Both are considered top incident management tools, but they approach the problem from different angles.
PagerDuty: A Legacy in On-Call Alerting
PagerDuty is a digital operations management platform known primarily for its on-call scheduling and alerting capabilities. It excels at consolidating alerts from various monitoring systems, notifying the correct on-call engineer, and managing escalation policies to ensure someone always responds.
As an established player, PagerDuty holds a significant market share and is ranked #1 in the IT Alerting and Incident Management category on some review platforms [3]. Its primary focus has traditionally been on the "detect and notify" phases of an incident.
Rootly: A Modern, Unified Incident Management Platform
Rootly is a comprehensive incident response platform built for collaboration and automation. Instead of just handling alerts, Rootly automates the entire incident lifecycle, from the moment an incident is declared all the way through the final retrospective.
It operates natively within communication hubs like Slack, creating a central command center for incident response. This design makes it a core component of any modern SRE tooling stack, allowing engineers to manage incidents where they already communicate. You can explore a complete introduction to Rootly to understand its full range of capabilities, including incident management, alert management, and analytics.
Compare Oncall Platforms: A Head-to-Head Feature Analysis
When you compare oncall platforms, the differences are in the details. While PagerDuty excels at alerting, Rootly provides a more holistic solution for DevOps incident management.
At a Glance: PagerDuty vs. Rootly Comparison Table
Feature
PagerDuty
Rootly
Incident Response Automation
Focuses on alert routing and "response plays" to orchestrate initial steps.
Automates hundreds of tasks throughout the entire incident lifecycle, from channel creation to post-mortems.
On-Call Management & Alerting
A core strength with robust scheduling and complex escalation policies.
A modern, unified solution with flexible scheduling, escalations, and overrides. Can fully replace PagerDuty.
Retrospectives / Post-mortems
Provides a basic framework for post-incident analysis.
Automates data collection for rich, interactive retrospectives and tracks action items.
AI-Powered Assistance
AIOps reduces alert noise and groups related events.
AI acts as a co-pilot, generating summaries, suggesting actions, and providing context to reduce MTTR.
Integrations
Strong ecosystem, primarily focused on monitoring tools.
Over 70 integrations across alerting, communication, project management, and more [7].
Pricing Model
Per-user pricing, with different tiers for features.
Modular pricing, allowing teams to choose what they need (e.g., On-Call as a standalone option) [4].
Incident Response & Automation Workflows
PagerDuty
PagerDuty's automation centers on its Event Intelligence and "response plays." These features are designed to group related alerts and trigger basic workflows, like notifying stakeholders or creating a conference bridge. The automation is primarily focused on the initial response to an alert.
Rootly
Rootly takes automation much further. Its powerful workflow engine can automate hundreds of manual, administrative tasks throughout an incident. For example, a workflow can automatically:
- Create a dedicated Slack channel and invite the right responders.
- Start a video conference call and post the link.
- Assign incident roles and tasks.
- Update an external status page.
- Pull in relevant graphs from monitoring tools like Datadog.
This level of automation frees engineers from procedural toil, allowing them to focus on what matters most: resolving the issue. You can explore the vast library of Rootly workflows to see what's possible.
On-Call Management, Scheduling, and Alerting
PagerDuty's reputation is built on its robust on-call management. It’s a powerful tool for creating complex schedules and escalation policies, making it a reliable choice for alerting.
However, Rootly On-Call has emerged as one of the best oncall software for teams looking for a modern, integrated experience. Rootly offers flexible scheduling, overrides, and escalation policies that are tightly integrated with the rest of the incident management process. This unification means you don't have to switch between tools for alerting and response, creating a smoother operational flow. For many, Rootly can serve as a complete replacement for PagerDuty's on-call functionality [1].
AI Capabilities: PagerDuty AIOps vs. Rootly AI
PagerDuty AIOps
PagerDuty's AIOps offering is focused on reducing alert fatigue. It uses machine learning to group related alerts, suppress noise, and provide context from similar past incidents. Its goal is to make sure engineers are only alerted for real, actionable issues.
Rootly AI
Rootly AI functions as an intelligent assistant for responders during an active incident. It helps reduce cognitive load and accelerate resolution by:
- Automatically generating incident titles and summaries.
- Providing a "catch-up" summary for anyone joining the incident channel late.
- Suggesting similar past incidents and potential mitigation steps.
By acting as a co-pilot, Rootly AI helps teams resolve incidents faster, directly impacting and reducing MTTR [2].
PagerDuty + Rootly: Better Together or a Full Replacement?
A common question for teams already using PagerDuty is whether to switch entirely or integrate Rootly into their existing stack. Both are valid strategies.
Augmenting PagerDuty with Rootly for Enhanced Incident Management
For teams happy with PagerDuty's alerting, the "better together" approach is a great option. You can continue using PagerDuty for on-call notifications while leveraging Rootly for everything that happens after the alert.
Rootly's seamless PagerDuty integration allows you to automatically trigger a Rootly workflow when a PagerDuty alert fires. A two-way sync keeps the incident status updated in both platforms, ensuring everyone is on the same page. You can even configure smart defaults to pre-fill incident details based on the PagerDuty service, saving valuable time.
Migrating from PagerDuty to Rootly for a Unified SRE Tool Stack
For organizations looking to consolidate tools, reduce costs, and create a more streamlined process, Rootly stands out as one of the best PagerDuty alternatives. By using Rootly On-Call, teams can manage alerting, on-call schedules, incident response, and retrospectives all within a single platform.
This unified approach provides a single source of truth for all incident data, leading to more powerful analytics and actionable insights. You eliminate the friction of context-switching between different tools and create a cohesive experience for your entire team.
What Do Users Say? Comparing Customer Perspectives
When choosing SRE tools for incident tracking, user feedback provides valuable insight. While PagerDuty is an established leader, its focus remains primarily on alerting [3].
In contrast, Rootly is consistently recognized for its modern, collaborative approach. Third-party comparisons describe Rootly as a "collaboration-first" platform with modular pricing, which gives organizations the flexibility to choose the services they need [5]. This highlights a key philosophical difference: PagerDuty gets the right person's attention, while Rootly empowers the entire team to resolve the issue efficiently.
Conclusion: Why Rootly is the Stronger PagerDuty Alternative
While PagerDuty is a capable tool for on-call alerting, Rootly offers a more complete and modern solution for incident management. For teams looking to build a resilient, efficient, and collaborative response process, Rootly is the superior choice.
Here’s why:
- Comprehensive Automation: Rootly automates the entire incident lifecycle, from declaration to retrospective, saving engineers from administrative busywork.
- Collaboration-Centric: Built to live inside Slack and other communication hubs, Rootly meets your team where they already work.
- Unified Platform: With Rootly, you can consolidate alerting, on-call management, incident response, and retrospectives into a single tool, reducing complexity and cost.
- Flexible & Scalable: Rootly can either augment your existing PagerDuty setup or replace it entirely, providing a path forward for any organization.
If you're ready to move beyond basic alerting and embrace a modern approach to incident management, it's time to consider Rootly.
Ready to see how Rootly can transform your incident response? Book a demo today.