When I reviewed PagerDuty, I found that it gets the core incident management features right: Strong Slack integration, powerful bi-directional Jira sync, service-based on-call handoff notifications, and detailed incident timelines.
But you’re here, looking for PagerDuty alternatives, likely for a reason. Maybe its automation is too expensive, or setting up war rooms is complex. Perhaps you want override comments or more control over how your team gets alerted.
To help you, I’ve shared 5 better PagerDuty alternatives in this blog post. I also included a feature checklist that covers all the finer details.
This isn’t just another listicle; I personally signed up for and tested each tool thoroughly. I set up services, configured alert channels, designed escalation policies, and built on-call schedules to evaluate their alerting, incident response, and on-call management capabilities.
My goal is to help you find the best PagerDuty alternative for your team’s incident management needs.
Let’s get started!
Table of Contents
5 Better PagerDuty Alternatives for Incident Management
| Tool | Best For | Starting Price |
|---|---|---|
| Spike | Teams wanting a straightforward, cost-effective incident management platform with powerful automation | $7/user/month |
| Incident.io | Teams that live in Slack or Microsoft Teams and want deep customization | $19 base + $12/on-call user/month |
| Squadcast | Reliability engineering teams that need advanced alert routing with machine learning capabilities | $12/user/month |
| Zenduty | Teams that need structured incident response with task templates and SLA tracking | $6/user/month |
| OpsGenie | No longer available (new sales ended on June 4, 2025) | N/A |
1. Spike
Spike is a modern incident management platform built to be a simpler, more affordable alternative to PagerDuty. It handles the complete incident lifecycle, from alerting to post-incident analysis, without complex workflows and high costs.
Why Choose Spike as a PagerDuty Alternative for Incident Management
- You get both team and individual control over alerts. Managers can set specific alert methods, while users can still set personal preferences. Spike offers powerful automation with alert rules and playbooks to reduce noise.
- Creating war rooms and tickets is simple with one-click actions. You can instantly start Google Meet calls or create Jira, Linear, and ClickUp tickets without complex workflow setup.
- On-call scheduling is fast with a live calendar preview on the side. You can clone entire schedules, add override comments for context, and trigger webhooks when shifts change to automate tasks like granting database access to on-call responders.
- Status pages are included on all plans with no subscriber limits or hidden fees. Timeline tracking captures everything from alert triggers to resolution notes, and you can trigger webhooks for automated postmortem creation.
Spike also offers ready-to-use templates to create escalation policies, on-call schedules, and alert rules. This way, you don’t have to set up things from scratch and can get started quickly.
Limitations
Unlike PagerDuty, Spike doesn’t have native Zoom integration or bi-directional Jira sync. It also lacks built-in postmortem templates and doesn’t let you duplicate individual schedule layers.
Starting Price: $7/user/month
Best for
Teams that want a straightforward, cost-effective incident management platform with powerful automation. Perfect for organizations that need a quick setup without complexity.
Hear what Muhammad Hani, Head of Engineering at Thndr, said about Spike
2. Incident.io
Incident.io is a chat-native incident management platform. It is built for teams that work mainly in Slack and Microsoft Teams.
Why Choose Incident.io as a PagerDuty alternative for Incident Management
- You can hold alerts in a triage state to reduce noise. Escalation policies use an intuitive flowchart style to route alerts based on conditions like working hours or priority.
- It automatically creates dedicated Slack channels for each incident. Post-incident analysis includes structured flows with assigned tasks and deadlines.
- Creating on-call schedules is straightforward. You can import public holidays and set up concurrent shifts for training or shared coverage.
- You can create overrides by typing in plain language, like “Alice today from 6 pm to 10 pm.” The tool also shows a helpful before-and-after preview when you edit a schedule.
Limitations
The initial setup can be complex, and its many options can be overwhelming. Status pages are severely limited on lower plans. It lacks features like auto-acknowledgment or a main calendar view for on-call schedules. And its deep Slack focus may not suit all teams.
Starting Price: $19 base + $12/on-call user/month
Best for
Teams that live in Slack or Microsoft Teams and want deep customization. It’s a good fit for those who don’t mind a complex setup in exchange for powerful workflow automation.
3. Squadcast
Squadcast is an incident management platform designed for reliability engineering teams. It offers advanced alert routing and intelligent noise reduction.
Why Choose Squadcast as a PagerDuty Alternative for Incident Management
- It uses machine learning to group related alerts and reduce noise. You can also set working hours for each service to route alerts differently during non-working hours.
- You get flexible escalation policies with round-robin routing. Policies can also repeat, send reminders, or re-trigger if an incident is not resolved.
- It supports automatic creation of dedicated Slack channels for incidents. You also get a unified incident timeline and a one-click button to create postmortems.
- Creating on-call schedules is easy with pre-set rotation patterns. A built-in feature helps you spot coverage gaps instantly, and you can add a reason for overrides to give your team more context.
Limitations
You need to contact support to enable phone and SMS alerts. You cannot trigger test alerts to check if your notification channels are working. It also lacks native Google Meet or Zoom integration. And the platform offers many configuration options, which can mean too many decisions during setup.
Starting Price: $12/user/month
Best for
Reliability engineering teams that need advanced alert routing with machine learning capabilities. Good fit for organizations that value detailed workflow automation and structured post-incident analysis.
4. Zenduty
Zenduty is an incident management platform focused on structured workflows and stakeholder communication. It offers detailed task management and SLA tracking alongside core incident management features.
Why Choose Zenduty as a PagerDuty Alternative for Incident Management
- Escalation policies can move to the next rule if no user is found. This prevents policies from getting stuck. You can also acknowledge or resolve incidents directly from email alerts.
- You can add task templates and SLA policies to each service. Task templates work like checklists for new team members, while SLA policies set response time targets.
- It offers instant war room creation from the dashboard or Slack. You get two-way Jira integration. You can also add stakeholders to incidents and send messages directly from the dashboard using templates for consistent communication.
- You can create on-call schedules with side-by-side preview and use ZenAI to generate schedule layers automatically. The dashboard shows a complete history of past and scheduled overrides, giving you a clear log of coverage changes.
Limitations
Zenduty does not include a built-in status page, which adds extra cost through integrations. Its repeat escalation delay is fixed at one minute, which is often too short. Getting alerts on specific Slack channels also requires a more complex setup process.
Starting Price: $6/user/month
Best for
Teams that need structured incident response with task templates and SLA tracking. Good fit for organizations that want bi-directional Jira integration and comprehensive stakeholder communication tools.
5. OpsGenie
Though OpsGenie is a popular PagerDuty alternative for incident management, I didn’t review it.
The reason: Atlassian is shutting down OpsGenie. They have already ended new sales for OpsGenie on June 4, 2025, and scheduled a complete shutdown in April 2027.
I’ve covered more about it in these blog posts:
- OpsGenie Shutdown: What You Need to Know and Your Next Steps
- OpsGenie Alternatives: Your 12-Point Evaluation Checklist
- 6 Better OpsGenie Alternatives You Can Switch To
With OpsGenie shutting down, businesses are switching to Spike with 50% off. Learn more →
Incident Management Checklist: How Each Tool Stacks Up
I’ve discussed all the core incident management features of each tool. But certain details can make a real difference in your daily work. This checklist breaks down those specifics for you.
| Checklist item | Spike | PagerDuty | Incident.io | Squadcast | Zenduty |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ready-to-use escalation, on-call, and alert rules templates | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ |
| Time-based escalations (business hours, off-hours) | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| DND/silence bypass for only critical alerts | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ |
| Channel-specific escalation rules (e.g. phone for primary, push for secondary) | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ | ❌ |
| Acknowledge/resolve/comment from chat apps (Slack, Teams) | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Granular control over incident suppression | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ |
| Trigger incidents from incoming emails directly | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Auto-update status page incidents | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| On-call shift change notifications | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| No separate pricing for on-call | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ |
Final Thoughts
Every PagerDuty alternative I discussed here brings something unique to the table.
However, most teams need a solid all-rounder—a tool that handles alerting, response, and on-call well without a steep learning curve or a high price tag.
Spike was built to be that tool. It’s a straightforward, cost-effective platform that solves the daily frustrations you might have with PagerDuty.
If you want to see how it can help your team, you can test it for free.