If you’re trying to figure out which tool you should pick between Zenduty vs. Spike for incident management, this detailed comparison will help you decide.
To write this blog, I signed up for both tools, tested them thoroughly, compared their incident management capabilities, and evaluated them across key criteria: alerting, incident response, on-call management, and pricing.
Also, I’ve included several summary tables and a comprehensive feature checklist. These give you a quick overview of what each tool offers.
Let’s dive in!
Table of Contents
Zenduty vs. Spike: Core Incident Management Criteria
- Alerting: How each platform alerts teams when an incident occurs. This includes setup ease, alert channels, and features to reduce alert fatigue.
- Incident Response: The tools and workflows available once an incident is triggered. This covers initial response, team collaboration, stakeholder communication, and post-incident actions.
- On-Call Management: How easy it is to create, manage, and override on-call schedules to handle everything from daily rotations to last-minute changes.
- Pricing: Breakdown of costs, plans, and overall value of each tool to help you understand what you get for your money.
Zenduty vs. Spike: Incident Management Comparison
| Criteria | Zenduty | Spike |
|---|---|---|
| Alerting | Individual control over alerts. Tedious Slack setup process. | Flexible team and individual control. Ready-to-use alert rule templates. |
| Incident Response | Manual war room creation. Limited automation triggers. | Built-in automation with Alert Rules and Playbooks. One-click war rooms. |
| On-Call Management | Three-step schedule creation. No cloning or favorites. | Simple setup with templates and live preview. Clone entire schedules. |
| Pricing | Free tier available. Paid plans start from $5/user/month. Some core features restricted to higher tiers | 14-day free trial available. Paid plans start from $7/user/month. All core features included from starter tier. |
Alerting: Zenduty vs. Spike
To test alerting, I created a service in both Zenduty and Spike. I integrated it with Healthchecks.io, configured different alert channels, and designed escalation policies. Then I triggered identical test alerts to see how each tool handles them.
Here’s a quick overview:
| Criteria | Zenduty | Spike |
|---|---|---|
| Alerting Philosophy | Individuals control their own alert preferences. | Both teams and individuals can control alerts. |
| Setup & Config | Tedious process for Slack channels. Two-way email responses. | Simple setup. Native WhatsApp, Telegram support. |
| Alert Channels | Strong multi-channel alerts. Round Robin escalation. | Multi-channel alerts. Webhook triggers for shift changes. |
| Alert Fatigue | Alert suppression and grouping features. | Alert suppression and grouping. Plus, automation features like Alert Rules reduce alert fatigue. |
Alerting in Zenduty
Zenduty gives individual users full control over their alert preferences. Each person sets their own alert methods and time delays. The platform includes features like Round Robin escalation and repeat policies.
However, getting alerts on specific Slack channels requires extra steps. You need to create an outgoing integration to Slack for your service, which makes the process tedious.
The escalation policy repetition has a fixed 1-minute delay, which might be too short for most teams.
Alerting in Spike
Spike uses a dual-control approach for alerting. Teams can set alert methods in escalation policies, while individuals can use alert overrides to customize their experience without changing team rules.
The setup is simpler with native support for WhatsApp, Telegram, and Pushover. You can reply to alert emails with #ack or #res to take action directly from your inbox.
Spike also offers ready-to-use templates for escalation policies and alert rules to get you started quickly.
Who Should Pick What
- Pick Zenduty if you need individual control over alerts and don’t mind extra setup steps for Slack integration.
- Pick Spike if you want flexible dual-control alerting with built-in templates and native support for WhatsApp, Telegram, and Pushover.
Incident Response: Zenduty vs. Spike
I used the same service and integration to test incident response workflows, collaboration features, and post-incident actions in both tools. This helped me understand how each tool handles the complete incident lifecycle.
Here’s a quick overview:
| Criteria | Zenduty | Spike |
|---|---|---|
| Initial Response | Rich Slack actions. Workflows with limited triggers. | Built-in automation with Alert Rules and Playbooks. |
| Team Collaboration | Manual war room setup. No dedicated Slack channels. | One-click war rooms. Dedicated incident channels. |
| Communication | No built-in status pages. Requires third-party integration. | Built-in status pages with instant preview. |
| Post-Incident Actions | Custom postmortem templates. AI-powered reports. | Single timeline view. Webhook-based postmortems. |
Incident Response in Zenduty
Zenduty provides comprehensive response options through Slack. You can assign incidents, add responders, view alerts, and manage tasks directly from Slack channels.
For automation, Zenduty offers Workflows, but it only has one trigger: Incident Created. This limits automation possibilities compared to other tools.
War room creation requires manual setup through outgoing integrations. Also, status pages require third-party integrations. However, you get postmortem templates with AI-powered reports.
Incident Response in Spike
Spike makes automation a standard part of incident response. Alert Rules and Playbooks provide extensive automation options with multiple triggers and conditions. You can auto-triage, acknowledge, and escalate incidents based on various criteria.
War room creation is simple with one-click access from the dashboard. You can add current escalation members, entire teams, or specific members to war rooms instantly. Spike also supports automatic war room creation through Playbooks.
The platform includes built-in status pages with instant previews. You can create public and private status pages, customize labels for your organization, and host them on your own domain.
Check out these example status pages of Spike: AirBnB and SpaceX
Who Should Pick What
- Pick Zenduty if you need custom postmortem templates with AI-powered reports and can work with manual setup processes.
- Pick Spike if you want extensive automation, one-click collaboration tools, and built-in status pages.
On-Call Management: Zenduty vs. Spike
I created on-call schedules in both platforms, set up rotations, and tested override functionality. This way, I could compare their day-to-day usability for on-call management.
| Criteria | Zenduty | Spike |
|---|---|---|
| Schedule Creation | Three-step process with preset patterns. | Simple setup with live preview and templates. |
| Flexibility | Edit options on dashboard. No cloning or favorites. | Clone schedules. Mark favorites for quick access. |
| Dashboard | Two views: listicle and timeline. Filter options. | List and calendar views. Activity logs included. |
| Overrides | Calendar-based interaction. Mandatory reason field. | Override button access. Optional comment field. |
On-Call Management in Zenduty
Zenduty uses a three-step process to build schedules. You add schedule details, choose rotation patterns, and customize the pattern. Pre-set rotation patterns act like templates to help you get started quickly.
The platform shows coverage gaps in red on the calendar preview. This helps you spot coverage issues before going live. However, adding new rotations to existing schedules requires multiple clicks through edit menus.
The dashboard provides two views: listicle and timeline. You can filter schedules by owner, participants, and escalation policies. However, there’s no option to favorite schedules for quick access.
On-Call Management in Spike
Spike makes schedule creation simple with a live calendar preview that updates as you configure settings. Ready-to-use on-call templates help you start quickly, and the interface shows exactly what your team will see.
Managing schedules is fast and flexible. You can clone entire schedules instead of rebuilding from scratch. The favorite feature lets you mark frequently used schedules for instant access from the sidebar.
Override creation is straightforward with a dedicated button. You can add optional comments to provide context for coverage changes. Spike also includes work-life balance features like out-of-office and cooldown modes.
Who Should Pick What
- Pick Zenduty if you need pre-set rotation patterns, coverage gap detection, and more filtering options.
- Pick Spike if you want fast setup with ready-to-use templates, flexible editing of schedules, and work-life balance features.
Pricing: Zenduty vs. Spike
Both Zenduty and Spike offer competitive pricing. They are attractive options for teams looking for affordable incident management solutions.
| Criteria | Zenduty | Spike |
|---|---|---|
| Free Tier | Available (5 users with basic features) | No free tier, but a 14-day free trial is available |
| Starting paid plan | $5/user/month | $7/user/month |
| Core Features | Some features restricted to higher tiers | All core features included from starter tier |
| Implementation Cost | More, due to setup complexity for integrations | Zero, due to quick setup with built-in features |
Pricing in Zenduty
Zenduty offers four main plans: Free, Starter ($5/user/month), Growth ($14/user/month), and Enterprise ($21/user/month).
The free plan supports up to 5 users with basic alerting and on-call features. The Starter plan provides good value for small teams. However, advanced features like unlimited SMS/phone alerts, incident command systems, and postmortem templates are only available in Growth and Enterprise tiers.
The platform’s extensive integration options provide flexibility. However, many collaboration features like war rooms require manual setup through outgoing integrations, which translates into implementation costs in the form of engineering time.
Pricing in Spike
Spike offers straightforward pricing with two plans: Starter at $7/user/month and Business at $14/user/month.
All core incident management features come built-in from the starter tier, including phone calls, SMS, on-call management, integrations, and status pages. The Business plan adds unlimited phone and SMS alerts, multiple teams, and unlimited alert rules & playbooks.
Setup is typically completed in hours rather than days. Built-in features like status pages, war rooms, and automation tools require no third-party integrations. This means there are no implementation costs.
Who Should Pick What
- Pick Zenduty if you want a free plan for a small team and don’t mind some features being in higher-priced tiers.
- Pick Spike if you prefer simple, transparent pricing with all features included from the start, and want a fast setup with no hidden costs.
Zenduty vs. Spike: Incident Management Checklist
Though we’ve evaluated the tools across core criteria, there are some features that can impact your daily incident management experience.
Here’s a 12-point checklist comparing the finer details of both tools so you know exactly what each platform offers.
| Feature | Zenduty | Spike |
|---|---|---|
| Separate spaces for teams to manage their incidents | ✅ | ✅ |
| Auto-trigger incidents from incoming emails | ✅ | ✅ |
| Auto-acknowledge incidents | ✅ | ✅ |
| Automatic incident suppression | ✅ | ✅ |
| Trigger external webhooks automatically | ✅ | ✅ |
| Auto-resolve incidents when system is healthy | ✅ | ✅ |
| Route alerts based on severity and priority | ❌ | ✅ |
| Route alerts based on time of day | ✅ | ✅ |
| Out-of-office routing for on-call responders | ✅ | ✅ |
| Ready-to-use templates (escalations, alert rules, and on-call) | ❌ | ✅ |
| Automatic postmortem creation | ✅ | ❌ |
| Granular control over incident suppression | ❌ | ❌ |
Final Thoughts
Both Zenduty and Spike are solid incident management tools. The right choice depends on your team’s budget, technical requirements, and setup complexity.
Pick Zenduty if you want a free plan for small teams, need AI-powered postmortem reports, and don’t mind manual setup for advanced features.
Pick Spike if you want built-in automation, quick setup with ready-to-use templates, and all core features included from the starter tier without third-party integrations.
While Zenduty offers good value with its free tier, Spike provides a more streamlined experience with extensive built-in features and transparent pricing that scales with your team’s growth.