SoftwareGlimpse

PagerDuty vs Rootly

PagerDuty fits sre/it teams that need on-call schedules and paging; Rootly fits slack-first teams buying incident command at a published $20/user floor.

Independently recommendedLast updated Aug 18, 20266 evidence sources6 screenshotsHow we compare
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PagerDuty logo

PagerDuty

8/10

On-call / incident response — Free ≤5 responders; Professional $21/user/mo annual ($25 monthly); Business $41 ($49 monthly); Enterprise contact.

Best for

  • • SRE/IT teams that need on-call schedules and paging
  • • Orgs already sending alerts from Datadog/CloudWatch
  • • Incident commanders who want a dedicated ops cloud

Starting from $21.00/user/mo

Free plan available

Visit PagerDuty
Read review

VS

Our verdict

Our verdict

No universal winner

There is no universal winner between PagerDuty and Rootly. Choose PagerDuty when SRE/IT teams that need on-call schedules and paging. Choose Rootly when Slack-first teams buying incident command at a published $20/user floor. Criterion scores come from approved SoftwareGlimpse editorial assessments and first-party research — not hands-on lab testing.

PagerDuty is better for

  • ✓ Free plan
  • ✓ Integrations
  • ✓ Security & admin

Choose PagerDuty if: SRE/IT teams that need on-call schedules and paging

Choose Rootly if: Slack-first teams buying incident command at a published $20/user floor

See detailed comparison ↓
Rootly logo

Rootly

7.7/10

Incident response — Incident Response Essentials $20/user/mo; On-Call Essentials $20/user; Enterprise custom. Does not outrank PagerDuty 8.0.

Best for

  • • Slack-first teams buying incident command at a published $20/user floor
  • • Buyers who will add On-Call Essentials only if they need paging
  • • Comparisons versus FireHydrant Pro $25 and incident.io Team $15

Starting from $20.00/user/mo

No free plan

Visit Rootly
Read review

Quick verdict

Start here — then dig into the evidence below.

Choose PagerDuty if…

  • SRE/IT teams that need on-call schedules and paging
  • Orgs already sending alerts from Datadog/CloudWatch
  • Incident commanders who want a dedicated ops cloud
  • You prioritize free plan

Choose Rootly if…

  • Slack-first teams buying incident command at a published $20/user floor
  • Buyers who will add On-Call Essentials only if they need paging
  • Comparisons versus FireHydrant Pro $25 and incident.io Team $15

Overall recommendation

There is no universal winner between PagerDuty and Rootly. Choose PagerDuty when SRE/IT teams that need on-call schedules and paging. Choose Rootly when Slack-first teams buying incident command at a published $20/user floor. Criterion scores come from approved SoftwareGlimpse editorial assessments and first-party research — not hands-on lab testing.

Key trade-off

PagerDuty's clearest edge is free plan.

Winner by category

Only dimensions with researched evidence for this pair.

DimensionWinnerWhy
Free planPagerDuty winsPagerDuty researches a free plan; Rootly does not research a free plan.
IntegrationsPagerDuty winsPagerDuty leads on integrations (9/10 vs 8/10) from approved SoftwareGlimpse editorial assessments — not hands-on lab testing.
Security & adminPagerDuty winsPagerDuty leads on security admin (8/10 vs 7/10) from approved SoftwareGlimpse editorial assessments — not hands-on lab testing.

Side-by-side feature matrix

Normalized availability from product research — empty rows are not shown.

Capabilities

FeaturePagerDutyRootly
Incident managementStrongStrong
Change & problem managementModerateModerate
Service catalogLimitedLimited
Infrastructure monitoringModerateModerate
APM & distributed tracingLimitedLimited
Log managementLimitedLimited
Source control & reposLimitedLimited
CI/CD & automationLimitedModerate
Hosting control panelLimitedLimited
Proxy / web data networkLimitedLimited
ITSM AI assistanceModerateModerate
Developer AI assistanceModerateModerate
On-call & pagingStrongModerate
Enterprise security & SSOModerateModerate
Analytics & reportingStrongStrong
Managed hosting platformNot evidencedLimited

Pricing comparison

Pricing evidence last checked Sep 8, 2026.

PagerDuty logo

PagerDuty

From $21.00/user/mo

Free plan availableFree trial available
  • Free$0.00/user/mo
  • Professional$21.00/user/mo
  • Business$41.00/user/mo
  • EnterpriseCustom
Rootly logo

Rootly

From $20.00/user/mo

No free planNo free trial evidenced
  • Incident Response Essentials$20.00/user/mo
  • On-Call Essentials$20.00/user/mo
  • EnterpriseCustom

Seat-count estimates

Labeled estimates from verified starting per-seat pricing — not invoices.

SeatsPagerDutyRootly
5~$105.00/mo (5 × starting seat)~$100.00/mo (5 × starting seat)
10~$210.00/mo (10 × starting seat)~$200.00/mo (10 × starting seat)
25~$525.00/mo (25 × starting seat)~$500.00/mo (25 × starting seat)
50~$1,050.00/mo (50 × starting seat)~$1,000.00/mo (50 × starting seat)

Estimate from verified starting per-seat pricing — actual total depends on plan, annual discounts, and add-ons.

PagerDuty researched starting price from $21/mo; a free plan is researched. Rootly researched starting price from $20/mo. Affiliate economics excluded.

Open cost calculator →

Best for

Scenario picks from researched strengths — not a universal ranking.

  • → PagerDuty

    Best for free plan

    PagerDuty researches a free plan; Rootly does not research a free plan.

  • → PagerDuty

    Best for integrations

    PagerDuty leads on integrations (9/10 vs 8/10) from approved SoftwareGlimpse editorial assessments — not hands-on lab testing.

  • → PagerDuty

    Best for security & admin

    PagerDuty leads on security admin (8/10 vs 7/10) from approved SoftwareGlimpse editorial assessments — not hands-on lab testing.

The differences that actually matter

Pair-specific analysis for PagerDuty vs Rootly — not generic category copy.

  • Free plan

    PagerDuty ahead

    On free plan, PagerDuty is ahead. PagerDuty: PagerDuty researches a free plan; Rootly does not research a free plan.. Rootly: Trails PagerDuty on this criterion. Feature evidence also diverges on CI/CD & automation (PagerDuty: Limited; Rootly: Moderate); On-call & paging (PagerDuty: Strong; Rootly: Moderate); Enterprise security & SSO (PagerDuty: Moderate; Rootly: Moderate).

  • Integrations

    PagerDuty ahead

    On integrations, PagerDuty is ahead. PagerDuty: PagerDuty leads on integrations (9/10 vs 8/10) from approved SoftwareGlimpse editorial assessments — not hands-on lab testing.. Rootly: Trails PagerDuty on this criterion.

  • Security & admin

    PagerDuty ahead

    On security & admin, PagerDuty is ahead. PagerDuty: PagerDuty leads on security admin (8/10 vs 7/10) from approved SoftwareGlimpse editorial assessments — not hands-on lab testing.. Rootly: Trails PagerDuty on this criterion.

Pros and cons

Product-specific for this pair — derived from researched outcomes and editorial notes.

PagerDuty logo

PagerDuty

Pros

  • Stronger on free plan
  • Stronger on integrations
  • Stronger on security & admin
Rootly logo

Rootly

Cons

  • Trails on free plan
  • Trails on integrations
  • Trails on security & admin

Who should not choose each product

Decision quality improves when we say who should walk away.

Don't choose PagerDuty if…

  • Your primary fit looks closer to: Slack-first teams buying incident command at a published $20/user floor
  • Your primary fit looks closer to: Buyers who will add On-Call Essentials only if they need paging

Don't choose Rootly if…

  • You need PagerDuty's stronger free plan more than Rootly's strengths
  • You need PagerDuty's stronger integrations more than Rootly's strengths
  • You need PagerDuty's stronger security & admin more than Rootly's strengths
  • Your primary fit looks closer to: SRE/IT teams that need on-call schedules and paging

Alternatives worth considering

When neither product is the right fit.

  • Datadog logoDatadog

    Observability suite — infrastructure, APM, logs, and security signals with consumption/host pricing; Infrastructure Pro from $15/host/mo annual.

  • Jira Service Management logoJira Service Management

    Atlassian ITSM on Jira Cloud — Free ≤3 agents; Standard from $20/agent/mo; Premium ~$51.42/agent/mo; Enterprise contact.

  • incident.io logoincident.io

    Incident response — Basic Free; Team $15/user/mo annual ($19 monthly); Pro $25/user; on-call add-on +$10–$20/user. Does not outrank PagerDuty 8.0.

  • Grafana Cloud logoGrafana Cloud

    Managed Grafana observability — Free 10k series / 50 GB logs; Pro from $19/mo platform fee + usage ($6.50/1k series, $8/user).

Final verdict

Scenario-level close — not a repeat of the intro.

PagerDuty wins when…

SRE/IT teams that need on-call schedules and paging

Rootly wins when…

Slack-first teams buying incident command at a published $20/user floor

  • Best for free planPagerDuty
  • Best for integrationsPagerDuty
  • Best for security & adminPagerDuty

Which one should you choose?

Choose PagerDuty if:

  • SRE/IT teams that need on-call schedules and paging
  • Orgs already sending alerts from Datadog/CloudWatch
  • Incident commanders who want a dedicated ops cloud

Choose Rootly if:

  • Slack-first teams buying incident command at a published $20/user floor
  • Buyers who will add On-Call Essentials only if they need paging
  • Comparisons versus FireHydrant Pro $25 and incident.io Team $15

Product screenshots

Real product UI from our media library — no placeholders.

PagerDuty

  • Official PagerDuty incident-response marketing UI from pagerduty.com — not a SoftwareGlimpse lab screenshot.
  • Official PagerDuty incident-management marketing UI from pagerduty.com — not a SoftwareGlimpse lab screenshot.
  • Official PagerDuty on-call marketing UI from pagerduty.com — not a SoftwareGlimpse lab screenshot.
  • Official PagerDuty AI incident-response marketing UI from pagerduty.com — not a SoftwareGlimpse lab screenshot.

Rootly

  • Official Open Graph / marketing visual from https://rootly.com/.

FAQ

Is PagerDuty better than Rootly?
There is no universal winner between PagerDuty and Rootly. Choose PagerDuty when SRE/IT teams that need on-call schedules and paging. Choose Rootly when Slack-first teams buying incident command at a published $20/user floor. Criterion scores come from approved SoftwareGlimpse editorial assessments and first-party research — not hands-on lab testing.
Which It Development fits which team?
PagerDuty: SRE/IT teams that need on-call schedules and paging Rootly: Slack-first teams buying incident command at a published $20/user floor
Does PagerDuty or Rootly have a free plan?
PagerDuty: Free plan available. Rootly: No free plan.
How does PagerDuty vs Rootly pricing compare?
PagerDuty starts from $21.00/user/mo. Rootly starts from $20.00/user/mo. Confirm live vendor pricing before purchasing.
How did SoftwareGlimpse compare these products?
We map both products to the same category criteria, then evaluate trade-offs using verified product, pricing and feature evidence. Affiliate relationships never change outcomes.

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Affiliate disclosure: some links may be affiliate links. We may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Rankings and scores are never based on commission. Full disclosure

Methodology disclosure: scores and recommendations follow SoftwareGlimpse evaluation criteria (version 1.0.0). Affiliate relationships do not determine rankings.

How we recommend: product claims are tied to recorded research where available.

AI-assisted disclosure: drafts may be AI-assisted from approved facts and assessments. Humans approve publishable editorial judgments. AI does not invent live prices or claim hands-on testing.

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