# PagerDuty vs Rootly

Canonical: https://inetgeek.com/compare/pagerduty-vs-rootly/

Every value below is read from PagerDuty's and Rootly's own documentation. See https://inetgeek.com/methodology/ for how.

## At a glance

| Criterion | PagerDuty | Rootly |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Entry paid plan | $25 per user per month for Professional, or $21 billed annually — the dearest seat of the four. | $20 per user per month for Essentials. |
| Pricing model | Per user per month, with the things that make an on-call tool work — notification volume, number of schedules, number of escalation policies — all gated by tier rather than sold separately. | Per user per month. What the tier buys is scale rather than features: 20 schedules and escalation policies on Essentials against unlimited above it, and one live call-routing number against five. |
| SMS and voice allowance | 100 international phone or SMS notifications a month on the free plan, account-wide. Professional promises "more" without saying how many — the figure is published for the free tier and not for the paid one. | SMS, voice, push and bypass-do-not-disturb on every tier, with no published count for any of them. What is metered instead is live call routing: one phone number on Essentials, five above it. |
| On-call schedules | 1 schedule and 1 escalation policy on the free plan. Professional says "more on-call schedules" and "more escalation policies" with no number attached. | 20 schedules and escalation policies on Essentials; unlimited on the tier above. The only vendor of the four to put a number on this at a paid tier. |

## Where they differ

### Entry paid plan

- PagerDuty: $25 per user per month for Professional, or $21 billed annually — the dearest seat of the four. ([source](https://www.pagerduty.com/pricing/))
- Rootly: $20 per user per month for Essentials. ([source](https://rootly.com/pricing))

### Pricing model

- PagerDuty: Per user per month, with the things that make an on-call tool work — notification volume, number of schedules, number of escalation policies — all gated by tier rather than sold separately. ([source](https://www.pagerduty.com/pricing/))
- Rootly: Per user per month. What the tier buys is scale rather than features: 20 schedules and escalation policies on Essentials against unlimited above it, and one live call-routing number against five. ([source](https://rootly.com/pricing))

### SMS and voice allowance

- PagerDuty: 100 international phone or SMS notifications a month on the free plan, account-wide. Professional promises "more" without saying how many — the figure is published for the free tier and not for the paid one. ([source](https://www.pagerduty.com/pricing/))
- Rootly: SMS, voice, push and bypass-do-not-disturb on every tier, with no published count for any of them. What is metered instead is live call routing: one phone number on Essentials, five above it. ([source](https://rootly.com/pricing))

### On-call schedules

- PagerDuty: 1 schedule and 1 escalation policy on the free plan. Professional says "more on-call schedules" and "more escalation policies" with no number attached. ([source](https://www.pagerduty.com/pricing/))
- Rootly: 20 schedules and escalation policies on Essentials; unlimited on the tier above. The only vendor of the four to put a number on this at a paid tier. ([source](https://rootly.com/pricing))

## Which should you choose?

Pick PagerDuty if The incumbent, and the one most likely to already integrate with whatever you run — 750+ out-of-box integrations on the free plan. Five users, one schedule and one escalation policy free is enough to run a real rota for a small team before paying anything.

Pick Rootly if Running incidents inside Slack, with enough rotas to matter. Essentials holds 20 schedules and escalation policies at $20 a user — the only vendor here to put a number on that at a paid tier rather than saying "more" — and SMS, voice, push and bypass-do-not-disturb are on every plan.

Consider something else: PagerDuty — You are counting seats or notifications. At $25 a user it is the dearest here, roughly 2.6x Opsgenie's annual rate, and the notification allowance above the free tier is stated only as "more" — the figure is published for the plan you are not paying for.

Consider something else: Rootly — You need live call routing at more than one number, or you want to try before buying. One phone number on Essentials against five above it, and the pricing page shows no $0 plan and states nothing either way about a trial.

## Documented by only one

- Free tier: PagerDuty: Yes
- Kind of free offer: PagerDuty: Free tier
- What the free plan includes: PagerDuty: Up to 5 users, 100 international phone or SMS notifications a month, 1 on-call schedule and 1 escalation policy.

## Questions this comparison answers

**Entry paid plan: PagerDuty or Rootly?**

PagerDuty: $25 per user per month for Professional, or $21 billed annually — the dearest seat of the four.
Rootly: $20 per user per month for Essentials.

**Should I choose PagerDuty or Rootly?**

Pick PagerDuty if The incumbent, and the one most likely to already integrate with whatever you run — 750+ out-of-box integrations on the free plan. Five users, one schedule and one escalation policy free is enough to run a real rota for a small team before paying anything.
Pick Rootly if Running incidents inside Slack, with enough rotas to matter. Essentials holds 20 schedules and escalation policies at $20 a user — the only vendor here to put a number on that at a paid tier rather than saying "more" — and SMS, voice, push and bypass-do-not-disturb are on every plan.