PagerDuty vs Rootly
SEPT 2026 auditA comparison of PagerDuty and Rootly built from values read directly from each provider's own documentation, with the source recorded against every figure.
The short answer
Choose 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.
Editorial · Palash Bagchi · approved
Choose 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.
Editorial · Palash Bagchi · approved
Consider something else if…
- 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.
- 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.
4 sourced criteria separate them — see where, with sources, below.
Pick the criteria you care about. The chart counts how many of them lean toward each provider — the same read as scanning the bars below, just totalled for the ones you chose.
PagerDuty 0
Rootly 0
At a glance.
| Criterion | PagerDuty | Rootly |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | ||
| 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. |
| On-call | ||
| 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.
- Rootly
- $20 per user per month for Essentials.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- PagerDuty Pricing ↗
“save $48/user annually $25 $25 $21 per user /month start free trial”
Read 2026-09-16 · official pricing
- Rootly Pricing ↗
“incident response on-call ai sre essentials $20 per user/mo purpose-built incident management for growing companies.”
Read 2026-09-16 · official 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.
- 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.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- PagerDuty Pricing ↗
“free plan, plus: basic chat experience (slack, microsoft teams) more international phone/sms notifications more on-call schedules more escalation policies”
Read 2026-09-16 · official pricing
- Rootly Pricing ↗
“live call routing (incl. call routing tree) 1 number 5 numbers alert sources (sentry, datadog, prometheus, etc.) sms, voice, push, bypass dnd support for china heartbeats schedules and escalation policies 20 unlimited”
Read 2026-09-16 · official 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.
- 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.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- PagerDuty Pricing ↗
“100/month international phone/sms notifications included [...] free plan, plus: basic chat experience (slack, microsoft teams) more international phone/sms notifications”
Read 2026-09-16 · official pricing
- Rootly Pricing ↗
“live call routing (incl. call routing tree) 1 number 5 numbers alert sources (sentry, datadog, prometheus, etc.) sms, voice, push, bypass dnd support for china”
Read 2026-09-16 · official 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.
- 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.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- PagerDuty Pricing ↗
“1 on-call schedule 1 escalation policy api calls included 750+ out-of-box integrations”
Read 2026-09-16 · official pricing
- Rootly Pricing ↗
“heartbeats schedules and escalation policies 20 unlimited dynamic escalation paths shadow rotations”
Read 2026-09-16 · official pricing
When these numbers change, hear about it. Sources are re-checked monthly; a repricing goes out as a short note.
Documented by only one.
These criteria are published by one provider and not the other. An absence here means we have not found a source, not that the feature is missing.
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.