Rootly vs Squadcast
SEPT 2026 auditA comparison of Rootly and Squadcast built from values read directly from each provider's own documentation, with the source recorded against every figure.
The short answer
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
Choose Squadcast if…
Paging people in more than one country without watching a meter. SMS and voice are worldwide and inside the $15 seat — no cap, no regional split, no headcount multiplier — which is the only plan here where an engineer in Europe costs the same to page as one in Ohio.
Editorial · Palash Bagchi · approved
Consider something else if…
- 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.
- Squadcast: You want to start free. There is no standing free plan, only a 14-day trial, so a five-person team that would pay nothing on PagerDuty or Opsgenie starts at $75 a month. The $15 is also described as a starting price rather than the price.
3 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.
Rootly 0
Squadcast 0
At a glance.
| Criterion | Rootly | Squadcast |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | ||
| Entry paid plan | $20 per user per month for Essentials. | $15 per user per month billed annually, described as a starting price. |
| Pricing model | 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. | Per user per month, with SMS and voice notifications worldwide included in the seat rather than allowanced — the only one of the four that does not gate notification volume by tier or headcount. |
| On-call | ||
| SMS and voice allowance | 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. | SMS and voice worldwide, plus unlimited email and push, all included in the seat price with no published cap and no regional split. |
Where they differ.
Entry paid plan
- Rootly
- $20 per user per month for Essentials.
- Squadcast
- $15 per user per month billed annually, described as a starting price.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- 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
- Squadcast Pricing ↗
“pro modern on-call and incident response starts at: $ 15 per user/month, billed annually”
Read 2026-09-16 · official pricing
Pricing model
- 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.
- Squadcast
- Per user per month, with SMS and voice notifications worldwide included in the seat rather than allowanced — the only one of the four that does not gate notification volume by tier or headcount.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- 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
- Squadcast Pricing ↗
“unlimited email and push sms and voice notifications (worldwide) schedules and escalations incident notes response actions”
Read 2026-09-16 · official pricing
SMS and voice allowance
- 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.
- Squadcast
- SMS and voice worldwide, plus unlimited email and push, all included in the seat price with no published cap and no regional split.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- 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
- Squadcast Pricing ↗
“knowledge base unlimited email and push sms and voice notifications (worldwide) schedules and escalations”
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: Rootly or Squadcast?
Rootly: $20 per user per month for Essentials.
Squadcast: $15 per user per month billed annually, described as a starting price.
Should I choose Rootly or Squadcast?
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.
Pick Squadcast if Paging people in more than one country without watching a meter. SMS and voice are worldwide and inside the $15 seat — no cap, no regional split, no headcount multiplier — which is the only plan here where an engineer in Europe costs the same to page as one in Ohio.