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PagerDuty is a hosted platform for on-call response, automation and AI features, with broad integrations. These alternatives range from incident-management software to monitoring stacks you run yourself; they are not all like-for-like replacements. FireHydrant is the closest fit for incident workflows, while Prometheus and Zabbix suit teams willing to operate monitoring infrastructure. Compare starting prices with expected usage, and check whether each product supports your schedules, alert routes, APIs and data-export needs.
01Why people leave PagerDuty
Pricing no longer fits
Reddit users report price increases and high monthly costs. Check how seats, usage and add-ons affect your own bill before switching.
Scheduling feels like friction
One r/devops thread describes confusing scheduling and asks for a simpler mix of on-call scheduling, alerting and call routing.
The feature set exceeds the need
Some teams want basic on-call and alerting rather than a broader platform. Map the workflows you use before paying to replace them.
02The alternatives, ranked by fit
- Incident workflows
FireHydrantFireHydrantFireHydrant is the strongest fit here if you want incident lifecycle coverage rather than a monitoring stack with alerts. The pricing page lists a free plan and a starting price of $25; the product description cites 350+ API endpoints. Confirm which endpoints, production limits, SDKs and export options fit your migration before moving incident workflows.
Trade-off: Verify production limits and real usage costs before committing.
6.8/10from
$25/mofree plan - Telemetry teams
GrafanaGrafanaGrafana Cloud suits teams consolidating telemetry, especially those using OpenTelemetry or Prometheus. The pricing page lists a free plan and a $19 starting price, but costs can rise with telemetry usage. A Reddit commenter points to Grafana On-Call as an open-source option; confirm its current support, API coverage and fit for your scheduling workflows.
Trade-off: Telemetry costs can grow, and on-call fit needs checking.
7.6/10from
$19/mofree plan - Datadog users
DatadogDatadogChoose Datadog if you already use its monitoring and want to evaluate on-call alongside telemetry. A Reddit commenter notes that Datadog has an On-Call product. The pricing page lists a $500 starting price. Ask Datadog to confirm API and SDK coverage, on-call usage charges, data export and how existing schedules and alert routes map over.
Trade-off: The listed starting price is high; confirm total cost.
6.2/10from
$500/mo - OpenTelemetry users
New RelicNew RelicNew Relic is a hosted observability option for teams instrumenting with OpenTelemetry and seeking incident response across applications. The pricing page lists a free plan and a $10 starting price. Ingest and seat costs need close tracking, so model your expected volume and team size. Confirm API, SDK, alert-routing and export requirements before migrating.
Trade-off: Ingest and seat charges need ongoing review.
7.2/10from
$10/mofree plan - Self-run metrics
PrometheusPrometheusPrometheus is a free metrics-monitoring option for teams already using PromQL or willing to run their own monitoring servers. The listed starting price is $0, but your team takes on server operation and scaling. It covers metrics and alerting; validate whether its integrations and alert routing meet your on-call needs before treating it as a full replacement.
Trade-off: Your team operates and scales the servers.
7.8/10from
Freefree plan - Self-hosted monitoring
ZabbixZabbixZabbix fits teams seeking flexible infrastructure monitoring without per-device license fees, including organizations that want to self-host. Its listed pricing is n/a with a free plan. Setup and tuning take hands-on work, and monitoring is not automatically a replacement for incident scheduling. Check integrations, API needs and how you will handle on-call workflows.
Trade-off: Setup and tuning add operational work.
7.8/10from
Freefree plan
03Side by side
| Tool | Score | From | Free plan | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 PagerDuty PagerDuty (current) | 6.8 | $21/mo | Yes | Teams standardizing incident response |
| FireHydrant FireHydrant | 6.8 | $25/mo | Yes | Teams standardizing incident response |
| Grafana Grafana | 7.6 | $19/mo | Yes | Teams consolidating telemetry signals |
| Datadog Datadog | 6.2 | $500/mo | No | Teams consolidating observability and security |
| New Relic New Relic | 7.2 | $10/mo | Yes | Teams consolidating observability tools |
| Prometheus Prometheus | 7.8 | Free | Yes | Teams monitoring systems and services |
| Zabbix Zabbix | 7.8 | Free | Yes | Teams with self-hosting capacity |
Questions people ask
Which PagerDuty alternative is cheapest?
Prometheus lists a $0 starting price and free metrics monitoring; Zabbix lists a free plan, with pricing shown as n/a. Those figures do not account for operating infrastructure. Prometheus requires your team to run and scale servers, so compare total operating costs rather than subscription prices alone.
Which alternatives can we self-host or use as open source?
The product descriptions identify Prometheus as self-run and Zabbix as self-hosted. A Reddit commenter points to Grafana On-Call as open source. Check each project's current license, maintenance status and support terms before adopting it; self-hosting monitoring does not by itself replace on-call scheduling.
What should we check before migrating from PagerDuty?
Inventory schedules, escalation workflows, alert sources, integrations and incident records. Then ask each vendor which APIs and SDKs cover those needs, what rate or production limits apply, and how data export works. FireHydrant's product description cites 350+ API endpoints, but endpoint count alone does not establish migration coverage.