Disclosure: This comparison is written by our product marketing team that works closely with IT operations and on-call workflows. While we build incident alerting software ourselves, this guide is designed to help teams understand how different tools fit different operational needs. We believe there is no single “best” tool. Only the right fit for a given team.
When systems fail, alerts need to do more than notify, they need to demand attention and clearly assign responsibility. For IT Operations teams, Network Operations Centers (NOCs), and system administrators, incident alerting and on-call management software is the backbone of reliable response, especially after hours.
At the same time, choosing the right tool has become harder. Many platforms overlap in features, online rankings often reflect very different use cases, and newer tools blur the line between alerting, incident management, coordination, and collaboration.
This guide compares the top incident alerting and on-call management software used by IT Ops, NOCs, and sysadmin-led teams in 2025. Rather than ranking a single “winner,” it focuses on fit, tradeoffs, and real-world workflows so you can shortlist tools with confidence.
To keep this evaluation practical and fair, each tool was assessed using the same criteria:
Alert delivery & modes (distinct, attention-critical alerts vs passive notifications)
On-call scheduling & escalation (rotations, failover, role-based routing)
Integrations & extensibility (monitoring tools, ticketing systems, public APIs)
Slack / Teams fit (working alongside collaboration tools without relying on them)
Operational fit for IT Ops, NOCs, and sysadmins
Pricing & support model (qualitative, not promotional)
| Tool | Best For | Alerting Approach | On-Call & Escalation | Slack / Teams Fit | Pricing Fit |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| OnPage | IT Ops, NOCs, after-hours response | Attention-critical, persistent alerts | Role-based routing with structured escalation | Works alongside chat for visibility, not primary alerting | Mid-market |
| Opsgenie (Atlassian) | Atlassian-centric IT teams | Configurable notifications tied to Jira workflows | Flexible schedules and escalation policies | Strong Slack integration within Atlassian ecosystem | Mid-market |
| PagerDuty | Large enterprises with many services | Broad alerting across services and events | Highly configurable escalation and service ownership | Robust integrations, higher operational complexity | Enterprise |
| Splunk On-Call | Splunk-first environments | Alerting driven by observability data | Integrated on-call within Splunk workflows | Adequate collaboration integrations | Enterprise |
| xMatters | Complex enterprise operations | Event-driven notifications and workflows | Advanced orchestration and escalation logic | Enterprise-grade chat integrations | Enterprise |
Best for:
IT Operations teams, database admins, NOCs/network engineers, SRE and system administrators who need attention-critical alerting and reliable escalation, especially after hours. OnPage is also popular with field technicians in Oil & Gas, Utilities, Facilities, Manufacturing etc.
Overview:
OnPage focuses on delivering alerts that are hard to miss and clearly assigning responsibility during incidents. It is commonly evaluated by teams that want confidence alerts will reach the right responder, even when devices are silenced or coverage is lean.
Alerting & On-Call:
Alerts are designed to demand attention and remain persistent until acknowledged. Routing is based on services, teams, or roles rather than individuals, keeping ownership clear as schedules change.
Integrations & APIs:
Integrates with monitoring, infrastructure, and IT systems, with APIs available for teams building custom workflows.
Slack / Teams Fit:
Teams can trigger, initiate, acknowledge and close out OnPage alerts from within Teams/Slack environment without switching context. Bi-directional integration ensures alert actions and responses are synced across both platforms in real time.
Pricing & Support:
Pricing typically scales by users and usage, which is common in this category. Often chosen by teams that value workflow alignment, responsive support and an inclusive engineering team.
Who this tool is not for:
While OnPage has extensive reporting to see all alerts in one place, it might not be the best fit as of now for use cases that require a single, centralized pane of glass showing the real-time status of all services across the organization. The new enterprise management console will have this feature.
Best for:
Teams already standardized on Atlassian tools like Jira.
Overview:
Opsgenie is tightly integrated into the Atlassian ecosystem and is often selected by teams that want incident alerting embedded into Jira-centric workflows.
Alerting & On-Call:
Strong scheduling, escalation, and notification controls.
Integrations & APIs:
Deep Atlassian integrations plus APIs for extension.
Slack / Teams Fit:
Works well with Slack, especially for Jira-driven teams.
Pricing & Support:
Typically priced per user, with costs scaling as teams grow.
Who this tool is not for:
Teams that are not heavily invested in the Atlassian ecosystem.
Best for:
Large enterprises with complex, multi-service environments.
Overview:
PagerDuty is a well established platform within this space and is often used by large organizations managing many services at scale.
Alerting & On-Call:
Highly configurable alerting, escalation, and service ownership models.
Integrations & APIs:
Extensive integration catalog and robust APIs.
Slack / Teams Fit:
Strong integrations, though setup and configuration can be heavy.
Pricing & Support:
Typically priced per user or per alert, with costs scaling quickly at enterprise levels.
Who this tool is not for:
Smaller teams that want lightweight setup and lower operational overhead.
Best for:
Organizations already invested in Splunk.
Overview:
Splunk On-Call ties incident alerting closely to Splunk’s observability platform.
Alerting & On-Call:
Strong when used alongside Splunk data and workflows.
Integrations & APIs:
Best fit within the Splunk ecosystem.
Slack / Teams Fit:
Adequate collaboration integrations.
Pricing & Support:
Enterprise-oriented pricing, typically bundled with Splunk usage.
Who this tool is not for:
Teams looking for a standalone alerting platform without Splunk. Also since its acquisition, the on-call platform hasn’t seen major upgrades or feature additions.
Best for:
Enterprises needing complex event orchestration.
Overview:
xMatters is often chosen for advanced workflow automation beyond basic alerting.
Alerting & On-Call:
Highly configurable, but can be complex to manage.
Integrations & APIs:
Extensive integrations and automation options.
Slack / Teams Fit:
Enterprise-grade integrations for large teams.
Pricing & Support:
Typically enterprise-level pricing.
Who this tool is not for:
Teams seeking a simple, lightweight on-call solution.
Tools like incident.io and Rootly are often evaluated alongside alerting platforms, but they serve a different purpose. They focus on incident coordination, roles, timelines, and post-incident reviews, often inside Slack.
These tools do not replace incident alerting or on-call management. Instead, they are commonly layered on top of alerting platforms to improve coordination once the right people are already aware of an incident.
One common mistake, especially among smaller teams, is choosing a tool solely because it is highly rated or frequently recommended online. While popularity can be a useful signal, it often reflects the needs of much larger organizations.
Teams sometimes discover later that costs scale faster than expected or that workflow-specific feature requests receive limited attention because the vendor is optimized for enterprise customers. Evaluating pricing models, support structure, and long-term fit early helps avoid these surprises.
There is no single “best” incident alerting and on-call tool. The right choice depends on:
Team size and growth trajectory
Coverage model (24/7 NOC, follow-the-sun, rotating engineers)
Environment complexity
Integration needs across monitoring, infrastructure, and collaboration tools
How critical after-hours response is to your operations
Shortlisting two to three tools and testing them against real scenarios is often the most effective approach.
Incident alerting and on-call software should be evaluated based on fit, reliability, and operational reality, not popularity alone. The best tools are those that reliably force attention, clearly assign ownership, and integrate cleanly into how your team already works.
If you want a deeper framework for evaluating these tools, see our OnPage University guide on how to evaluate incident alerting and on-call software.
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