grafana-oncallon-callalternatives

Grafana OnCall Alternatives After the Archive (2026)

Grafana OnCall OSS was archived March 24, 2026. Compare Grafana Cloud IRM and standalone alternatives for on-call migration.

Niketa SharmaApr 15, 2026Updated Jun 12, 20269 min read

Grafana OnCall OSS was archived on March 24, 2026. Current status: archived, with no new features and security patches only for CVSS 7.0+ vulnerabilities. SMS, phone, and push notifications via Cloud Connection stopped working on that date. If your team relied on OnCall OSS for paging, rotations, and Slack notifications, this is now a migration decision, not just a maintenance note.

If you were self-hosting Grafana OnCall OSS, your practical choices are to move to Grafana Cloud IRM, switch to another tool, or continue running the archived OSS version with its new limitations.

This list covers the first two options. Grafana Cloud IRM is included because it is the official migration path. The remaining five are standalone alternatives chosen for teams replacing Grafana OnCall OSS, not a full market map of every incident platform.

Disclosure: Runframe is our product. It is included alongside other options. Pricing and packaging information was sourced from public vendor pages in June 2026. Enterprise contracts, annual discounts, startup programs, usage-based fees, included notification allowances, and add-ons can change the final price.

At a glance

Tool | Price (per user/month) | Grafana Cloud Required? | On-Call Bundled? | Best For
Tool Price (per user/month) Grafana Cloud Required? On-Call Bundled? Best For
Runframe $15/user/mo (Free tier available) No Yes Startups who want Grafana OnCall simplicity without Grafana Cloud
Grafana Cloud IRM $19/mo platform fee includes 3 active IRM users, then $20/additional active IRM user Yes Yes Teams already invested in Grafana Cloud
PagerDuty Approx. $21-41/user/mo annual (Free tier, limited to 5 users) No Yes Enterprises needing broad integrations and compliance
incident.io Team is $19/user/mo monthly or $15/user/mo annual for incident response; multi-team on-call is a paid add-on No Add-on (separate pricing) Slack-heavy teams wanting structured incident workflows
Squadcast Free plan, Pro approx. $15/user/mo annual, Premium approx. $24/user/mo annual No Yes Budget-conscious teams that verify current plan mapping
Rootly Approx. $20/user/mo per product No Separate product Teams prioritizing workflow automation

The bottom line: If you were happy with OnCall OSS because it was simple, free, and worked, Runframe and Squadcast are closest in simplicity and scope. PagerDuty and incident.io offer more sophistication at higher cost. If you are already on Grafana Cloud, IRM is the path of least resistance.

Why migrate from Grafana OnCall OSS now

The archived repository can still run, but the operational risk changed. On-call tooling is the system you need when other systems fail. Running it without active feature development, normal support, or working Cloud Connection notifications creates a fragile dependency in the middle of incident response.

If you already use Grafana Cloud, evaluate Cloud IRM first and check the current Grafana Cloud IRM pricing. If you were using OnCall OSS because it was lightweight and standalone, compare Runframe, Squadcast, PagerDuty, incident.io, and Rootly before moving your team into a broader platform. For teams that want on-call, incident response, status pages, and postmortems in one product, compare the incident management tools with on-call list and Runframe pricing.

Teams also migrating from OpsGenie before the April 2027 shutdown should read the OpsGenie end of life guide and compare OpsGenie alternatives.

What you are migrating from

Grafana OnCall OSS gave you on-call scheduling with rotations and overrides, escalation chains with configurable timeouts, Slack and Telegram integration, and webhook-based alert routing from Grafana Alerting, Prometheus, and others. Free. Self-hosted. No per-user fees.

The tools below are evaluated against what OnCall OSS actually did, not what enterprise tools are optimized for. Pricing and packaging were reviewed against public vendor pages in June 2026. For a broader view of incident management tools with bundled on-call, see our full comparison.

1. Runframe

Price: Free / $15/user/month

Runframe is the standalone path for teams that liked Grafana OnCall because it was simple and did not require a broader incident platform. There is no Grafana Cloud dependency, and on-call scheduling, escalation policies, and Slack-native incident workflows are included.

If you were using Grafana OnCall mainly for on-call scheduling with Slack notifications, Runframe covers that plus incident management. You get rotations (daily, weekly, biweekly, monthly), primary and secondary on-call, configurable escalation timeouts, and multi-channel alerting through Slack, email, SMS, and voice calls.

It accepts webhooks from Datadog, Prometheus, CloudWatch, and any custom source. See webhooks integration for details on alert routing. Grafana Alerting webhook payloads can typically be routed through Runframe's generic webhook endpoint, but teams should validate mappings during migration.

What carries over: On-call rotations with overrides, escalation policies with configurable timeouts, Slack integration (channel creation, slash commands, interactive buttons), webhook-based alert routing from Prometheus, Datadog, or CloudWatch, and a free tier for small teams.

What is new: Incident management with status tracking, timelines, severity levels, and SLAs. AI-generated postmortem drafts. SMS and voice call escalation. A public API and MCP server for AI agent workflows.

What is different: SaaS only, no self-hosting option. No Telegram, it is Slack-native. It is a newer product.

This works well if you used OnCall for on-call plus Slack and want a standalone replacement without buying into a larger platform. See pricing details for plan comparison.

Start free. No credit card required.

2. Grafana Cloud IRM

Price: Free for 3 active IRM users. Pro has a $19/month platform fee that includes 3 active IRM users, then $20/month per additional active IRM user.

The official successor. Grafana merged Grafana OnCall and Grafana Incident into Cloud IRM. If you are already paying for Grafana Cloud for dashboards and alerting, this is the easiest path. Your alert routing stays native.

The migration is documented. Escalation chains, schedules, and integrations carry over if you were connected to Grafana Cloud. The open-source plugin data can be migrated using Grafana's tools.

The tradeoff: Grafana Cloud IRM is part of Grafana Cloud. If you were self-hosting everything (Grafana plus OnCall), you are now buying a managed platform. For 20 active IRM users, that is $359/month ($20 x 17 additional active IRM users plus the $19 platform fee), plus any other Grafana Cloud usage.

This works well if you are already on Grafana Cloud and want the easiest migration with zero alert routing changes. It is probably not worth it if you would be buying Grafana Cloud just for this.

3. PagerDuty

Price: Free for up to 5 users. Professional starts at approximately $21/user/month and Business at approximately $41/user/month on annual pricing. For a 20-user team, that is roughly $420-820/month before add-ons. Separate add-ons like AIOps, status pages, and stakeholder licenses can increase total cost.

PagerDuty is the common enterprise default. Broad integrations, on-call, and incident management sit in one product, but the breadth comes with more setup surface.

OnCall migrants need to decide whether they need PagerDuty's scale. OnCall users tend to be smaller teams, maybe 10-50 engineers, who valued simplicity and cost. Professional at ~$21/user/month is a big jump from free. Some teams may find they need Business-tier features once they move beyond basic paging.

PagerDuty has a Prometheus integration and accepts Grafana Alerting webhooks. The migration path exists, but production rollout depends on routing rules, escalation policies, and service mapping.

This works well if you are over 100 engineers and the integration catalog and compliance certifications justify the price. It is probably overkill if you were happy with OnCall's simplicity. For a deeper comparison, see our PagerDuty alternatives guide.

4. incident.io

Price: Basic free / Team is $19/user/month monthly or $15/user/month annually for incident response, with multi-team on-call as a paid add-on / Pro is listed at $25/user/month for incident response, with on-call at $20/user/month.

incident.io has strong Slack-based incident management and added on-call in 2024. Multi-team on-call is a separate add-on, not included in the Team incident response price. Team plus on-call is $31/user/month on monthly billing or $25/user/month on annual billing.

For OnCall migrants, incident.io makes sense if you were already looking for better incident management alongside on-call. If you just need on-call scheduling, the base price plus add-on costs more than you need.

There is a free Basic plan now, but it is intentionally limited. It includes incident response, a status page, and single-team on-call. Most growing startups comparing paid tools will really be looking at Team or Pro.

The free Basic plan is useful for evaluation, but growing teams usually need Team or Pro for multi-team on-call and deeper incident workflows. It can feel heavy for the kind of 15-person team that was running OnCall OSS.

This works well if you are a larger engineering team, want polished Slack incident workflows, and do not mind paying for on-call separately.

5. Squadcast

Price: Free (up to 5 users) / approximately $15/user/month (Pro, billed annually) / approximately $24/user/month (Premium, billed annually) / Enterprise custom

Squadcast bundles on-call and incident response. Status pages appear to be available on higher tiers, so verify the current plan mapping because Squadcast's public pricing table has multiple plan views. SolarWinds acquired Squadcast in March 2025.

If you were on OnCall because it was free and simple, Squadcast's free tier and annual Pro plan are close in spirit. SolarWinds ownership may affect future roadmap and packaging, so buyers should verify current direction during evaluation.

The UI is rougher than incident.io or PagerDuty. Some stronger security/admin features and longer retention sit on higher tiers.

This works well if you are a small team, 5-50 engineers, optimizing for lowest cost and can live with the acquisition risk.

6. Rootly

Price: $20/user/month per product (incident response and on-call priced separately)

Rootly is Slack-native incident management with strong workflow automation. On-call was introduced later and is offered as a separate product. If you need conditional logic, like routing SEV1s differently than SEV3s or auto-creating Jira tickets for specific services, Rootly's workflow builder is the most capable here.

For OnCall migrants, Rootly is overkill if you just need on-call scheduling. It makes sense if you want to level up your incident response at the same time. They offer startup programs and discounts.

On-call and incident response together cost $40/user/month before discounts. There is no permanent self-serve free tier; trial and startup programs are available.

This works well if you want advanced automation and qualify for the startup discount.

Migration checklist

Switching from OnCall OSS? Here is what to plan for:

  1. Export your current schedules. Document rotations, override patterns, and escalation chain timeouts before they become inaccessible.
  2. Map your alert routing. List every webhook integration sending alerts to OnCall and note the payload format.
  3. Test webhook compatibility. Most tools accept Prometheus or Alertmanager webhook format. Test before cutting over.
  4. Migrate in parallel. Run both tools for 1-2 weeks. Route alerts to both. Verify paging works on the new tool before decommissioning OnCall.
  5. Update runbooks. Any documentation referencing OnCall URLs, slash commands, or escalation paths needs updating.

Common questions

Can I keep self-hosting Grafana OnCall?

Technically, yes. The repo is archived, not deleted. But there are no new features, no community support, and SMS, phone, and push via Cloud Connection stopped working March 24. Security patches are CVSS 7.0+ only. Running an unmaintained on-call tool is a risk most teams should not take. Teams also evaluating other tools may want to see our comparison of incident management tools with bundled on-call for a broader market view.

Is Grafana Cloud IRM the same as Grafana OnCall?

It is the managed successor. It merges OnCall and Grafana Incident into one product. The on-call UI is familiar, but it is part of Grafana Cloud. Pro has a $19/month platform fee that includes 3 active IRM users, then $20/month per additional active IRM user.

What is the cheapest alternative?

Runframe and Squadcast both have free tiers for small teams. Runframe includes on-call and incidents. Squadcast is also low-cost, but verify the current status page and SLO plan mapping before choosing based on those features.

Which tool is closest to what OnCall did?

For teams that mainly used OnCall for scheduling, escalation, and Slack notifications, standalone tools like Runframe and Squadcast are likely the closest fit in scope. If you need native Grafana Alerting integration, Cloud IRM is the only option that preserves that.

Our recommendation

Pick based on what you valued in OnCall OSS:

If you valued simplicity and cost: Runframe Free or Growth, or Squadcast Pro. Both preserve the "just works" experience without enterprise complexity.

If you valued Grafana integration: Cloud IRM is your path. Moving into Grafana Cloud is now required, but your alerting stays native.

If you valued having everything in one place: PagerDuty has everything, but you pay for the breadth. incident.io and Rootly offer on-call as an add-on.

If you are unsure: Several tools in this list offer free tiers, while others offer trials or startup programs. Test with a small group before committing your full team.

For teams evaluating multiple tools, our comparison of incident management tools with bundled on-call covers options beyond the Grafana ecosystem.

Pricing and packaging last verified June 2026. If something looks out of date, email hello@runframe.io.