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Upstat vs FireHydrant

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Executive Snapshot

FireHydrant is incident coordination. Upstat is the complete platform.

FireHydrant excels at incident coordination with AI-enhanced retrospectives and automated runbooks, but requires external monitoring tools for detection. Upstat provides complete incident operations—native monitoring, response, automations, runbooks, and status pages—for $29–$49 per user.

You're getting a complete platform

Upstat includes native monitoring that FireHydrant lacks, eliminating the need for external monitoring subscriptions while delivering the same incident coordination capabilities.

Capability comparison

Platform Approach

Upstat

Complete incident operations with native monitoring, response, automations, runbooks, and status pages.

FireHydrant

Incident coordination platform emphasizing retrospectives and AI analysis; requires external monitoring.

Monitoring

Upstat

Built-in uptime, API, and heartbeat monitoring integrated with incident workflows.

FireHydrant

No native monitoring—relies on 350+ integrations with external monitoring services for alert detection.

Incident Response

Upstat

Full incident workspace with Kanban views, timelines, role assignments, and embedded runbooks.

FireHydrant

Slack/Teams-centric incident coordination with automated runbooks and AI-powered transcription from video calls.

Service Catalog

Upstat

Entity-based operational dashboards showing ownership, dependencies, and real-time health status.

FireHydrant

Service catalog with dependency mapping supports impact analysis during incidents.

Retrospectives

Upstat

Incident timelines capture actions and decisions; retrospectives document learnings and action items.

FireHydrant

AI-enhanced retrospectives auto-generate findings from incident data and video call transcriptions.

Automations & Runbooks

Upstat

No-code workflows triggered by monitors or incident events; runbooks guide manual procedures.

FireHydrant

Automated runbooks codify response procedures; integrates with Terraform and 350+ API endpoints for custom workflows.

Status Communication

Upstat

Customer-facing status pages automatically update from incidents and monitor health.

FireHydrant

Status page automation keeps stakeholders informed during incidents.

Pricing

Upstat

$29 / $49 per user with full platform including monitoring and status pages.

FireHydrant

Starting at $20/user (Starter) or $44/user (Advanced); Signals alerting charged separately by volume.

Why teams are evaluating FireHydrant alternatives

  • Missing native monitoring

    FireHydrant requires external monitoring tools and 350+ integrations for alert detection. Teams manage multiple subscriptions for monitoring, incident coordination, and alerting—adding cost and complexity compared to a unified platform.

  • Alerting charged separately

    FireHydrant Signals (alerting) is charged by volume on top of per-user pricing. As alert volume grows, costs become unpredictable. Teams need to budget for both user seats and alert volume, making TCO harder to forecast.

  • Integration complexity

    While FireHydrant offers 350+ integrations and extensive API endpoints, teams spend time maintaining connections between monitoring tools, alerting systems, and incident coordination. Upstat eliminates this overhead with native monitoring built in.

  • AI features vs operational efficiency

    FireHydrant emphasizes AI-enhanced retrospectives that auto-generate findings from incident data. Teams evaluate whether AI-assisted analysis justifies the cost and complexity of managing separate monitoring infrastructure.

Learn more about Why teams are evaluating FireHydrant alternatives

Make the migration without disruption

Teams typically move from FireHydrant to Upstat in 1-2 weeks. Use this sequence to preserve runbooks and service catalog data while gaining native monitoring.

  • 1
    Document current FireHydrant runbooks, service catalog, and incident workflows.
  • 2
    Configure matching services and dependencies in Upstat with equivalent routing rules.
  • 3
    Set up native monitors in Upstat to replace external monitoring integrations.
  • 4
    Migrate runbooks and test incident workflows in parallel with existing setup.
  • 5
    Cut over incident routing to Upstat and retire FireHydrant subscription.

Migration checklist

Verify runbook coverage, service dependencies, monitor alerting, and incident workflow parity so the transition is seamless.

Learn more about Make the migration without disruption

Build the executive business case

A 25-person incident team using FireHydrant typically spends $6k–$13k annually on incident coordination ($20-44/user) plus $12k–$18k on external monitoring services. Upstat's Business plan runs $14.7k annually while including native monitoring, incident coordination, automations, runbooks, and status pages.

Combine this cost comparison with the downtime impact scenario below to demonstrate to finance and procurement the value of consolidating to a unified incident operations platform.

Cost of downtime scenario

Downtime gets expensive fast—Upstat helps teams respond faster.

Incident response costs extend beyond subscription fees. Every minute a critical service is down impacts revenue, customer trust, and team morale. The scenario below models a conservative mid-market SaaS company with a 25-person on-call rotation.

  • Baseline:

    3 customer-facing incidents per quarter (12 annually), averaging 40 minutes of impact. We use $10,000 per hour as a mid-market revenue-at-risk benchmark.

  • FireHydrant stack:

    Incident coordination via FireHydrant, monitoring via third-party services, alert routing through Signals. Typical annual cost: ~$24k in combined subscriptions, plus ~$80k in lost revenue from eight hours of downtime.

  • Upstat outcome:

    Integrated monitoring, automations, and coordination reduce resolution time by 40%—a conservative take on the 50%+ MTTR improvements we target with unified workflows. Downtime drops to 4.8 hours, protecting ~$32k in revenue while consolidating tools.

Tool costs

$24,000 → $14,000

FireHydrant + external monitoring vs. Upstat all-in-one platform.

Tool savings: $10,000/year

Downtime impact

$80,000 → $48,000

40% faster MTTR from unified monitoring and incident workflows.

Revenue protected: $32,000/year

Total annual savings

$42,000

Tool consolidation ($10,000) + faster incident resolution ($32,000).

* Estimates based on a 25-seat incident rotation, $10k/hour revenue at risk, and a 40% MTTR improvement aligned with internal performance benchmarks. Adjust the numbers to match your business before sharing with finance.

Frequently asked questions

Teams evaluating FireHydrant want to understand how Upstat compares for monitoring, AI-enhanced features, and total platform cost.

What monitoring does Upstat provide that FireHydrant lacks?

Upstat includes native uptime, API, and heartbeat monitoring with multi-region checks that automatically create incidents when failures occur. FireHydrant requires external monitoring tools and integrations for detection, adding complexity and separate subscriptions to your incident response stack.

How does Upstat pricing compare to FireHydrant?

FireHydrant pricing starts at $20/user/month (Starter) or $44/user/month (Advanced), with Signals alerting charged separately by volume. Upstat offers $29 (Teams) or $49 (Business) per user with native monitoring, incidents, automations, runbooks, and status pages included—eliminating the need for external monitoring subscriptions.

Does Upstat have AI features like FireHydrant retrospectives?

FireHydrant emphasizes AI-enhanced retrospectives that generate findings from video call transcriptions and incident data. Upstat focuses on operational efficiency through native monitoring, automated workflows, and real-time dependency mapping. Teams choose based on whether they prioritize AI-assisted analysis or integrated monitoring and incident operations.

Can we migrate from FireHydrant without losing our runbooks and service catalog?

Yes. Teams can complete the migration in 1-2 weeks by documenting existing runbooks and service dependencies, recreating them in Upstat, configuring native monitors to replace external integrations, and testing incident workflows. Upstat provides migration assistance to ensure runbooks and service catalog data transfer smoothly.

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