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Upstat vs PagerDuty

Replace the add-on maze with one platform for monitoring, incidents, on-call, and status pages.

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Executive Snapshot

Replace PagerDuty's add-on maze with a single operational platform.

Upstat bundles monitoring, incidents, automations, and status pages for $29–$49 per user. PagerDuty customers typically manage four or more tools to achieve the same outcome.

You're getting more than a replacement

Upstat replaces PagerDuty plus monitoring tools, status pages, and automation add-ons—all included at $29–$49/user.

Capability comparison

Monitoring

Upstat

Built-in uptime checks, multi-region intervals, instant alerting.

PagerDuty

Requires Datadog, Pingdom, or custom monitoring services.

Incident Response

Upstat

Kanban and list views with Markdown timelines and inline collaboration.

PagerDuty

List-centric incidents. Advanced workflows require extra add-ons.

Automations

Upstat

No-code if/then workflows tied to monitors and incidents included.

PagerDuty

Event Orchestration and automation rules sold as separate products.

Entity Intelligence

Upstat

Service catalog powers live dashboards, dependency graphs, status pages.

PagerDuty

Basic service directory without contextual entity dashboards.

Status Communication

Upstat

Traditional and entity-based status pages included by default.

PagerDuty

Requires Status Pages add-on or external product.

Pricing Transparency

Upstat

$29 Teams / $49 Business per user with every module included.

PagerDuty

Core per-user pricing plus separate charges for automation, workflows, and status pages.

AI Readiness

Upstat

Unified JSON-LD data model designed for AI recommendations and troubleshooting.

PagerDuty

Modular architecture with siloed data and limited structured metadata.

Why teams are leaving PagerDuty

Unexpected costs pile up

PagerDuty's base price looks reasonable until you add Event Orchestration, Status Pages, and third-party monitoring. Teams often spend 2-3x their initial budget just to get basic functionality.

Tool sprawl slows response

Responders waste precious minutes jumping between PagerDuty, Datadog, Confluence, and Statuspage.io during incidents. Context-switching adds 10-15 minutes to every major incident.

Renewal shock hits finance

Annual renewals bring sticker shock as feature gates, usage-based pricing, and mandatory upgrades drive costs up 20-40% year-over-year— forcing painful budget conversations.

Siloed data blocks AI

Fragmented tooling makes it nearly impossible to build AI-powered troubleshooting or get unified insights. Your incident data is trapped across five different platforms.

Learn more about Why teams are leaving PagerDuty

Make the migration without disruption

Teams typically move from PagerDuty to UpStat over a single sprint. Use this sequence to protect on-call coverage while unlocking the unified platform advantages.

  • 1
    Document current PagerDuty services, escalation policies, and contacts.
  • 2
    Stand up matching services inside UpStat and configure monitors for key endpoints.
  • 3
    Recreate automation rules with UpStat workflows tied to alerts or incidents.
  • 4
    Run dry tests to confirm escalations, notifications, and status updates.
  • 5
    Cut over on-call schedules, then decommission redundant subscriptions.

Migration checklist

Confirm service catalog coverage, automation parity, dry-run validations, and finance notifications so every stakeholder is ready for launch.

Learn more about Make the migration without disruption

Build the executive business case

A 25-person incident team typically spends $30k–$60k each year on PagerDuty plus monitoring and status page subscriptions. UpStat’s Business plan runs about $14.7k annually while including every module, coordinated automations, and entity dashboards.

Pair this comparison with the downtime impact example below to show finance and procurement the savings and time-to-value before your next renewal.

Cost of downtime scenario

Downtime gets expensive fast—UpStat helps teams respond faster.

Incident response isn't just a subscription line item. Every minute a critical service is down touches 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.

PagerDuty stack: Monitoring via third-party services, manual status updates, and siloed tooling. Typical annual cost: ~$37k in licenses/add-ons, 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 and eliminating ~$23k in bolt-on tooling.

Tool costs

$37,000 → $14,000

PagerDuty subscription + add-on tools vs. Upstat all-in-one platform.

Tool savings: $23,000/year

Downtime impact

$80,000 → $48,000

40% faster MTTR from unified monitoring and incident workflows.

Revenue protected: $32,000/year

Total annual savings

$55,000

Tool consolidation ($23,000) + 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

Buyers looking for PagerDuty alternatives usually want clarity on pricing, total cost of ownership, and the migration path. Here are the answers we share on demos every day.

How much does Upstat cost compared to PagerDuty?

Upstat includes monitoring, on-call, incident response, automations, and status pages for $29 (Teams) or $49 (Business) per user per month. PagerDuty customers typically pay per-seat fees and then layer on Event Orchestration, Status Pages, and third-party monitoring. When you consolidate these tools, Upstat can provide significant cost savings.

What costs should I include when evaluating a PagerDuty alternative?

Combine PagerDuty seat pricing with any automation or runbook add-ons, status page tooling, and external monitoring subscriptions. The cost-of-downtime example above shows how even small MTTR improvements quickly outweigh subscription differences.

How long does it take to migrate from PagerDuty to Upstat?

Teams can complete the migration in a single sprint (1-2 weeks). The process involves documenting your current setup, recreating services and escalation policies in Upstat, configuring monitors, testing workflows, and cutting over on-call schedules.

Can Upstat integrate with our existing communication tools?

Yes. Upstat integrates with Slack, email, SMS, and webhooks for notifications and alerts. The difference is you get native monitoring built-in, so you can reduce your dependency on external monitoring services.

Will we lose our incident history when we switch?

No. Upstat provides migration assistance to help preserve critical incident data and historical context. You can export your PagerDuty incident history and we'll help you transition smoothly without losing institutional knowledge.

Does Upstat support complex on-call schedules and escalation policies?

Yes. Upstat supports rotating schedules, follow-the-sun coverage, manual overrides, escalation chains, and time-based routing. Teams can replicate their existing PagerDuty schedules and escalation policies without simplification.

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