On-Call Scheduling Software

Build fair rotations, manage escalations, and support your team with on-call tools designed for sustainable operations.

Executive Snapshot

On-call scheduling that respects your team.

On-call shouldn't mean burnout. Upstat provides fair rotation algorithms, multi-timezone support, automatic escalations, and clear visibility into schedules—all included in the $29–$49 per user platform alongside monitoring and incident management.

Sustainable on-call

Your on-call tool should help prevent burnout, not cause it. Upstat builds fairness into every rotation and provides the tooling teams need to stay sustainable.

Fair scheduling for every team

Fair rotation algorithms
Distribute weekends and holidays evenly across your team. Track actual on-call burden—not just shift counts—to prevent unfair accumulation.
Multi-timezone support
Build follow-the-sun rotations that hand off across regions. Ensure engineers are never paged during their sleep hours unless absolutely necessary.
Automatic escalations
Define escalation policies that page backup responders when primary doesn't acknowledge. Set appropriate timeouts based on service criticality.

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Connected to the rest of your workflow

Schedule overrides
Handle vacations, sick days, and last-minute changes without disrupting the underlying rotation. Swap shifts between teammates with a few clicks.
Integrated alerting
On-call schedules connect directly to monitoring alerts. No need to configure separate tools or manage alert routing across multiple systems.
On-call insights
Track alert volume, response times, and burden distribution across your team. Identify patterns that indicate scheduling or monitoring problems.

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Why engineering managers choose integrated on-call

Reduce burnout

Fair distribution

Algorithms track actual on-call burden across weekends, holidays, and high-alert periods—not just shift counts.

Global teams

Follow-the-sun

Build rotations that hand off cleanly across time zones. Engineers get paged during working hours, not at 3 AM.

One platform

Connected workflows

On-call schedules connect to monitoring, incidents, and status pages. No separate tools to configure or maintain.

Frequently asked questions

Engineering managers and DevOps teams evaluating on-call scheduling software ask these questions most often.

What is on-call scheduling software?

On-call scheduling software helps engineering teams manage who responds to production incidents and when. It handles rotation schedules, escalation policies, schedule overrides, and integrates with alerting systems to route notifications to the right person. Upstat provides on-call scheduling as part of its unified incident management platform.

How does Upstat handle on-call rotations?

Upstat supports multiple rotation algorithms that distribute weekends and holidays fairly, multi-timezone schedules for follow-the-sun coverage, primary and secondary responder tiers, automatic escalations when primary doesn't acknowledge, and flexible overrides for vacations and shift swaps.

Can on-call scheduling help prevent burnout?

Yes. Good on-call scheduling software prevents burnout by distributing burden fairly (not just counting shifts), respecting time zones so engineers aren't paged during sleep hours, providing visibility into alert volume and patterns, and enabling easy handoffs and overrides. Upstat tracks actual on-call burden to identify unfair accumulation.

How does Upstat's on-call scheduling compare to PagerDuty?

Upstat includes on-call scheduling as part of the $29–$49 per user platform alongside monitoring, incident management, and status pages. PagerDuty charges separately for on-call, and you still need to purchase monitoring and status page tools. Upstat provides equivalent scheduling features without the add-on maze.

What happens when the on-call engineer doesn't respond?

Upstat supports configurable escalation policies. If the primary on-call doesn't acknowledge within your defined timeout (typically 5-15 minutes), the alert automatically escalates to secondary responders, then to additional tiers if needed. You can configure different escalation paths based on service criticality and time of day.

Can we manage multiple on-call schedules for different services?

Yes. Upstat supports service-level on-call schedules so different teams can manage their own rotations. Alerts route to the appropriate schedule based on the service that triggered them. This enables service ownership models while maintaining visibility across the organization.

Ready to build sustainable on-call?

Create fair rotations, manage escalations, and give your team the visibility they need—all in one platform.

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