Grafana OnCall vs PagerDuty

Self-host swap-in for PagerDuty. · Self-host PagerDuty · Grafana OnCall on os-alt

Grafana OnCall is one of the open-source self-host replacements for PagerDuty — license AGPL-3.0, 30min docker-compose (OnCall engine + Postgres + Redis + Celery worker) to stand up, and $10-15 vps; sms/voice still costs at twilio's per-leg rate ($0. Compare against PagerDuty's $21-41/user/mo on Professional/Business — bill scales linearly with on-call headcount below.

	Grafana OnCallopen-source	PagerDutypaid SaaS
Category	On-call rotation / incident response / paging	On-call rotation / incident response / paging
License / pricing	`AGPL-3.0`	$21-41/user/mo on Professional/Business — bill scales linearly with on-call headcount
Starting price	$0 self-host	$21/user/mo
GitHub	grafana/oncall ★ 3.88k · last commit 7w agodead · archived	closed source
Setup time	30min docker-compose (OnCall engine + Postgres + Redis + Celery worker)	SaaS — sign up + bill
Monthly cost	$10-15 VPS; SMS/voice still costs at Twilio's per-leg rate ($0.0075-0.05/leg).	from $21/user/mo ($21-41/user/mo on Professional/Business — bill scales linearly with on-call headcount)

Switching from PagerDuty to Grafana OnCall

Export PagerDuty schedules + escalation policies via the PagerDuty API (`GET /schedules`, `GET /escalation_policies`). Import into Grafana OnCall via its admin API or the Terraform provider — the data model is similar (users, teams, schedules, routes). Wire your alert source (Prometheus, Grafana, Sentry) to OnCall's webhook integration; configure Twilio under OnCall settings for SMS/voice.

Good fit for: Teams already running Grafana / Prometheus that want on-call to live next to dashboards.
Weak at: **Repository archived 2026-03-24** — Grafana announced end-of-development; the freshness pill on this page reflects that. Existing self-hosted deploys keep running, but no upstream fixes are coming. Web UI is functional, not polished; mobile app exists but is thinner than PagerDuty's.

Other open-source self-host alternatives to PagerDuty

Keep
MIT30min docker-compose (keep-frontend + keep-backend + websocket-server; SQLite default, swap to Postgres via `DATABASE_CONNECTION_STRING`)$10-20 VPS; SMS/voice via Twilio at the usual per-leg rate ($0.
Oncall (LinkedIn)
BSD-2-Clause30min docker-compose (Oncall + MySQL + Iris for paging)$10 VPS; pair with Iris (sister project) for paging — same upstream Twilio cost.
Cabot
MIT20min docker-compose (Cabot + Postgres)$5 VPS; SMS via Twilio at the usual per-leg rate.

In a terminal? npx os-alt pagerduty prints PagerDuty's self-host options — how the CLI works →

FAQ

Is Grafana OnCall a free alternative to PagerDuty?

Yes — Grafana OnCall is open source under AGPL-3.0. Self-host cost: $10-15 VPS; SMS/voice still costs at Twilio's per-leg rate ($0.0075-0.05/leg).. PagerDuty starts at $21/user/mo ($21-41/user/mo on Professional/Business — bill scales linearly with on-call headcount).

How long does Grafana OnCall take to set up vs PagerDuty?

Self-hosting Grafana OnCall: 30min docker-compose (OnCall engine + Postgres + Redis + Celery worker). PagerDuty is a hosted SaaS — sign up and you're in.

What is Grafana OnCall good at, and what is it weak at?

Good fit for: Teams already running Grafana / Prometheus that want on-call to live next to dashboards.. Weak at: **Repository archived 2026-03-24** — Grafana announced end-of-development; the freshness pill on this page reflects that. Existing self-hosted deploys keep running, but no upstream fixes are coming. Web UI is functional, not polished; mobile app exists but is thinner than PagerDuty's..