Datadog On-Call alternatives for teams that use more than Datadog
If all your alerts come from Datadog, Datadog On-Call is a sensible default. If they also come from New Relic, CloudWatch, Grafana or anything else, the main alternatives are Oppex AI, PagerDuty, incident.io, Rootly, Grafana Cloud IRM and Better Stack. The deciding questions are where your alerts come from, and what you pay for AI investigation on top of paging.
Disclosure: we make Oppex. Prices are from each vendor's public pricing page, October 2026.
When Datadog On-Call is the right choice
Datadog On-Call keeps paging next to the monitors, logs, traces and dashboards your team already uses, on one bill. For a team whose monitoring is entirely in Datadog, that is a real advantage, and you may not need anything else.
Why teams look for an alternative
- Alerts come from more than Datadog. Most teams also run CloudWatch alarms, a second APM, synthetic checks or Grafana. An on-call tool that is built around one vendor's monitors makes it harder to group a Datadog alert with the CloudWatch alarm about the same failure.
- The bundle adds up. On-Call is $20 per seat, Incident Management $30, and the two together are the Incident Response bundle at $40 per seat per month.
- AI is metered. Bits AI SRE, now called Bits Investigation, is billed in AI credits: from $500 for 500 credits a month, at about 4 credits per investigation.
- Fewer ways to reach people. Datadog On-Call pages by SMS, voice call, mobile push and email; teams that rely on WhatsApp need another tool.
The alternatives
| Tool | Best for | Alert sources | On-call starts at | AI investigation |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oppex AI | Mixed monitoring stacks; on-call and AI in one plan | Datadog, New Relic, CloudWatch, Grafana, Splunk and more, grouped into one incident | Free (3 users); $12/user | Included in Business ($20) |
| PagerDuty | The established paging tool | Large integration library | $21/user (Professional) | Separate AI platform, metered |
| incident.io | Chat-first incident response | Many integrations | $15/user + $10 on-call | Investigations add-on on Pro |
| Rootly | Incident workflows and retrospectives | Many integrations | $20/user + $20 On-Call | Separate AI SRE product |
| Grafana Cloud IRM | Teams on the Grafana stack | Grafana-first | Free (3 users); $20/active user | Assistant and token-based investigations |
| Better Stack | Monitoring, status pages and on-call in one | Its own monitoring, plus integrations | Free tier; $29/responder | Per-token AI SRE |
Oppex AI takes alerts from Datadog and every other monitoring tool, groups related ones into one incident before anyone is paged, and pages by phone call, SMS, WhatsApp, email and its mobile app. Oppex Nova, the AI SRE agent, starts investigating as the alert arrives, and is included in Oppex Business at $20 per user per month, with no credits to count. Oppex vs. Datadog.
PagerDuty has the largest integration library and is the safest procurement choice; its AI and noise reduction are sold separately. Oppex vs. PagerDuty.
incident.io and Rootly are strongest at running the incident in Slack; on-call and AI are add-ons or separate products. Alternatives to incident.io and Rootly.
Grafana Cloud IRM fits teams whose dashboards and alerts are mostly in Grafana.
Better Stack suits smaller teams that want monitoring, status pages and on-call from one vendor.
Keep Datadog, change the pager
You don't have to leave Datadog to change your on-call tool. Datadog monitors can notify another tool through Datadog's integrations and webhooks, so a common setup is Datadog for metrics, logs and traces, and a separate on-call tool that also receives your CloudWatch, New Relic or Grafana alerts. To connect Datadog to Oppex, see the Datadog integration guide.
Run the new tool alongside Datadog On-Call on real alerts for a week before switching paging over.
Frequently asked questions
What are the best Datadog On-Call alternatives?
The main alternatives are Oppex AI, PagerDuty, incident.io, Rootly, Grafana Cloud IRM and Better Stack. Oppex suits teams whose alerts come from more than Datadog: it groups alerts from Datadog, New Relic, Amazon CloudWatch, Grafana and other tools into one incident, and includes on-call and Oppex Nova, the AI SRE agent, for $20 per user per month, against $40 per seat for Datadog's Incident Response bundle plus AI credits for Bits AI SRE.
How much does Datadog On-Call cost?
Datadog On-Call is $20 per seat per month billed annually ($29 on demand). With Incident Management it is sold as the Incident Response bundle at $40 per seat per month, and Bits AI SRE investigations are billed on top in AI credits, from $500 for 500 credits a month at about 4 credits per investigation. Prices from Datadog's public pricing page, October 2026.
Can I keep Datadog monitoring and use another on-call tool?
Yes. Datadog monitors can notify any on-call tool through Datadog's integrations and webhooks, so you can keep Datadog for metrics, logs and traces and page through another tool. Oppex, for example, receives Datadog alerts alongside alerts from your other monitoring tools and groups them into one incident.