OnCall
Grafana OnCall is an incident management and on-call scheduling tool that integrates directly with the Grafana observability stack and a broad set of open-source monitoring systems including Prometheus, Alertmanager, and Zabbix.
Publisher review
Grafana OnCall is an incident management and on-call scheduling tool that integrates directly with the Grafana observability stack and a broad set of open-source monitoring systems including Prometheus, Alertmanager, and Zabbix. It is designed for DevOps, SRE, and engineering teams already using Grafana who want a native on-call solution without leaving the ecosystem. The tool is particularly suited for teams that value open-source flexibility, transparent pricing, and the ability to self-host, though the open-source version entered maintenance mode on March 11, 2025, and will be archived on March 24, 2026, with active development shifting to Grafana Cloud IRM.
Grafana OnCall provides on-call scheduling with flexible escalation chains, alert routing, and incident management workflows. Its Event Intelligence feature uses machine learning to group related alerts, reducing noise and helping teams focus on real incidents. The tool supports heartbeat monitoring to detect silent failures and includes status pages for customer communication during outages. It integrates with Slack, Telegram, voice, and SMS for alerting, and offers postmortem templates and tracking for continuous improvement. On Grafana Cloud, the free tier includes 10,000 active series per month with 14 days retention, while the Pro plan costs $6.50 per 1,000 series plus a $19 monthly platform fee, and Enterprise plans start at $3 per 1,000 series with annual commitments.
In the incident management market, Grafana OnCall competes directly with PagerDuty and Opsgenie. Compared to PagerDuty, which is often seen as an enterprise powerhouse with higher costs, Grafana OnCall offers a more transparent and adaptive pricing model based on actual usage rather than per-user fees. Users report that Grafana OnCall provides better guardrails for calendar setup and multi-team support, and its open-source heritage avoids vendor lock-in. However, the deprecation of the open-source version has caused concern among self-hosters, and some users note that the free tier for Grafana OnCall is limited compared to competitors' offerings.
The honest trade-offs: Grafana OnCall's open-source version is in maintenance mode, meaning no new features will be added, and teams relying on it must migrate to Grafana Cloud IRM or another solution by the archive date. While Grafana Cloud pricing is usage-based and can be cost-effective for small teams, enterprise plans can become expensive as usage scales, with some users reporting cost increases from approximately $30 to $55 per user. Additionally, the tool's tight integration with Grafana can be a disadvantage for teams not already using the Grafana stack, as it may require additional setup and learning. Finally, while the free tier is generous for personal projects, it may not suffice for production environments with higher alert volumes.
How it works
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On-call scheduling
Create and manage on-call rotations with flexible escalation chains, supporting multi-team schedules and timezone-aware shifts.
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Alert routing and escalation
Route alerts based on severity and source, with customizable escalation policies that notify the right responder via Slack, Telegram, voice, or SMS.
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Incident management workflows
Track incidents from detection to resolution with built-in workflows, including status updates, task assignments, and timeline recording.
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Event Intelligence (ML-based alert grouping)
Uses machine learning to automatically group related alerts into incidents, reducing noise and helping teams focus on root causes.
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Status pages for customer communication
Publish real-time status updates to external stakeholders during incidents, with customizable templates and automated notifications.
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Postmortem templates and tracking
Provides structured postmortem templates to document incident details, root cause analysis, and action items, with tracking for follow-ups.
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Heartbeat monitoring
Monitors the health of services by expecting regular signals; if a heartbeat is missed, an alert is triggered to detect silent failures.
Strengths and trade-offs
Strengths
- Transparent and fair pricing model charges based on actual usage (e.g., $6.50 per 1,000 active series for Pro) rather than per-user fees, avoiding surprise costs.
- Adaptive pricing includes in-product tools to only pay for data that is useful, reducing waste compared to fixed per-user plans from competitors like PagerDuty.
- Composable solutions allow teams to use only the components they need, with no vendor lock-in, and open-source and self-hosted options are available for those who prefer control.
- Flexible escalation chains and multi-team support provide better guardrails for calendar setup, as noted by users comparing to Opsgenie and PagerDuty.
Trade-offs
- The Grafana OnCall OSS version entered maintenance mode on March 11, 2025, and will be archived on March 24, 2026, meaning no new features for self-hosters.
- The free tier for Grafana OnCall on Grafana Cloud is limited to 10,000 active series per month with 14 days retention, which may not suffice for production environments.
- Enterprise plans can become costly as usage scales, with some users reporting cost increases from approximately $30 to $55 per user after adopting Grafana Cloud.
- Tight integration with the Grafana ecosystem can be a disadvantage for teams not already using Grafana, requiring additional setup and learning curve.
Pricing context
Free tier: always free with 10k active series and 14 days retention. Pro: on-demand at $6.50/1k series plus $19/month platform fee. Enterprise: annual, starts at $3/1k series with volume discounts.
Getting started with OnCall
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Sign up for Grafana Cloud
Go to grafana.com and create a free account. Choose the Grafana Cloud plan that fits your needs, then log in to your stack. This gives you access to OnCall and other integrated tools.
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Connect your monitoring sources
In the Grafana Cloud interface, navigate to the OnCall plugin and add your alert sources. Configure integrations for Prometheus, Alertmanager, or Zabbix by providing the webhook URL or API endpoint from your monitoring system.
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Set up on-call schedules
Create on-call rotations by defining shifts, teams, and time zones. Use the scheduling interface to assign users to primary and secondary roles, then set escalation chains to route alerts based on severity and response time.
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Configure alert routing rules
Define routing rules in OnCall to direct incoming alerts to the appropriate schedules or escalation policies. Specify conditions like alert source, severity, or label matches to ensure the right team gets notified via Slack, Telegram, or SMS.
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Test with a sample alert
Trigger a test alert from your monitoring system to verify the routing and notification flow. Check that the alert appears in the OnCall dashboard and that the on-call responder receives the notification through the configured channel.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Grafana OnCall and how does it work?
Grafana OnCall is an incident management and on-call scheduling tool integrated with the Grafana observability stack. It helps DevOps and SRE teams manage alerts, create on-call rotations with escalation chains, and route incidents via Slack, Telegram, voice, or SMS.
How does Grafana OnCall pricing compare to PagerDuty?
Grafana OnCall uses usage-based pricing, charging $6.50 per 1,000 active series for Pro plus a $19 monthly platform fee. Unlike PagerDuty's per-user fees, this model avoids surprise costs and adapts to actual data usage, making it potentially cheaper for small teams.
Is Grafana OnCall open source still available?
The open-source version of Grafana OnCall entered maintenance mode on March 11, 2025, and will be archived on March 24, 2026. No new features will be added, and teams relying on self-hosting must migrate to Grafana Cloud IRM or another solution by that date.
What features does Grafana OnCall offer for incident management?
Grafana OnCall includes on-call scheduling, alert routing with escalation chains, incident management workflows, and Event Intelligence that uses machine learning to group related alerts. It also provides heartbeat monitoring, status pages, and postmortem templates for continuous improvement.
How does Grafana OnCall integrate with other monitoring tools?
Grafana OnCall integrates directly with the Grafana observability stack and supports open-source monitoring systems like Prometheus, Alertmanager, and Zabbix. This tight integration is beneficial for Grafana users but may require additional setup for teams not already using the ecosystem.
What are the main drawbacks of Grafana OnCall?
The open-source version is deprecated, forcing self-hosters to migrate. The free tier limits to 10,000 active series with 14 days retention may not suit production. Enterprise costs can scale up, with some users reporting increases from $30 to $55 per user, and tight Grafana integration adds learning curve.
Alternatives
How OnCall compares
Direct head-to-head against 3 competitors. Picked by 7wData.
OnCall
- Pricing
- Free tier: always free with 10k active series and 14 days retention. Pro: on-demand at $6.50/1k series plus $19/month platform fee. Enterprise: annual, starts at $3/1k series with volume discounts.
- Target
- Grafana OnCall is an incident management and on-call scheduling tool that integrates directly with the Grafana observability stack and a broad set of open-source monitoring
- Strength
- Transparent and fair pricing model charges based on actual usage (e.g., $6.50 per 1,000 active series for Pro) rather than per-user fees, avoiding surprise costs.
- Watch for
- The Grafana OnCall OSS version entered maintenance mode on March 11, 2025, and will be archived on March 24, 2026, meaning no new features for self-hosters.
PagerDuty
- Pricing
- $21/user/month (Starter); $41/user/month (Business)
- Target
- Enterprise teams needing mature on-call scheduling and incident response
- Deployment
- SaaS
- Strength
- Advanced escalation policies and machine learning alert grouping
- Watch for
- Pricing escalates quickly with add-ons; customer support complaints
Grafana OnCall
- Pricing
- Free (3 users); Pro $19/mo + $20/active user above 3
- Target
- Teams already using Grafana for observability
- Deployment
- SaaS or self-hosted
- Strength
- Deep integration with Grafana alerting and dashboards
- Watch for
- Open-source version entered maintenance mode March 2025, archived March 2026
incident.io
- Pricing
- $19/user/month ($15 annual) + on-call add-on
- Target
- 50-500+ engineer teams wanting Slack-native incident workflows
- Deployment
- SaaS
- Strength
- Slack-native incident management with structured workflows
- Watch for
- On-call is a separate add-on, increasing total cost
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