Sources checked 2026-09-11 · review cycle 30 days
PagerDuty vs Grafana Cloud IRM
A Grafana-centered team should test whether placing incident response beside its observability context improves the work. A team with many external operational systems should also test the PagerDuty integrations and administrative features it depends on. Neither ecosystem choice removes the need to prove end-to-end paging.
Source review by oncall.fyi editorial team. Publication approved by Burak. Fit guidance is an editorial judgment; delivery reliability has not been independently benchmarked.
Make the decision around your team’s work
Investigations begin in Grafana
Measure the steps needed to move from the notification into the relevant dashboard and runbook. Preserve useful labels while avoiding sensitive data in notifications. Check how incident state follows firing and resolved events from the original alert rule.
A central process spans many services
Run a scenario involving distinct teams and the existing incident taxonomy. Verify permissions, escalation, updates to other systems and the retained evidence. Do not infer those capabilities from a broad integration list.
The licensing units differ
PagerDuty users and Grafana active IRM users cannot be compared by copying the same count without checking the definitions. Grafana's platform fee and separate observability consumption belong alongside IRM usage. PagerDuty add-ons belong alongside its core seat price.
Published scope and cost differences
Facts below link to the provider’s own source. Product names, plan entitlements and pricing can change; check the final quote against your requirements.
PagerDuty
Incident management with schedules, integrations and optional operations modules.
- Paid entry
- Professional: $21/user/month annually or $25 monthly. Business: $41 annually or $49 monthly. Source
- Schedules
- On-call schedules and escalation policies are included, with higher allowances on paid plans. Source
- Response workflow
- Professional lists Slack/Teams chat, incident roles and types, and a constrained major-incident workflow template. Source
- Administration
- Business adds custom fields, expanded workflows, advanced administration and ITSM integrations. Source
- Cost checks
- AIOps, stakeholder licenses, live call routing, status pages and more AI actions are listed as add-ons. International notification allowances depend on plan. Source
Ask during the trial: Separate core incident management from AIOps, stakeholder licenses and other add-ons; test the particular integrations and plan you would buy.
Public sources checked 2026-09-11. No independent reliability benchmark.
Grafana Cloud IRM
On-call and incident response within Grafana Cloud.
- Paid entry
- Pro starts at $20/active IRM user, with a $19/month platform fee including three active IRM users; volume discounts apply. Source
- Free scope
- Free is limited to three active IRM users/month with community support. Source
- Response workflow
- Cloud IRM combines on-call management and incident response and works with Grafana Cloud observability. Source
- Cost checks
- Active users are a billing unit, not simply the size of a rotation. Observability consumption is separate. Source
Ask during the trial: Use the active-IRM-user definition, include the platform fee, and separate Cloud IRM from the retired Grafana OnCall OSS project.
Public sources checked 2026-09-11. No independent reliability benchmark.
What to prove in the trial
- Create a controlled Grafana firing and resolved event with dashboard and runbook links.
- Exercise a handoff and escalation across the real service ownership model.
- Check required chat, ticketing and reporting behaviors in the purchased scope.
- Reconcile active-user usage, seat definitions and all retained platform costs.
Use synthetic events and agreed test recipients. Keep the current paging route active while you gather evidence, then rehearse rollback before cutover.
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Choose up to three. Filters show documented workflow scope, sometimes on higher plans. An omitted match means this inventory has not established the requirement. Your choices, prices and evidence stay in this browser; save a dated result below.
Compare the cost of the scope you need
All values are USD. These are editable planning estimates. A base price does not prove feature parity. Blank extra costs remain unknown; taxes, negotiated discounts and migration effort are excluded. Twelve-month totals are a projection, not an annual contract quote.
PagerDuty
Monthly equivalent, billed annually. Source checked 2026-09-11.
Core incident management; add-ons and destination-specific allowances need separate review.
$105.00 / month
$1,260.00 projected over 12 months
Base estimate only. Required extras are not confirmed.
Record trial evidence (0/6)
Record a test date and observed result for each requirement. Text being present is not independent validation. Use roles and synthetic incident IDs.
Grafana Cloud IRM
Monthly pay-as-you-go starting rate. Source checked 2026-09-11.
Platform fee: $19.00/month, with 3 active IRM users included. First 3 active users included in platform fee. Volume discounts and other Grafana consumption excluded.
$59.00 / month
$708.00 projected over 12 months
Base estimate only. Required extras are not confirmed.
Record trial evidence (0/6)
Record a test date and observed result for each requirement. Text being present is not independent validation. Use roles and synthetic incident IDs.