Cheapest platform as team size grows
Rates held at your current inputs β only responder count changes per row. All three vendors flip out of their free plan at a small headcount, so watch how quickly the flat per-seat costs diverge once everyone needs a paid seat.
| Responders | PagerDuty | Opsgenie | incident.io | Cheapest |
|---|
Why flat-per-seat and base-plus-add-on billing shapes matter
On-call and incident management tools all charge "per user," but what counts as a full price and what's bundled underneath it differs a lot. PagerDuty bills responders Γ price per responder with on-call, paging and escalation policies included in the base seat price (about $21/responder/month on the Professional plan, annual billing; $41 on Business) β up to 5 users stay on the Free plan at $0. Opsgenie works the same shape but at a lower headline rate (roughly $19.95/user/month on Standard, annual), also with on-call bundled in and a small free tier β the tradeoff is that Atlassian stopped selling Opsgenie to new customers in March 2025, with support ending April 2027. incident.io takes a third approach: a base incident-response subscription (about $15/user/month on Team, annual) that covers Slack-native workflows and automation, plus a separate on-call add-on (roughly $10-12/user/month) that most teams buying an on-call tool will need to switch on β pushing the effective per-seat cost to around $25-27/month once on-call is actually enabled.
That means comparing headline prices alone is misleading: incident.io's base plan looks cheapest until you add the feature you're buying it for, and Opsgenie's lower rate has an expiration date attached. Run your own responder count through the calculator above instead of trusting a vendor's homepage price.
How this calculator works
The PagerDuty vs Opsgenie vs incident.io Cost Calculator compares three on-call/incident-management billing shapes β PagerDuty (flat price per responder), Opsgenie (flat price per user, lower rate) and incident.io (base plan per user plus a separate on-call add-on per user) β at your team's responder count. PagerDuty's cost is responders β€ free seats ? 0 : responders Γ rate; Opsgenie uses the same shape at a different rate; incident.io is responders β€ free seats ? 0 : responders Γ (base rate + on-call add-on rate). The calculator shows all three totals side by side, then a separate table sweeps responder count from 5 to 1,000 at your current rates so you can see how the gap between the flat-rate vendors and the two-component vendor widens as the team grows.
These are representative pricing shapes based on typical published ranges (PagerDuty Professional β$21/responder/month, Business β$41/responder/month, annual billing; Opsgenie Standard β$19.95/user/month, Enterprise β$31.90/user/month, annual billing, ahead of its 2027 sunset; incident.io Team β$15/user/month base + β$10-12/user/month on-call add-on, annual billing), not live vendor quotes β actual pricing varies by plan tier, contract term, monthly-vs-annual billing and negotiated enterprise terms, and all three vendors offer custom enterprise pricing above their published self-serve tiers. Always confirm current pricing directly with the vendor before budgeting.
Frequently asked questions
Is PagerDuty cheaper than Opsgenie for on-call?
Usually Opsgenie is cheaper on headline price β its Standard tier runs about $19.95/user/month on annual billing versus roughly $21/responder/month for PagerDuty Professional, and the gap widens at Opsgenie's Enterprise tier versus PagerDuty Business. A 25-responder team typically pays around $499/mo on Opsgenie Standard versus $525/mo on PagerDuty Professional β a modest but consistent edge. The catch is that Atlassian stopped selling Opsgenie to new customers in March 2025 and support ends April 2027, so the lower price comes with a migration deadline. These are representative published ranges, not live quotes β always confirm current pricing with the vendor before budgeting.
Why does incident.io have a separate on-call add-on fee?
incident.io unbundles on-call scheduling and alerting from its base incident-response subscription: the Team plan starts around $15/user/month (annual) for Slack-native incident workflows, automation and status pages, then adds roughly $10-12/user/month if you also want on-call rotations and paging β pushing the effective per-user cost to about $25-27/month once on-call is switched on. That two-part structure is different from PagerDuty and Opsgenie, which bundle on-call into their core per-seat price, so incident.io can look cheaper on a marketing page until you enable the feature most teams actually buy it for.
What happened to Opsgenie β is it being discontinued?
Yes, partially. Atlassian stopped selling Opsgenie as a standalone product to new customers on March 4, 2025, and has said support for existing customers ends April 5, 2027, with functionality folding into Jira Service Management and Compass. Existing Opsgenie contracts and pricing tiers (Essentials, Standard, Enterprise) still apply until then, so it remains a valid β if time-limited β comparison point for teams evaluating on-call tools today, but any team choosing Opsgenie now should budget for a migration before 2027.
Which on-call tool is cheapest for my team size?
There's no fixed winner because each vendor bundles on-call differently: PagerDuty and Opsgenie both charge one flat per-seat rate that already includes on-call, while incident.io stacks a base subscription plus a separate on-call add-on on top. At most team sizes with on-call included, Opsgenie's lower per-seat rate wins on sticker price, PagerDuty sits in the middle, and incident.io's two-part pricing tends to land highest once the add-on is counted β but incident.io's free forever plan and Slack-native workflow can still make it the better fit for small teams that only need lightweight on-call. Run your own responder count through the calculator above instead of comparing headline numbers.