GoAlert vs HeyOnCall

GoAlert is free, open-source software for on-call scheduling, alert routing, and escalation. Schedules, rotations, and escalation policies decide who receives an alert and move it onward when it is not acknowledged. Alerts can enter through the generic API, email, Grafana, Prometheus, Site24x7, Sensu, or manual interface entry. Notifications include Twilio SMS and voice, Mailgun email, and Slack. GoAlert is self-hosted, distributed as a single binary or Docker images, and requires a running PostgreSQL instance. Administrators can enable GitHub OAuth or OpenID Connect. The setup guide recommends a data-encryption key for sensitive stored information such as API keys. The interface is responsive and mobile friendly. Two-way SMS is available for US-based numbers; Indian government regulations prevent it for Indian numbers. Rotation scheduling, escalation policies, handoff tools, multichannel notifications, and calendar sync are listed capabilities. The project is licensed under Apache License 2.0.

HeyOnCall combines website and API monitoring with incident management and on-call paging. Checks cover HTTP and HTTPS availability and performance, response assertions, redirects, and request or response inspection. SSL monitoring validates certificates and chains and can warn before expiration; heartbeat and cron monitoring are also included. Teams can set timezone-aware rotations, change or trade shifts, and sync Google Calendar, Outlook, or iCalendar feeds. Unacknowledged incidents can escalate to another user, a rotation, or everyone in a rotation. Its iOS and Android Critical Alerts can bypass Do Not Disturb, silent or vibrate modes, and volume settings, and repeat until acknowledged. Alert sources include Datadog, Prometheus Alertmanager, Uptime Kuma, and other webhook-capable tools; notifications can be sent through Slack, email, Telegram, or webhooks. The API supports custom triggers, incident resolution, and custom payloads. Plans are billed monthly: Free Trial for evaluating is free, Solo is $3 a month, and Pro is $32 a month. The evaluation plan limits users and triggers, while paid plans are limited to 1000 triggers of each listed type.