The 10 Best FireHydrant Alternatives in 2024

Fire hydrants are designed to be the saving grace in case of extreme emergency, delivering water directly to the source of the problem and helping extinguish it for good.

FireHydrant, the incident management tool, is supposed to bring that same relief to engineering teams, but sometimes it falls short. It’s a sleek and relatively reliable tool, but there could be better alternatives out there for you.

If you’re looking for a FireHydrant alternative, then we have some good news for you. We’ve compiled a list of the top 10 alternatives on the market in 2024.

But before we jump into it, let’s talk about FireHydrant a little more.

FireHydrant Features

FireHydrant is a platform completely dedicated to incident management. There isn’t some long list of fancy features, but enough to help engineers get a better grip on their incidents. Here’s what they offer:

• Incident analytics
• On-call and alerting
• Runbooks
• Incident retrospectives

FireHydrant Pricing

FireHydrant has unique pricing. Instead of charging per month, they have yearly licensing, which isn’t exactly cheap.

For starters, you can purchase a yearly license for their entire platform. This would include everything we listed in the section above for $9,600 per year.

If you want just incident management, then the cost goes down to $6,000 per year, but it does not include on-call. The full platform licensing doesn’t even include on-call.

They base the on-call prices on how many engineers will be on the schedule. That said, you only really get a price if you configure your plan with 20 or more engineers, which will cost you $4,800 per year extra. Anything less than 20 qualifies for what they call “start-up pricing”, which they don’t disclose online.

The 10 Best FireHydrant Alternatives in 2024

1. Better Stack

Better Stack ensures fast alerts for critical events by seamlessly integrating with your infrastructure.

Key features include incident timelines, multichannel alerting, error logs, website monitoring, post-mortems, merging, and historical reporting. The platform offers plenty of customization options, including notification preferences and prioritization.

With Better Stack, you gain access to comprehensive debugging data to effectively address incident root causes. Additionally, you can establish on-call schedules to handle alerts appropriately without causing alert fatigue.

Better Stack facilitates effortless log analysis, swiftly scanning through extensive logs and triggering alerts when anomalies are detected. With broad integrations across various DevOps tools, Better Stack serves as a dependable incident management tool.

Moreover, the platform's automated multi-location checks confirm incidents before issuing alerts, reducing false positives. Once they’re validated, the system promptly notifies the designated on-call team member via push notifications, SMS, email, or other integrated communication channels.

🌟Key features

• Incident management
• Uptime monitoring
• Log management
• API monitoring

➕Pros

• Built-in Status Pages
• 30-second check frequency
• On-call scheduling
• Dozens of integrations

➖Cons

• Not a full-stack observability solution

💲Pricing

Better Stack offers free plans for basic monitoring and Logs.

The Uptime free plan includes 10 monitors, 5 status pages, and integrated incident management, while the Logs free plan provides up to 1GB of data per month.

For additional features, premium packages start at $25 per month for both Uptime and Logs.

The Uptime premium package includes 50 monitors, 5 status pages, and integrated incident management, while the Logs premium package offers a 30GB data allowance and 15 days of retention.

2. Incident.io

Incident.io, as the name suggests, is a platform for incident management and workflow automation. It integrates helpful features like on-call, incident response, and status pages into the workflow from start to finish.

It’s nothing fancy by any means, but one thing that it does well is connecting your entire organization under one roof. You can bring teams, services, customers, and other stakeholders into what they call Catalog for seamless and transparent communication throughout the incident lifecycle.

Not a big fan of Incident.io? Check out some similar tools to Incident.io.

🌟Key features

• On-call scheduling
• Incident response
• Status pages
• Post-incident and insights

➕Pros

• Simple yet decently powerful platform

➖Cons

• User reviews report limitations due to Slack
• User reviews report limitations with configurations

💲Pricing

Incident.io offers two distinct pricing packages, plus a customizable enterprise option, but there aren’t any pricing details available for enterprise.

The Team plan begins at $15 per user per month, with an additional $10 per month per on-call user. This tier provides one status page and features Slack-native incident response.

The Pro plan starts at $25 per user per month and encompasses all features included in the Team plan. Additionally, it offers advanced insights with AI assistance. Each additional on-call user incurs a charge of $20.

3. BigPanada

BigPanda's incident management software enables IT teams to swiftly respond to and resolve incidents in real-time. Through the Incident 360 Console, users gain visibility via a unified view, allowing for comprehensive monitoring of ongoing problems. This empowers engineers to effectively manage, analyze, and collaborate across departments, pinpointing root causes and taking necessary actions.

The platform offers extensive customization, allowing users to create filtered views tailored to their specific requirements. A live feed provides an overview of active incidents, detailing their last update time and priority level, streamlining the assessment process. Additionally, a searchable field enables users to quickly locate incidents without manual scanning.

Not a big fan of BigPanda? Check out some similar tools to BigPanda.

🌟Key features

• Incident management
• Alert Intelligence
• Unified analytics
• Workflow automation

➕Pros

• Alert correlation
• Machine learning capabilities
• Easy to integrate API connectors

➖Cons

• No prices listed online
• No recent reviews online

💲Pricing

No pricing information is available for BigPanda. If you're interested, you’ll have to reach out to their sales team.

4. Opsgenie

Opsgenie is likely one of the more established incident management solutions available today, as it’s been around since 2012. It’s now operated by Atlassian, but it’s renowned for its cost-effectiveness and centralized approach and excels in alert management, on-call scheduling, and communication.

Through alert routing, users can swiftly direct critical issues to the appropriate teams, guaranteeing rapid response times. Advanced scheduling tools streamline on-call management, sending alerts to the right people to get the job done.

Not a big fan of Opsgenie? Check out some similar tools to Opsgenie.

🌟Key features

• Incident management

➕Pros

• Seamless integration
• Easy on-call scheduling
• Centralized management

➖Cons

• Not many recent reviews online
• Some user reviews complain about a lack of features

💲Pricing

Opsgenie provides users with four pricing tiers to choose from. The Free tier is for small teams of up to 5 users, but its functionality is limited compared to other plans.

For more features, the Essentials plan starts at $9 per user per month with annual billing. This tier includes unlimited alerts and 100 SMS notifications per user, with the option to purchase additional SMS alerts if needed.

Stepping up, the Standard package begins at $19 per user per month, also with annual payments. It offers unlimited SMS notifications and several advanced features beyond what the Essentials plan provides.

Lastly, the Enterprise plan starts at $29 per user per month when billed annually. This top-tier plan encompasses all the features of the Standard package along with additional perks such as incident templates and advanced post-incident analysis.

5. xMatters

xMatters is an incident management platform that offers a dependable foundation for incident management needs. It’s not quite as sophisticated as some of the other options on this list, but it’s still a great FireHydrant alternative.

Key features of the platform include on-call scheduling, escalations, alert management, and basic communication. Notably, xMatters excels in reliability, which is great for users seeking a straightforward solution over more intricate full-stack options.

🌟Key features

• Incident management

➕Pros

• Simple and reliable

➖Cons

• Lacks a lot of functionality
• User reviews report troubles with setting up automation tasks
• User reviews report that only one alert can be closed at a time, wasting time

💲Pricing

xMatters provides a range of pricing options tailored to accommodate businesses of various sizes. Their entry-level plan is free and quite suitable for smaller organizations. For those requiring more advanced features, paid plans start at $9 per user per month. Additionally, another tier offers additional Incident Management functions at $39 per user per month. However, pricing for large-scale deployments may not be transparent and may necessitate further inquiry.

6. Moogsoft

Moogsoft, an AIOps platform now under the control of Dell, provides a range of features for IT operations management. It integrates smoothly with multiple monitoring tools and employs machine learning for proactive issue detection and resolution.

Moogsoft is great for its ability to detect and resolve incidents early. However, there have been user reports of occasional instability and limited customization options. Nevertheless, for those in need of a comprehensive AIOps solution, Moogsoft is great.

🌟Key features

• Incident management

➕Pros

• Easy to navigate and use
• Simple alert correlation
• Multi-platform ingestion

➖Cons

• Very few recent reviews
• User reviews mention issues with dashboards and reporting
• User reviews mention needed improvements in machine-learning aspects

💲Pricing

Moogsoft does not publicly disclose its pricing information online. Those interested would need to contact their sales team directly for a quote.

7. PagerDuty

PagerDuty is probably one of the most popular cloud-based incident management platforms, and it’s steadily gaining popularity among DevOps teams for its robust features. It offers enterprise-level incident management capabilities, providing a centralized platform for teams to receive alerts throughout the incident lifecycle. PagerDuty effectively reduces alert noise, prioritizing critical issues and ensuring prompt resolution.

One of PagerDuty's best qualities is its automation features, allowing teams to streamline incident response processes by automating repetitive tasks. This not only improves efficiency but also ensures consistency in incident management. Additionally, PagerDuty facilitates seamless communication and collaboration among team members and stakeholders, providing a unified platform for sharing critical information and coordinating incident resolution efforts.

Not a big fan of PagerDuty? Check out some similar tools to PagerDuty.

🌟Key features

• Incident management

➕Pros

• User-friendly
• Comprehensive status pages
• Runbook automation

➖Cons

• It’s expensive for what it is
• User reviews complain about reporting complications
• User reviews report an overwhelming UI for beginners

💲Pricing

PagerDuty offers a range of pricing tiers tailored to different organizational needs. The Free tier is suitable for smaller teams of up to 5 users, albeit with limited functionalities.

The Professional plan, starting at $21 per user per month, provides expanded features such as unlimited API calls and SMS alerts.

The Business plan, beginning at $41 per user per month, builds upon the Professional tier with additional automation workflows for incidents and business processes.

For larger enterprises requiring fully customizable solutions and scalability, the Enterprise plan offers tailored options, although specific pricing details are not readily available online.

8. Blameless

Blameless is a great management option for those looking to collaborate and resolve incidents directly in Slack and other communication tools like Google Chat and Microsoft Teams.

While it’s not the most well-known tool, it’s still quite powerful and enables teams to build active resilience. Blameless uses a combination of incident response and reliability management tools to help engineers reduce the impact of incidents and the overall time spent resolving them.

Overall, Blameless is a great FireHydrant alternative, allowing engineering teams to detect, respond to, and resolve incidents faster, all at a reasonable cost.

🌟Key features

• Incident management

➕Pros

• Cost-effective
• Integrates well with Slack and Jira
• Easy to configure

➖Cons

• User reviews complain about a lot of manual work
• User reviews report challenges with reporting
• User reviews suggest a lack of data export options

💲Pricing

Blameless only has 2 pricing options, one being a completely custom, enterprise plan. For this custom plan, you’ll need to contact their sales team.

The Essentials plan starts at $10 per user per month, but the details are a bit confusing. The initial price is per user, but the plan mentions that it includes the first 50 people. There’s no clarification for this online, so we can only assume that this plan is good for up to 50 people, so long as you pay $10 each.

9. Squadcast

Squadcast is a strong competitor on this list, offering incident management essentials like on-call, incident response, and reliability workflows within a unified platform.

Its on-call management allows for flexible scheduling, escalation policies, and intelligent alert routing across various notification channels. Additionally, Squadcast enhances incident response with integrated communication channels, supportive Runbooks, Custom APIs, and Webhooks.

The platform also streamlines incident tasks and resolutions through automated workflows. With advanced reliability metrics, SLO tracking, and built-in public and private status pages, Squadcast is a solid option for those considering alternatives to FireHydrant.

🌟Key features

• Incident management

➕Pros

• Automatic escalation
• Plenty of customization options
• Easy to integrate with open-source tools

➖Cons

• A bit expensive for what it is
• User reviews indicate a steep learning curve

💲Pricing

Squadcast offers 4 pricing tiers, including a free tier suitable for smaller teams, allowing up to 5 users and 100 alerts.

For more advanced features, the Pro tier starts at $9 per user per month, with unlimited users and 100 alert notifications per user, with additional alerts available for $0.10 each.

Stepping up, the Premium plan is priced at $16 per user per month, offering stakeholder inclusion, delayed notifications, and unlimited alert notifications.

Finally, the Enterprise plan, available at $21 per user per month, includes unlimited alerts, stakeholder access, and advanced features like global event rules, making it ideal for larger organizations with complex needs.

10. Splunk

Back in 2018, Splunk acquired VictorOps, which was well-known at the time for its incident management solution. Since then, Splunk has warped into an all-encompassing tool that boasts a ton of observability solutions.

Now, Splunk on-call offers bulletproof on-call scheduling, escalation policies, automated administrative tasks, and data-driven insights, all packed into one, unified tool. Engineering teams can utilize the feature that turns off unnecessary alerts and take advantage of workflow automation to get a firm grip on incidents, with the aid of automatic escalations.

To be clear, Splunk is an enterprise-level solution through and through. If you’re looking for a solution just for incident management, then this probably isn’t right for you. Splunk performs the best when utilizing its entire suite of observability tools, which is incredibly expensive.

🌟Key features

• Incident management
• Synthetic monitoring
• Real user monitoring
• Infrastructure monitoring
• SIEM
• SOAR

➕Pros

• Very strong feature set
• Full-stack observability

➖Cons

• Very expensive
• User reviews indicate issues with displaying logs
• User reviews report crashes in web application

💲Pricing

Splunk’s pricing could be a little more transparent, as they don’t offer prices for their full line of products. That said, all of their observability tools seem to have pricing displayed, albeit expensive. Here’s what they offer:

• On-call: $5 per user per month
• Infrastructure: $15 per host per month
• End-to-End: $75 per host per month
• Synthetics: $1 per 10,000 uptime requests
• RUM: $14 per 10,000 sessions
• App & Infra: $60 per host per month
• APM: $55 per host per month

The 10 Best FireHydrant Alternatives Comparison

Conclusion

FireHydrant is a great tool for incident management, but it’s not the only one. There are tons of great options out there, and this list captures the 10 best ones on the market in 2024.

If you find yourself looking for a FireHydrant alternative, then feel free to reference this whenever you need to. But perhaps the best advice anyone can give you is to take your time and do your own research. No article, no matter how in-depth, will ever replace good old-fashioned trial and error.

Article by

Zach McDaniel

With his laptop as a sword and coffee machine as a shield, Zach is a content strategist here at Better Stack. When he's not wordsmithing, he's putting together PCs, working on cars, or scheming about how to own a zoo one day.

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