If you're starting fresh, don't pick Opsgenie: Atlassian has ended new sales and plans to shut it down. Pick PagerDuty if on-call and incident response is a dedicated function in your team. If you're already a customer and your team lives in Jira, look at Jira Service Management, which is where Atlassian is moving you. Everyone else should compare PagerDuty with the newer rivals below.
This used to be a straight fight between two on-call tools. It isn't any more. Atlassian, which owns the alerting product, has stopped selling it to new customers and plans to switch it off, with existing customers able to keep using it until 2027. So if you're comparing the two today, you're really deciding where your on-call and incident work should live for the next few years.
I'll refer to PagerDuty as the standalone platform and to Opsgenie as the Atlassian tool, because those labels tell you the most about each one right now.
The verdict comes first on this one
Anyone starting fresh shouldn't choose the Atlassian tool, because it has an announced shutdown. If on-call and incident response is a dedicated function in your business, the standalone platform is the obvious direct choice. If you're already a customer of the Atlassian tool and your teams live in Jira, Atlassian's service desk is the natural landing spot. If you don't live in Jira, compare the standalone platform with the newer incident tools further down.
What Atlassian has decided
Atlassian's own migration page spells it out. New sales and upgrades have ended, existing customers can carry on for now, and after the end-of-support deadline the product is shut down. Any data you haven't moved by then is deleted, although there's an option to download it first.
Atlassian's answer is to move you into its service desk. It offers an automated migration tool that carries over schedules, escalation policies and incident workflows, with 120 days of parallel access to the old product so you can check everything works before you let go. That's a sensible safety net, but it's still a migration, and it's one you'll have to plan for.
The standalone platform needs none of that. You stay on the same product, and it's being actively developed, with a recently launched reliability platform, an SRE agent and a labs programme.
How they line up on six points
| Point | PagerDuty | Opsgenie |
|---|---|---|
| Product status | Actively marketed, with new AI products recently launched | End of sale reached; Atlassian plans to shut it down after end of support |
| Where it lives | Standalone incident management platform sold directly | Being moved into Jira Service Management |
| AI approach | Paige, an SRE agent, plus blended teams of agents and humans | Atlassian points to AI alert grouping, root cause analysis and AI post-incident reviews in its service desk |
| Scope | On-Call, Signal Intelligence, Runbook Automation, Stakeholder Comms and Jeli as separate products | Incident management inside a service desk with ticketing, problem management and Statuspage |
| Collaboration | ChatOps with Slack and MS Teams; manage incidents from Slack or your IDE | Built-in video conferencing plus Zoom, Slack and Microsoft Teams |
| Moving data | No migration needed | Automated migration tool; unmoved data deleted after the deadline |
| Getting started | Free trial stated | Not open to new customers |
Two different bets on AI in incident response
The standalone platform's big pitch is Paige, an SRE agent that the vendor describes as a first line of defence during incidents, working inside blended teams of agents and humans across detection, investigation and remediation. It sits alongside 750+ integrations and a set of separate products for on-call, alert noise reduction, runbook automation, stakeholder comms and learning from incidents.
Atlassian's AI story lives in the service desk rather than the old alerting tool. It points to AI alert grouping, embedded root cause analysis and AI-generated post-incident reviews, along with automatically generated timelines. The difference is one of shape: a dedicated incident product with an agent at the front, against incident management folded into a wider service desk with ticketing and problem management.
Where your team talks during an outage
Both cover the chat tools most teams already use. The standalone platform offers ChatOps with Slack and MS Teams and says you can manage incidents from Slack or your IDE. Atlassian's service desk has built-in video conferencing and integrates with Zoom, Slack and Microsoft Teams. If your engineers want to stay in their editor, the first is the better match. If your incidents tend to turn into a call with the service desk team, the second suits that habit.
For a broader look at the category, our guide to the best incident management software covers more tools than we have room for here.
Incident tools to shortlist alongside them
If you're leaving the Atlassian tool and don't want to swap one big vendor for another, these are the rivals to look at. Our page of Opsgenie replacements goes further.
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Jira Service Management
Best for: Atlassian's service desk with incident management, on-call, problem management and Statuspage integration, and the destination for migrated customers.
incident.io
Best for: Teams running on-call, investigations, response and status pages largely from Slack and Teams, with an AI agent the vendor says investigates incidents.
Rootly
Best for: Switchers from either tool, since it publishes dedicated comparison pages, and offers on-call, AI SRE, retrospectives, status pages and a service catalogue.
Do you make an incident management or on-call tool? Tool makers can ask to be considered for a featured place on this page.
Four questions to settle with your on-call team
- How much of your work already sits in Jira and Confluence? The more it does, the stronger Atlassian's own route looks.
- Who'll own the migration, and when? The parallel access window helps, but someone has to check every schedule and escalation policy.
- Do you want incidents handled in Slack, your IDE or a video call? Each option leans a different way.
- Is a dedicated AI agent for incidents on your wish list? That's the standalone platform's headline feature.
Want your tool on this list? Featured spots and reviews here are paid partnerships. Here's how to partner with me.
Frequently asked questions
Is Opsgenie being shut down?
Yes. Atlassian has ended new sales and plans to shut it down after end of support, with any data you haven't moved deleted after the deadline.
Where does Atlassian want Opsgenie customers to go?
Into its service desk, which handles incident management, on-call and problem management. An automated tool moves schedules, escalation policies and workflows, with 120 days of parallel access.
Can new customers still sign up?
No. New sales and upgrades have ended. New buyers are pointed to Atlassian's service desk instead.
Does PagerDuty offer a free trial?
Its site states a free trial. Check the sign-up page for what's included before you connect your monitoring.
Which tool is easier to run from Slack?
Both integrate with Slack and Microsoft Teams. The standalone platform says you can manage incidents from Slack or your IDE, and incident.io runs largely from chat tools too.
