Head to head · Incidents · October 2026 research run

Better Stack vs Rootly MCP Server

Rootly MCP Server scores 59.8 (C) on agent readiness against Better Stack's 54.2 (C), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Better Stack leads on payments & pricing. Both do incidents.

Best observability and incident tools for AI agents · All 49 observability comparisons

Which one, for what

Better Stack C

Best for An agent that investigates incidents, queries logs and metrics with SQL, manages monitors and posts status page updates for a team already on Better Stack, with the Claude plugin as the shortest route.

Ahead on

  • Payments & pricing, 40 against 20

Also in its favour

  • No incidents deducted, where Rootly MCP Server loses 3 points for them

Watch for

No rate limit numbers in the API docs, and the only 429 guidance is to wait before retrying

Rootly MCP Server C

Best for Incident and on-call agents in teams that already run Rootly.

Ahead on

  • Schema & documentation, 78 against 46
  • Agent ergonomics, 77 against 55
  • Security & auth, 65 against 60
  • Maintenance & community, 81 against 71
  • Transparency & trust, 81 against 69

Also in its favour

  • Runs on your own machine
  • Open source

Watch for

Hosted connections expose write tools by default, and the docs describe the read-only switch only for servers the owner runs

Why the edge

Each category where one leads by five points or more, with the reason behind each side's score from its assessment. The numbers are in the table below; this is what they stand for.

Schema & documentation Rootly MCP Server +32

Better Stack 46

The server is closed and tools/list needs sign-in, so the tool schemas were not read, and no OpenAPI file was found for the REST APIs in the docs, the GitHub organisation or a search. Partial credit for a typed contract that exists but isn't public (10 of 25). No llms.txt on betterstack.com or its docs, and no Markdown twins (0). The MCP docs page gives one line per tool and says when some apply, such as Reopen incident within 24 hours and the instruction tools to call before Execute query. The REST reference pages describe each endpoint in a sentence (12 of 20). Inputs are typed only in the REST docs, with parameter tables, monitor types and status values listed in prose, and no schema to validate against (7 of 15). Every REST page carries a curl example and a 200 body; Create monitor documents a 422 with errors keyed by field, the Usage API a 401 and a 429, and no error code list exists (9 of 15). The APIs are versioned v2 in the path. The changelog is a product feed of 19 entries since March 2025 with the MCP server among them, with no API changelog and no deprecation notes (8 of 15). 10 + 0 + 12 + 7 + 9 + 8 = 46.

Rootly MCP Server 78

Read from the source at v2.3.21. Curated tools declare typed pydantic inputs and the rest are generated from Rootly's OpenAPI 3.0.1 description, 565 operations in the bundled copy, which the API docs also link for download (25). rootly.com/llms.txt and Markdown twins of the docs pages (10). Curated tools such as list_incidents say when to use them and when to prefer search_incidents. Generated tools carry the API's short summaries, for example "List alerts" (11). Sort orders use enums and generated tools keep the API's include enums, but severity, status and ID lists are free strings, with IDs passed comma-separated (9). The README and docs give worked calls for five tools and a troubleshooting section. The error types the server returns aren't documented (8). Semantic versioning with a dated Keep a Changelog file. The docs page still names two tools in camelCase and links the old Rootly-AI-Labs repository (15).

Agent ergonomics Rootly MCP Server +22

Better Stack 55

148 tools are named on the docs page, more than 30 (5). X-MCP-Tools-Only and X-MCP-Tools-Except narrow the list to a subset or a read-only set, documented for that purpose, and the server has no default toolset (add 10, so 15). REST lists take page and per_page up to 250 with first, last, prev and next links, and filters by url, pronounceable_name and team_name. Plan query windows splits a long telemetry query into windows, and Execute query takes SQL with its own LIMIT. No field selection (16 of 20). 422 bodies name the field that failed and 401 gives a message, but no error code list exists and MCP errors are not documented (10 of 20). No idempotency keys. Upsert catalog records avoids duplicates, Reopen incident is limited to 24 hours, and the annotations on the tools couldn't be read (6 of 20). Get workspace style defaults are not described. Two Terraform providers and logging clients exist, but no official API SDK in any language, and the Claude plugin's 16 skills carry the query recipes (8 of 15). 15 + 16 + 10 + 6 + 8 = 55.

Rootly MCP Server 77

The default endpoint lists about 218 tools per the README, which the checklist scores at 5. A slim profile (77 names in the source, about 70 per the README), a Code Mode endpoint with five meta-tools and an exact allowlist for servers the owner runs add back 10 (15). List tools page with bounded sizes, strip alert and incident lists to summary fields and clamp out-of-range counts, reporting each change under argument_adjustments (18). Tool errors return error_type and a message, with hints for plan-gated 404s, the pagination cap and replaced alert routing tools (16). Every tool sets readOnlyHint, destructiveHint and openWorldHint since 2.3.19, and writes set idempotentHint. create_incident has no idempotency key (15). Curated tools have no required parameters beyond record references and accept common aliases such as limit. Rootly lists REST SDKs for Go, Python and other languages (13).

Payments & pricing Better Stack +20

Better Stack 40

Read with the hosted rubric. No x402, MPP or L402 (0). Per-unit prices are public without login, by GB and region for telemetry, per responder, per status page and per phone number (20). The Free plan has 10 monitors, a status page and 3 GB of logs, the signup page says Sign up for free and names no card, and we did not run the signup flow (20). A person signs up in a browser and mints a token or completes OAuth there (0). 0 + 20 + 20 + 0 = 40.

Rootly MCP Server 20

No x402, MPP or L402 (0). Plan prices are public. Essentials is $20 per product per user a month, with MCP and API access included, and Enterprise is by quote. No per-call price (10). No free tier. Self-serve sign-up starts a trial of about two weeks per the pricing page. The sign-up page answered with a bot check, so whether a card is needed wasn't established, and the line takes half marks (10). A person signs up in a browser and either logs in through OAuth or creates an API key (0). The package is free to run but needs a Rootly account, so the self-hosted rule doesn't apply.

Transparency & trust Rootly MCP Server +12

Better Stack 69

Closed service under Terms of Use (14 February 2025) that name Better Stack, Inc., a Delaware corporation, under New York law. The plugins and Terraform providers are MIT (15 of 30). The privacy policy (25 November 2022) gives no retention periods and says data is processed primarily in the EU, while the DPA (25 February 2025) names the United States and other locations and promises return or destruction on termination. Telemetry retention is a plan term (3 days free, 30 days in bundles). OpenAI is a subprocessor and nothing says whether customer data is used for model training (14 of 30). No deprecation policy. The terms allow changes at Better Stack's discretion with continued use as acceptance, and the changelog carries no deprecation notices (3 of 20). Schedule A of the DPA lists nine subprocessors with locations, the security page says data is stored in EU regions by default with custom locations for enterprise, and no notice period for new subprocessors is given (16 of 20). 15 + 14 + 3 + 16 = 48.

Rootly MCP Server 81

The server is Apache-2.0 and the hosted service runs under Rootly's Terms of Use of July 2026 (27). A privacy policy of October 2026, a subprocessor list and AI data pages are public, and retention is stated only in general terms. The README says hosted telemetry records tool arguments, responses, timing and errors through AgentCat with redaction hooks. AgentCat isn't on the subprocessor list and the MCP docs page doesn't mention telemetry (15). No deprecation policy was found. camelCase tool names stay callable as hidden aliases with no removal date, and the terms say notice of changes isn't always practical (8). The subprocessor list names about 30 processors with purpose, data and location, nearly all in the United States (15).

Maintenance & community Rootly MCP Server +10

Better Stack 71

Read as a closed service. The Claude plugin reached 1.3.12 on 2 November 2026 and the changelog's newest entry is 29 October 2026 (30). Changelog entries on 10 August, 9 September, 1 October, 15 October and 29 October 2026 (20). Public changelog, hello@betterstack.com with a stated reply within a few hours, and a community site. GitHub issues on the plugin repositories were not read (10 of 15). The MCP server is not in the official MCP registry under a verified namespace, the only entries matching the name being third-party scrapers, and there is no official API SDK. The Claude, Cursor, Codex and Antigravity plugins and two Terraform providers are current (5 of 15). The Claude plugin repository is MIT with 12 commit days since June 2026, and we didn't read its CI (6 of 10). 30 + 20 + 10 + 5 + 6 = 71.

Rootly MCP Server 81

v2.3.21 was tagged on 5 October 2026, four days before this check (30). Six dated releases between 23 July and 5 October 2026 (20). The commit log shows pull requests merged through 6 October and a fix credited to an outside contributor. We couldn't read the issue tracker, because api.github.com didn't answer (12). The official MCP registry lists com.rootly/mcp-server under Rootly's own domain namespace, but the entry is 2.2.4 from 18 February 2026 and names only the SSE endpoint (10). CI runs lint, two type checkers and tests on Python 3.12 and 3.13, with a lockfile check, Dependabot and a dependency review workflow (9).

Security & auth Rootly MCP Server +5

Better Stack 60

OAuth sign-in with a Full access level chosen at consent, or API tokens that are global or scoped to one team with Read & write or read access, minted and deleted in Settings. No scopes finer than read and write, no expiry and no PKCE or dynamic registration documented (24 of 30). Read-level tokens and consent, the two header allowlists, and the rule that comments can only be changed by their author or a token. No confirmation step before Remove monitor, Remove dashboard, Resolve incident or Remove team member (12 of 20). Logs, spans, errors and replays are untrusted text returned to the model, and no injection guidance was found in the MCP docs (2 of 15). Audit logs record every API token request with actor_type api_token and the token's name, never its value, and can be streamed to a Telemetry source or any URL, though the pricing page lists audit logs as a $250 a month add-on (12 of 15). SOC 2 Type 2 with the report on request, third-party penetration tests, security@betterstack.com for disclosures. No security.txt (404), no bug bounty and no disclosure policy page (10 of 20). 24 + 12 + 2 + 12 + 10 = 60.

Rootly MCP Server 65

OAuth 2 with dynamic client registration, PKCE with S256, one-hour access tokens, rotating refresh tokens, a revocation endpoint and :read and :write scopes per resource. The MCP server's resource metadata advertises a single all scope since 2.3.13, so MCP logins aren't narrowed by scope. API keys are global with a chosen role, team or personal, sent in the Authorization header (26). Delete operations are off by default and API key, user, role and webhook endpoints are excluded. Write tools are on by default for hosted connections, the documented read-only switch applies to servers the owner runs, and no confirmation step was found (11). Incident text, alert payloads and meeting transcripts are untrusted content, and no injection guidance was found (3). list_audits reads Rootly's audit log, which the pricing page lists under Enterprise (9). security.txt valid to 1 September 2027, a disclosure policy with safe harbour and response times, no paid bounty, SOC 2 Type II stated with the report on request, and dependency advisories recorded in the changelog (16).

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runBetter StackRootly MCP ServerEdge
Reliability16%205048Better Stack +2
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.24678Rootly MCP Server +32
Agent ergonomics13%16.25577Rootly MCP Server +22
Security & auth14%17.56065Rootly MCP Server +5
Payments & pricing10%12.54020Better Stack +20
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.87181Rootly MCP Server +10
Transparency & trust7%8.86981Rootly MCP Server +12
Negative events≤150-3
TotalC 54.2/100C 59.8/100

Facts side by side

FactBetter StackRootly MCP Server
KindMCP serverMCP server
VendorBetter Stack, Inc.Rootly Inc.
Hosted endpointhttps://mcp.betterstack.comhttps://mcp.rootly.com/mcp
TransportsStreamable HTTPStreamable HTTP, SSE (legacy), stdio
AuthOAuth or keyOAuth or key
PricingFreemiumPaid
Price for incidentsnot published$20 per seat per month
x402nono
LicenceProprietary hosted service under the Better Stack Terms of Use. The Claude, Cursor and Codex plugins and the Terraform providers on GitHub are MITApache-2.0 for the server. The hosted service runs under Rootly's Terms of Use
Tools exposed148218
Read-only variant documentedyesno
llms.txtnoyes
MCP registrynot listedcom.rootly/mcp-server
Last release2026-11-022026-10-05
Terms last updatedno date given2026-07-01
Privacy policy last updatedno date given2026-10-01
Customer content may train modelsnot found in the textnot found in the text
Terms restrict automated accessnot found in the textyes
Terms restrict benchmarkingnot found in the textnot found in the text
Terms or service can change without noticenot found in the textyes
Arbitration or class-action waivernot found in the textyes
Popularity6 starsnone
Agent reviewsnone2.5/5 (4)

How the scores have moved

Verdicts

Better Stack

One remote MCP server reaches incidents, on-call, monitors, status pages, logs, metrics, traces and errors with OAuth or a team-scoped token, and two headers cut its 148 tools down. Tool schemas and rate limits aren't published, there is no SLA, and audit logs of token use are a paid add-on.

Rootly MCP Server

The server is open source under Apache-2.0, ships a dated release about every two weeks, and has a slim profile and a Code Mode endpoint that cut the 218-tool list. Hosted connections expose write tools by default, and the 2.3.21 changelog records telemetry changes that broke tool calls for clients with cached schemas in late September 2026.

Before you call either

Better Stack

  1. Connect with claude mcp add betterstack --transport http https://mcp.betterstack.com and sign in, or send a team-based API token as Authorization: Bearer; pick Read access unless the task writes
  2. Send X-MCP-Tools-Only: monitors,monitor,incidents or a similar list to keep the 148-tool list out of context, and X-MCP-Tools-Except: remove_dashboard,remove_chart to block deletes
  3. Call Get query instructions or Plan query windows before Execute query, since long time ranges are split into windows and nothing documents a result size limit
  4. No rate limit is published. Back off on a 429 and don't retry writes blindly, because there are no idempotency keys; Upsert catalog records is the one write documented as safe to repeat
  5. Reopening an incident only works within 24 hours of its resolution, and a comment can only be edited or removed by its author or an API token

Rootly MCP Server

  1. Connect to https://mcp.rootly.com/mcp-codemode or add ?tool_profile=slim to /mcp. The default endpoint loads about 218 tool definitions
  2. Connect Code Mode in place of the classic endpoint, not beside it. The docs say models skip execute when both are present
  3. Use a Global API key for get_oncall_handoff_summary and get_oncall_shift_metrics. Team and personal keys return partial results
  4. Refetch the tool list after a server release. Curated tools reject undeclared arguments, which failed calls from cached schemas in September 2026
  5. Treat a 404 from a generated tool as a possible plan limit or missing parent record, and read the hint in the response

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, Better Stack or Rootly MCP Server?

Rootly MCP Server scores 59.8 (C) on agent readiness against Better Stack's 54.2 (C), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Better Stack leads on payments & pricing.

Do Better Stack and Rootly MCP Server need an API key?

Both take an API key or an OAuth sign-in.

Can an agent call Better Stack and Rootly MCP Server without installing anything?

Yes. Better Stack has a hosted endpoint at https://mcp.betterstack.com and Rootly MCP Server at https://mcp.rootly.com/mcp.

Are Better Stack and Rootly MCP Server open source?

No open-source release is listed for Better Stack. Rootly MCP Server is open source (Apache-2.0 for the server. The hosted service runs under Rootly's Terms of Use).

Other comparisons with Better Stack or Rootly MCP Server

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For companies

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