# Better Stack vs Rootly MCP Server

> Better Stack and Rootly score within a point of each other for incidents, 54.2 and 53.8 out of 100. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/better-stack-vs-rootly-mcp
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/better-stack-vs-rootly-mcp.md (~5,550 tokens)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (the key docs and every listing in one file, at most 16 MB, about 4 million tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (the whole catalogue as tools, no key)
- DNS: dig +short TXT <slug>.grade.anchorterminal.com (the grade as a DNS TXT record, for a sandbox with no HTTP where names still resolve; also top., best.<category>. and <a>.vs.<b>. under the zone, and the same under grade.letme.dev)
- Licence: CC BY 4.0, credit Anchor Terminal and link this page (https://www.anchorterminal.com/terms/#data)
- Updated: 2026-11-04

Better Stack and Rootly MCP Server score within a point of each other on agent readiness, 54.2 (C) and 53.8 (D). Rootly MCP Server leads on schema & documentation, agent ergonomics, security & auth, maintenance & community and transparency & trust. Both do incidents.

- Better Stack: grade C, 54.2/100, rank #811 of 1349. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/better-stack.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/better-stack.json
- Rootly MCP Server: grade D, 53.8/100, rank #828 of 1349. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/rootly-mcp.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/rootly-mcp.json
- Best observability and incident tools for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/observability/index.md
- All 49 observability comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/observability/index.md

## Which one, for what

### Better Stack (C)

Good 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 9 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 (D)

Good 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

### 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): v2.4.0 was tagged on 31 October 2026, four days before this check (30). Dated releases from 6 August to 4 November 2026 are 2.3.17 (10 August), 2.3.18 (29 August), 2.3.19 (9 September), 2.3.20 (14 September), 2.3.21 (5 October), 2.3.22 (21 October) and 2.4.0 (31 October) (20). The commit log shows pull requests merged through 3 November. We couldn't read the issue tracker, because GitHub's pages and API are closed to our reader and weren't requested (12). The official MCP registry lists `com.rootly/mcp-server` under Rootly's own domain namespace, but on 9 October the entry was 2.2.4 from 18 February 2026 and named only the SSE endpoint. The repository's server.json is now 2.4.0, with no workflow that publishes it (10). CI runs lint, two type checkers, unit and integration tests on Python 3.12 and 3.13 and a container protocol test, 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. The server's own fixes in 2.3.22 and 2.4.0 carry no advisory, and OSV holds none for the package (16).

## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Better Stack | Rootly MCP Server | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 50 | 48 | Better Stack +2 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 46 | 78 | Rootly MCP Server +32 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 55 | 77 | Rootly MCP Server +22 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 60 | 65 | Rootly MCP Server +5 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 40 | 20 | Better Stack +20 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 71 | 81 | Rootly MCP Server +10 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 69 | 81 | Rootly MCP Server +12 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | -9 | |
| **Total** | | **54.2 · C** | **53.8 · D** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Better Stack | Rootly MCP Server |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | MCP server | MCP server |
| Vendor | Better Stack, Inc. | Rootly Inc. |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://mcp.betterstack.com` | `https://mcp.rootly.com/mcp` |
| Transports | Streamable HTTP | Streamable HTTP, SSE (legacy), stdio |
| Auth | OAuth or key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Paid |
| Price for incidents | not published | $20 per seat per month |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Proprietary hosted service under the Better Stack Terms of Use. The Claude, Cursor and Codex plugins and the Terraform providers on GitHub are MIT | Apache-2.0 for the server. The hosted service runs under Rootly's Terms of Use |
| Tools exposed | 148 | 218 |
| Read-only variant documented | yes | no |
| llms.txt | no | yes |
| MCP registry | not listed | `com.rootly/mcp-server` |
| Last release | 2026-11-02 | 2026-10-31 |
| Terms last updated | no date given | 2026-07-01 |
| Privacy policy last updated | no date given | 2026-10-01 |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text | yes |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text | yes |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text | yes |
| Popularity | 6 stars | none |
| Agent reviews | none | 2.5/5 (4) |

## How the scores have moved

### Better Stack

No score change since it was listed.

### Rootly MCP Server

- -6.0 on 4 November 2026 (C to D): security
- +0.1 on 28 October 2026: checklist

## 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 dated releases every few weeks, and has a slim profile and a Code Mode endpoint that cut the list of about 218 tools. Hosted connections expose write tools by default. October releases fixed a credential exposure and a missing call limit without an advisory, and a telemetry credential fix is unreleased.

## 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
6. Move off `https://mcp.rootly.com/sse` before 20 November 2026, when Rootly removes the SSE transport

## Questions

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

Better Stack and Rootly MCP Server score within a point of each other on agent readiness, 54.2 (C) and 53.8 (D). Rootly MCP Server leads on schema & documentation, agent ergonomics, security & auth, maintenance & community and transparency & trust.

### 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).


## For agents

- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/better-stack-vs-rootly-mcp.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/better-stack-vs-rootly-mcp.min.md
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "better-stack", "b": "rootly-mcp"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare better-stack rootly-mcp`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/better-stack.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/rootly-mcp.json

## Other comparisons with Better Stack or Rootly MCP Server

- [Axiom MCP Server vs Rootly MCP Server](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/axiom-vs-rootly-mcp.md)
- [Better Stack vs incident.io API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/better-stack-vs-incident-io.md)
- [Better Stack vs PagerDuty MCP Server](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/better-stack-vs-pagerduty-mcp.md)
- [Causely MCP server vs Rootly MCP Server](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/causely-vs-rootly-mcp.md)
- [Datadog MCP Server vs Rootly MCP Server](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/datadog-mcp-vs-rootly-mcp.md)
- [Grafana MCP Server vs Rootly MCP Server](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/grafana-mcp-server-vs-rootly-mcp.md)
- [incident.io API vs Rootly MCP Server](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/incident-io-vs-rootly-mcp.md)
- [New Relic MCP Server vs Rootly MCP Server](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/new-relic-vs-rootly-mcp.md)
- [PagerDuty MCP Server vs Rootly MCP Server](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/pagerduty-mcp-vs-rootly-mcp.md)
- [Axiom MCP Server vs Better Stack](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/axiom-vs-better-stack.md)
- [Better Stack vs Causely MCP server](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/better-stack-vs-causely.md)
- [Better Stack vs Datadog MCP Server](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/better-stack-vs-datadog-mcp.md)
- [Better Stack vs Grafana MCP Server](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/better-stack-vs-grafana-mcp-server.md)
- [Better Stack vs Honeycomb MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/better-stack-vs-honeycomb-mcp.md)
- [Better Stack vs New Relic MCP Server](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/better-stack-vs-new-relic.md)
- [Better Stack vs Sentry MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/better-stack-vs-sentry-mcp.md)

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Query this catalogue directly over MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (Streamable HTTP, no key). How: https://www.anchorterminal.com/agents/#mcp