# Better Stack vs Rootly MCP Server (slim)

> 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.

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- Index: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt · API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json · MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp · Updated: 2026-11-04
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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: C 54.2, rank #811 of 1349 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/better-stack.min.md
- Rootly MCP Server: D 53.8, rank #828 of 1349 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/rootly-mcp.min.md
- Better Stack, 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 No incidents deducted, where Rootly MCP Server loses 9 points for them.
- Rootly MCP Server, 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 Runs on your own machine; Open source.

| Category | Better Stack | Rootly MCP Server |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability (16%) | 50 | 48 |
| Performance (10%) | pending | pending |
| Schema & documentation (13%) | 46 | 78 |
| Agent ergonomics (13%) | 55 | 77 |
| Security & auth (14%) | 60 | 65 |
| Payments & pricing (10%) | 40 | 20 |
| Task success (10%) | pending | pending |
| Maintenance & community (7%) | 71 | 81 |
| Transparency & trust (7%) | 69 | 81 |

| Fact (where they differ) | Better Stack | Rootly 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 |
| Pricing | Freemium | Paid |
| Price for incidents | not published | $20 per seat per month |
| 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 |
| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text | yes |
| 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) |

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).)