# Grafana MCP Server vs Rootly MCP Server

> Grafana scores 74.5 (BB) to Rootly's 59.7 (C) for incidents. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/grafana-mcp-server-vs-rootly-mcp
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/grafana-mcp-server-vs-rootly-mcp.md (~2,300 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/grafana-mcp-server-vs-rootly-mcp.min.md (~680 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/grafana-mcp-server-vs-rootly-mcp.json (this page as data, same URL with Accept: application/json)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (full text: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- Updated: 2026-10-09

Grafana MCP Server scores 74.5 (BB) on agent readiness against Rootly MCP Server's 59.7 (C), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Both do incidents.

- Grafana MCP Server: grade BB, 74.5/100, rank #70 of 950. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/grafana-mcp-server.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/grafana-mcp-server.json
- Rootly MCP Server: grade C, 59.7/100, rank #541 of 950. 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 15 observability comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/observability/index.md

## Which one, for what

### Grafana MCP Server (BB)

Good for: Teams on Grafana, self-managed or Cloud, that want an agent to read dashboards and query Prometheus, Loki, Tempo and Pyroscope, and to work with alert rules, incidents and OnCall.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 91 against 48
- Payments & pricing, 60 against 20
- Maintenance & community, 95 against 81

Also in its favour:
- Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better

Watch for: The default set is 79 tools, and 119 with every category on, counted from the registration code in source

### Rootly MCP Server (C)

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

Also in its favour:
- A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install

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


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Grafana MCP Server | Rootly MCP Server | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 91 | 48 | Grafana MCP Server +43 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 81 | 78 | Grafana MCP Server +3 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 74 | 77 | Rootly MCP Server +3 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 65 | 65 | even |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 60 | 20 | Grafana MCP Server +40 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 95 | 81 | Grafana MCP Server +14 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 79 | 80 | Rootly MCP Server +1 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | -3 | -3 | |
| **Total** | | **74.5 · BB** | **59.7 · C** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Grafana MCP Server | Rootly MCP Server |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | MCP server | MCP server |
| Vendor | Grafana Labs | Rootly Inc. |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | `https://mcp.rootly.com/mcp` |
| Transports | stdio, SSE (legacy), Streamable HTTP | Streamable HTTP, SSE (legacy), stdio |
| Auth | OAuth or key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Free | Paid |
| Price for incidents | free | $20 per seat per month |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 for the server. The hosted service runs under Rootly's Terms of Use |
| Tools exposed | 119 | 218 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| MCP registry | `io.github.grafana/mcp-grafana` | `com.rootly/mcp-server` |
| Last release | 2026-10-07 | 2026-10-05 |
| Terms last updated | no document linked | 2026-07-01 |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-07-10 | 2026-10-01 |
| Customer content may train models |  | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access |  | yes |
| Terms restrict benchmarking |  | not found in the text |
| Terms or service can change without notice |  | yes |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver |  | yes |
| Popularity | 3.5k stars, 152k PyPI/wk | none |

## Verdicts

**Grafana MCP Server.** Every default tool declares typed inputs and read-only and destructive annotations in source, and `--disable-write` cuts the default 79 tools to 62. Writes and a general `grafana_api_request` tool are on by default, the default list is long at 79 tools, and usage statistics have been sent to Grafana Labs by default since 2.0.0.

**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

### Grafana MCP Server

1. Start with `--disable-write` unless the task needs writes, and add `--disable-api` to remove `grafana_api_request`
2. Pass `--enabled-tools` with only the categories needed. The default list loads 79 tools
3. Use `get_dashboard_summary` or `get_dashboard_property` with a JSONPath before `get_dashboard_by_uid`, which returns the whole dashboard JSON
4. Set `GRAFANA_USAGE_STATS=disabled` or `DO_NOT_TRACK=1` to stop the four-hourly usage report to stats.grafana.org
5. Use streamable HTTP, not SSE, when each caller needs its own token or organisation, and set `--server-auth-token` on any non-loopback address

### 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, Grafana MCP Server or Rootly MCP Server?

Grafana MCP Server scores 74.5 (BB) on agent readiness against Rootly MCP Server's 59.7 (C), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories.

### Which is cheaper for incidents, Grafana MCP Server or Rootly MCP Server?

Grafana MCP Server, at free against $20 per seat per month for Rootly MCP Server. These are the vendors' published prices for the job.

### Do Grafana MCP Server and Rootly MCP Server need an API key?

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

### Can an agent call Grafana MCP Server and Rootly MCP Server without installing anything?

Grafana MCP Server runs on your own machine, with no hosted endpoint listed. Rootly MCP Server has a hosted endpoint at https://mcp.rootly.com/mcp.

### Are Grafana MCP Server and Rootly MCP Server open source?

Yes. Grafana MCP Server is open source (Apache-2.0). 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/grafana-mcp-server-vs-rootly-mcp.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/grafana-mcp-server-vs-rootly-mcp.min.md
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "grafana-mcp-server", "b": "rootly-mcp"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare grafana-mcp-server rootly-mcp`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/grafana-mcp-server.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/rootly-mcp.json

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