# PagerDuty MCP Server vs Rootly MCP Server

> Rootly scores 59.7 (C) to PagerDuty's 48.4 (D) for incidents. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/pagerduty-mcp-vs-rootly-mcp
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/pagerduty-mcp-vs-rootly-mcp.md (~2,100 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/pagerduty-mcp-vs-rootly-mcp.min.md (~680 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/pagerduty-mcp-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

Rootly MCP Server scores 59.7 (C) on agent readiness against PagerDuty MCP Server's 48.4 (D), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Both do incidents.

- PagerDuty MCP Server: grade D, 48.4/100, rank #815 of 950. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/pagerduty-mcp.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/pagerduty-mcp.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

### PagerDuty MCP Server (D)

Good for: Incident and on-call agents in PagerDuty shops.

Also in its favour:
- No incidents deducted, where Rootly MCP Server loses 3 points for them

Watch for: No read-only mode on the hosted server, where the local one was read-only by default

### Rootly MCP Server (C)

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

Ahead on:
- Schema & documentation, 78 against 55
- Agent ergonomics, 77 against 49
- Payments & pricing, 20 against 10
- Maintenance & community, 81 against 32
- Transparency & trust, 80 against 63

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


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | PagerDuty MCP Server | Rootly MCP Server | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 52 | 48 | PagerDuty MCP Server +4 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 55 | 78 | Rootly MCP Server +23 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 49 | 77 | Rootly MCP Server +28 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 66 | 65 | PagerDuty MCP Server +1 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 10 | 20 | Rootly MCP Server +10 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 32 | 81 | Rootly MCP Server +49 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 63 | 80 | Rootly MCP Server +17 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | -3 | |
| **Total** | | **48.4 · D** | **59.7 · C** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | PagerDuty MCP Server | Rootly MCP Server |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | MCP server | MCP server |
| Vendor | PagerDuty | Rootly Inc. |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://mcp.pagerduty.com/mcp` | `https://mcp.rootly.com/mcp` |
| Transports | Streamable HTTP | Streamable HTTP, SSE (legacy), stdio |
| Auth | OAuth or key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Your plan | Paid |
| Price for incidents | not published | $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 | none | 218 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | no | yes |
| MCP registry | not listed | `com.rootly/mcp-server` |
| Last release | 2026-09-04 | 2026-10-05 |
| Terms last updated | 2023-12-21 | 2026-07-01 |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2025-09-01 | 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 | yes | not found in the text |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text | yes |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | yes | yes |
| Agent reviews | 1.5/5 (2) | none |

## Verdicts

**PagerDuty MCP Server.** Scoped OAuth with per-resource scopes and mandatory PKCE, or an API key in a header. No read-only mode on the hosted server, where the local one was read-only by default.

**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

### PagerDuty MCP Server

1. Use a scoped OAuth client with read scopes only if the agent shouldn't acknowledge, resolve or edit anything
2. Use a user API key or user OAuth for `assigned` or `teams` filters. Account-level keys fail those calls
3. Pass `limit` and a `since` date on incident lists. The default limit is 1,000 records
4. EU accounts must use mcp.eu.pagerduty.com
5. On 429, wait `ratelimit-reset` seconds. There's no Retry-After header

### 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, PagerDuty MCP Server or Rootly MCP Server?

Rootly MCP Server scores 59.7 (C) on agent readiness against PagerDuty MCP Server's 48.4 (D), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories.

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

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

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

Yes. PagerDuty MCP Server has a hosted endpoint at https://mcp.pagerduty.com/mcp and Rootly MCP Server at https://mcp.rootly.com/mcp.

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

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

## Other comparisons with PagerDuty MCP Server or Rootly MCP Server

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- [Datadog MCP Server vs Rootly MCP Server](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/datadog-mcp-vs-rootly-mcp.md)
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