Flashduty vs 
Grafana OnCallOn March 24, 2026, the Grafana OnCall repo was archived read-only. The Cloud apps were retired earlier, folded into Grafana Cloud IRM — a paid module that only runs inside Grafana Cloud. There is another route: keep Grafana for monitoring, and move on-call response to an independent platform. Flashduty: alert intake, noise reduction, paging, IM collaboration, and AI investigation in one platform, included in every plan, with a private-deployment option.
Facts verified 2026-08-28 · Key comparisons cited
Grafana Cloud IRMGrafana Cloud · Push-firstPush notification via Slack · Open Grafana Cloud to acknowledge
FlashdutyNoise reduction · AI · Status pageAI: 3 pods OOMKilled, linked to the 01:48 deploy · Status page synced
If your whole stack already lives in Grafana Cloud, IRM is the convenient choice — we say so honestly. If your alert sources span more than Grafana, your response loop lives in the chat tools your team actually uses, or you need private deployment, read the module-by-module comparison below — IRM on the left, Flashduty on the right, each line with sources.
After moving into Grafana Cloud IRMAfter moving to Flashduty#alert-order-api (Slack)
Grafana IRM: Firing — order-api 5xx spike. Open Grafana Cloud to acknowledge.
Grafana's own guidance ranks mobile push as primary and phone/SMS (via Twilio) as backup; chat integrations cover Slack, Teams, and Telegram (verified 2026-08-28)
Wei acknowledged · paged via voice + push at 02:14
Local voice routes and system-level push; acknowledge, close, and get an AI analysis right inside Slack
Noise controls belong to the Grafana Alerting module — a separate surface from IRM schedules and escalation (verified 2026-08-28)
Grouping · suppression · storm warning · flap damping, all included, public price list
IRM's official docs list no public status page capability; external incident communication needs a separate third-party service (verified 2026-08-28)
Status pages share the incident timeline; subscribers get notified automatically — no separate system to run
Assistant is a Grafana Cloud platform capability; Investigations can be triggered from IRM via webhooks (verified 2026-08-28)
Autonomous agent runs in your network via BYOC runner — free in beta
Grafana Alerting is native; other sources connect through integrations (verified 2026-08-28)
60+ integrations incl. a native Grafana inbound; your dashboards and alert rules stay where they are
IRM has no native status page, so external updates need a third-party service. Flashduty includes public status pages from the Free plan: acknowledged incidents sync automatically, and subscribers get notified.
Grafana Cloud IRM is Cloud-only and OnCall OSS is archived (verified 2026-08-28). Flashduty supports private deployment — a compliant path for teams that self-hosted OnCall.
OnCall moved from a standalone app into IRM, then the OSS repo went read-only. Flashduty is an independent on-call platform: 304 Open API operations and 12 Terraform resource types.
Grafana details from Grafana's official blog, product pages, and docs (verified 2026-08-28). Per-row sources in 6.0.
"Our self-hosted OnCall OSS still runs — no rush"
The repo is archived read-only with no new features; with Cloud Connection off, phone, SMS, and push notifications need another path. The assessment is free and read-only — get the report now.
"Our monitoring lives in Grafana — don't make us rebuild"
You don't have to. Grafana keeps monitoring and alert rules; paging and IM collaboration move to Flashduty via a native integration — with a dual-run gate before cutover.
With Grafana Cloud IRM, on-call becomes a module inside a large cloud platform — the free plan caps three active responders, and phone/SMS arrive via Twilio as backup channels. Flashduty runs six modules on one incident context, from alert intake to postmortem, included in every plan.
60+ integrations, incl. China cloud vendors and custom protocols
Grouping · suppression · storm warning · flap damping
Schedules, escalation policies, phone / SMS / app
Closed loop in IM groups, timeline auto-recorded
Public status pages from the Free plan
Autonomous investigation, free in beta
Both sides bill per active responder — that part is the same, and list prices follow different market conventions, so we don't compare them head to head here. What actually separates the two: IRM only runs inside Grafana Cloud, Pro carries a platform fee, and Enterprise has a minimum annual commit; Flashduty works standalone, with no platform fee and a private-deployment option.
Source: Grafana Cloud IRM official pricing page, verified 2026-08-28
Source: Flashduty pricing page list prices, verified 2026-08-28
Grafana's official pricing page and docs list the key plan boundaries of IRM. Below are the four rows that affect daily on-call operations; see the official pages for the full list.
| Capability | Flashduty | Grafana Cloud IRM |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan scope | ✓ Free plan available, incl. public status pages | 3 active responders / month, community support, no SLA |
| Platform fee | — None | Pro $19 / mo (includes 3 active responders) |
| Deployment | SaaS + private deployment option | Grafana Cloud only |
| Phone / SMS notifications | ✓ Included in every plan | Delivered via Twilio, recommended as backup |
Free plan scope
Platform fee
Deployment
Phone / SMS notifications
Grafana Cloud IRM figures are list prices from the official pricing page (verified 2026-08-28); Enterprise follows the official quote. Flashduty figures are list prices. Not a sales quote.
The real cost of switching on-call platforms isn't the subscription — it's who moves the schedules, escalation policies, and integrations without dropping a single page. The move from Grafana OnCall to Flashduty is done by our AI migration framework — your existing system stays read-only, and nothing changes without your approval; Grafana dashboards and alert rules stay exactly where they are.
Not a doc for you to DIY. The AI migration framework reads your OnCall configuration and produces the concept mapping, the migration plan, and a complete Terraform project — with our engineers alongside.
Yours to keep: assessment report · migration plan · Terraform project · verification report · handover docs
Still time left on your Grafana Cloud IRM subscription? We match your remaining contract period for free — no double paying, and no need to wait until the last day to move.
Free overlap
*We match your remaining contract period; terms subject to contract
Before cutover, both platforms deliver in parallel for 1–2 weeks while we compare alert arrival, on-call hits, and escalation paths item by item. If the verification checklist isn't all green, the old system stays — a hard gate, not a promise.
Your OnCall stays read-only throughout; we never write a line of config into it
How it runs
Every step has an artifact and a gate. You decide whether to proceed only after you see the full migration plan in step two.
You hand over a read-only API key; the AI scans everything: schedules, escalation chains, integrations, routing rules. The assessment report lists every resource with a complexity score, per-item migrability, and what must be rebuilt.
The AI generates the migration plan and a matching Terraform project: how each resource maps, with what confidence, and what needs a human decision — all dry-run in front of you first. Zero writes on the Flashduty side until you confirm.
Idempotent execution per plan, parallel delivery with real paging drills, ending in a verification report and handover docs. The Terraform project stays in your own repo — future config changes depend on no one's console.
Read-only scan — no changes to your current system. The report is yours, even if you choose Grafana Cloud IRM in the end.
Teams across restaurants, automotive, AI, finance, and gaming run on-call and incident response on Flashduty.
Same monitoring stack — our P1 pages dropped from 140 a week to eleven. The noise is gone, and the team finally sleeps.
Stephen Yu · Head of SRE
Leading new-energy vehicle group
Dashboards stay in Grafana while alert response moved to Flashduty — no more hand-rolled status pages or DIY triage, and the on-call team breathes easier.
Elena Wang · SRE Architect
Fintech company
The competitor column covers both Grafana OnCall's current state and its official successor, Grafana Cloud IRM; limitations come from Grafana's official pages and the GitHub repo, and our own limits are stated plainly. Every row carries a source and a verification date.
Cloud app status
OSS repo status
Official recommended path
Self-hosted / private deployment
Channel priority guidance
Voice phone notifications
SMS notifications
Acknowledge / resolve in IM
App push
Grouping / suppression / silences
Storm warning / flap damping
AI-assisted correlation
Public status pages
Auto-sync from incidents
Subscriber notifications (email / RSS)
AI capability
Where it runs
Where findings land
Schedules / rotations / time zones
Shift swaps & overrides
Google Calendar / iCal
Terraform
Grafana alert intake
Alert source coverage
Self-hosted / internal systems
Open API
Billable users
Platform fee
Free plan
Enterprise threshold
Migration tooling
Dual-run verification
Where config lives
Remaining-contract offset
Hand over read-only credentials and we scan your schedules and escalation chains, producing a migration assessment and a cost comparison — usable in your internal review even if you stay with Grafana Cloud IRM.