Technology · head to head
PagerDuty vs Sentry
Sentry
Technology
Application monitoring platform built by developers for developers
- From
- Free
- Rated
- -
The short version
- Only Sentry has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
- Each has a real cost: PagerDuty aIOps, status pages, and live call routing are expensive add-ons not included in base plans, significantly increasing total cost; Sentry spending caps stop event ingestion when reached, eliminating visibility during critical moments
- They diverge on capability: PagerDuty covers Incident response, Sentry covers Error tracking.
Where they differ
Only the attributes on which PagerDuty and Sentry actually diverge.
Identical on both: pricing model (Unknown), user rating (Not yet rated), category (Technology).
What each one covers
Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.
Only in PagerDuty
- Incident response
- On-call management
- Alert grouping
- Escalation policies
- Mobile incident management
- Postmortems
- Status pages
- Event intelligence
Only in Sentry
- Error tracking
- Performance monitoring
- Release tracking
- Real user monitoring
- Alerting
- Issue assignment
- Breadcrumbs
- Source maps
Both cover
- Slack
- Jira
- SOC2
- HIPAA
- GDPR
What people use each for
The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.
PagerDuty
- Incident managementnot Sentry
- On-call schedulingnot Sentry
- Real-time alertingnot Sentry
- Service reliabilitynot Sentry
- Digital operationsnot Sentry
Sentry
- Error monitoringnot PagerDuty
- Performance trackingnot PagerDuty
- Debug production issuesnot PagerDuty
- Release managementnot PagerDuty
- User monitoringnot PagerDuty
Where each one falls short
Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.
PagerDuty
- AIOps, status pages, and live call routing are expensive add-ons not included in base plans, significantly increasing total cost
- Complex escalation policies require workarounds for scheduling patterns beyond basic weekly rotations
- 5-user minimum requirement forces costs even for small teams, with forced Business tier upgrades adding $12,000+ annually for larger teams
Sentry
- Spending caps stop event ingestion when reached, eliminating visibility during critical moments
- Complex configuration required for filters, sampling rules, issue grouping, and alert policies
- Difficult to configure custom alerts and alert content without creating email inbox bloat
- Error grouping is imperfect with noise and filtering issues causing incorrect error prioritization
- Weak for distributed tracing across microservices compared to dedicated APM tools
- UI dashboard is less customizable than alternatives like Datadog APM for complex monitoring needs
Pricing, plan by plan
PagerDuty
$21/monthNo published plan breakdown. See the PagerDuty review.
Sentry
Free- Developer (Free)Free
- 5K errors per month
- 1 user seat
- 30-day data retention
- Team$26/month
- 50K errors per month
- 5M transaction spans
- 90-day data retention
- Business$80/month
- Higher quotas
- Extended retention
- Advanced filtering
- Organization$199/month
- SSO integration
- Audit logs
- Advanced security
Which should you pick?
Choose PagerDuty if
- You need incident response.
- You work on Web, Ios, Android, Api.
- You also want on-call management.
Choose Sentry if
- You need error tracking.
- You want to start without paying.
- You work on Web, iOS, Android, React Native, Desktop, 30+ frameworks and languages.
- You also want performance monitoring.
Questions people ask
- Is PagerDuty or Sentry better?
- Neither clearly leads. PagerDuty starts at $21/month and Sentry at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
- Which is cheaper, PagerDuty or Sentry?
- Sentry has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at $21/month for PagerDuty and Free for Sentry.
- Does PagerDuty or Sentry run on more platforms?
- PagerDuty runs on Web, Ios, Android, Api. Sentry runs on Web, iOS, Android, React Native, Desktop, 30+ frameworks and languages.
- Can I use Sentry for free?
- Yes. Sentry has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. PagerDuty starts at $21/month.
- What is PagerDuty best used for?
- PagerDuty is most often used for incident management, on-call scheduling, real-time alerting, service reliability. Of those, incident management and on-call scheduling are not what Sentry is typically brought in for.
- What can PagerDuty do that Sentry cannot?
- PagerDuty covers Incident response, On-call management, Alert grouping, Escalation policies. Sentry covers Error tracking, Performance monitoring, Release tracking, Real user monitoring. Both handle Slack, Jira, SOC2, HIPAA.
Answered from the vendors’ own pages
PagerDuty: What is the minimum cost to use PagerDuty?
PagerDuty requires a minimum of 5 users per account. The Professional plan starts at $21 per user per month ($105/month minimum), with annual billing providing 16% discount.
SourceSentry: Does Sentry have a free tier?
Yes. The free Developer tier includes 5,000 errors per month, one user seat, 30-day retention, and 50 session replays per month.
SourcePagerDuty: What integrations does PagerDuty support?
PagerDuty integrates with 750+ monitoring, ticketing, and collaboration tools including Datadog, Slack, Jira, ServiceNow, New Relic, and Nagios.
SourceSentry: How much do Sentry's paid plans cost?
Team plan starts at $26/month (annual) or $29/month (monthly) with 50K errors and 5M spans included. Business plan is $80-89/month. Organization plans start at $199/month with SSO and advanced compliance features.
SourcePagerDuty: How much does AIOps cost in PagerDuty?
AIOps Intelligence is sold separately as an add-on starting at $699 per month, and is not included in any of the base plans.
SourceSentry: What programming languages does Sentry support?
Sentry supports over 30 languages and frameworks including JavaScript, Python, Go, Ruby, Java, .NET, PHP, Node.js, and mobile platforms including iOS, Android, and React Native.
SourceSentry: Does Sentry support self-hosting?
Yes. Sentry can be self-hosted, and the open-source version is available for deployment in on-premises environments.
SourceSentry: How does Sentry billing work if I exceed my quota?
Sentry offers spending caps that stop ingestion when reached, meaning you lose visibility exactly when you need it most. You can pre-purchase reserved capacity at 20% discount or pay per event on-demand when exceeding included allotment.
SourceSentry: What integrations does Sentry support?
Sentry integrates with GitHub, GitLab, Jira, Slack, PagerDuty, most CI/CD pipelines, and many other developer tools.
Source