Struggling to decide between Squadcast and xMatters for your Incident Management Needs? Here’s a quick breakdown of their strengths to help you choose the best fit.
Squadcast goes beyond just alerts and on-call scheduling. It's a one-stop shop for managing incidents, including scheduling who's on-call, facilitating communication, and automating tasks through workflows.
2. xMatters: On-Call and Incident Response platform with AI and analytics
A service reliability platform with a focus on enhancing operations by leveraging automation and analytics capabilities.
Introduction
Efficient communication is the cornerstone of effective Incident Management. Whether you're a developer, part of a DevOps team, an SRE, or an engineer, having the right tools can make all the difference. In this article, we'll delve into a comparison between two leading Incident Management Platforms: Squadcast, renowned for its unified approach to incident management, and xMatters, a stalwart in alerting and on-call management solutions.
Both platforms are designed to streamline team collaboration, reduce incident response times, and mitigate downtime. By examining their unique strengths, we aim to provide insights that will aid you in selecting the ideal tool for your team's needs.
How is Squadcast different from xMatters?
Unified Incident Management Capabilities: Squadcast offers a holistic approach to incident management, encompassing incident alerting, response, on-call scheduling, communication via Slack integrations, Status Pages, and task automations within a unified platform. This consolidation streamlines workflows and enhances team efficiency. In contrast, xMatters, while proficient in alerting and on-call response, lacks the integrated incident management features provided by Squadcast.
Automation Empowerment with Workflows: Squadcast's workflow automation empowers teams to automate manual incident lifecycle tasks, such as adding incident notes, attaching communication channels, sending Slack messages, making HTTP calls, or creating Jira tickets. These automated processes save crucial time during critical incidents, allowing teams to focus on swift resolution. Although xMatters offers nifty automation capabilities as well, Squadcast's workflows offer some specialized capabilities for incident response, such as the automatic attachment of runbooks for relevant incidents.
User-Friendly Interface with Inclusive Features: Squadcast prioritizes simplicity, aiming to reduce alert fatigue and offer actionable insights for faster incident resolution. It includes essential features such as scheduled templates, round-robin escalations, stakeholders, Single Sign-On (SSO), and Role-Based Access Control (RBAC), catering to the needs of large organizations. Conversely, while xMatters is feature-rich, its interface can be more complex to navigate. Additionally, advanced features may be reserved for higher-priced tiers, potentially limiting functionality for budget-conscious teams and impeding incident response times.
Feature Comparison
On-Call Management
Feature
Squadcast
xMatters
Live Call Routing
Custom Content Templates
Round Robin Escalations
Routing Rules
Stakeholders
Available from Standard Plan
Role Based Access Control (RBAC)
Phone and SMS Notifications
Available only in paid plans
Schedules
Schedule Overrides
Escalation Policies
Services
Live Call Routing
Though both Squadcast and xMatters cover the basics of On-Call Management, Squadcast surpasses them with additional capabilities. It boasts unlimited routing rules for intricate workflows, webforms, and complimentary stakeholder access for enhanced communication and visibility. Moreover, Squadcast includes role-based access control starting from its standard plan, whereas xMatters may necessitate a higher-tier subscription for similar features. This added control and adaptability positions Squadcast as the superior option for teams with complex on-call requirements.
Incident Response
Feature
Squadcast
xMatters
Runbooks
Incident Notes
Incident Watchers
Create Confluence bridge
ChatOps (Slack, MS Teams)
Response Actions
Incident Operations via API
Runbooks
Squadcast provides specialized runbooks to speed up issue resolution, incident watchers to enhance teamwork, and seamlessly integrates with Confluence for knowledge base access. In contrast, xMatters utilizes certain Atlassian tools for specific functions, whereas Squadcast offers a more cohesive and efficient experience through either built-in features or seamless integration with external tools.
Status Page
Feature
Squadcast
xMatters
# of Status Page
5 (Public and Private)
Add-On Atlassian Status Page
Public Status Page
Add-On Atlassian Status Page
Private Status Page
Add-On Atlassian Status Page
Subscribers
5000 subscribers/status page
Add-On Atlassian Status Page
Status Page
Squadcast enables users to create both public and private Status Pages directly within the platform, supporting up to 10,000 subscribers for each page. In contrast, xMatters does not offer built-in status pages. To access this functionality with xMatters, users would need to integrate with Atlassian for status pages, adding an extra layer to their incident management setup.
Noise Reduction and Contextual Awareness with Workflow Automation
Feature
Squadcast
xMatters
Manually Merge Incidents
Rule Based Alert Suppression
Auto Pause Transient Alerts
Key Based Alert Deduplication
Global Event Rules
Available in Enterprise Plan
Runbooks Execution
Workflows
Auto Pause Transient Alerts
Both Squadcast and xMatters present comparable tools aimed at minimizing alert fatigue and enhancing workflow efficiency through functionalities such as rule-based suppression and automated actions. However, Squadcast distinguishes itself in incident management with several notable advantages. It allows for manual merging of incidents, incorporates advanced AI/ML features like Auto Pause Transient Alerts and Past Incidents, and enables administrators to establish Global Event Rules based on specific payload triggers, a capability currently absent in xMatters.
Insights and Analytics
Feature
Squadcast
xMatters
Past Incidents
Service & Infrastructure Health Analysis
Exportable Incident Timelines
User and Incident Based Analytics
Monthly Overview Analytics
MTTA and MTTR Report
Squadcast's analytics provide more advanced insights compared to xMatters through features like Past Incidents and Service Graph. With Past Incidents, Squadcast users can access detailed historical data, enabling them to identify patterns, trends, and recurring issues for proactive resolution. This depth of analysis empowers teams to optimize incident response processes and prevent future disruptions effectively. Additionally, Squadcast's Service Graph offers a visual representation of infrastructure and service dependencies, aiding teams in quickly pinpointing the root cause of incidents by visualizing complex relationships. These advanced analytics capabilities give Squadcast users a distinct advantage in gaining actionable insights for efficient incident management, a feature set not as extensively offered by xMatters.
Pricing
How much does Squadcast cost?
Squadcast provides a clear feature lineup alongside a simple pricing model, including a free option for teams of up to 5 users. Paid subscriptions begin at $9 per user per month, offering fundamental incident management and on-call scheduling functionalities. For access to more advanced Digital Operations and AIOPS features, teams can choose the Enterprise plan, priced at $21 per user per month.
How much does xMatters cost?
xMatters offers a range of pricing plans tailored to different organizational needs. Their FREE plan caters to small teams, providing automation for issue resolution at no cost for up to 10 users. Their paid plans start at $9 per user per month for their Starter plan, whereas their Base or Standard plan is a significantly higher $39 per user per month. For their advanced plan however, specific pricing details are not disclosed and must be requested directly from their team.
Choosing the Right Platform
Both Squadcast and xMatters offer robust incident management solutions, each with its own unique strengths and capabilities. Squadcast stands out with its unified incident management platform, providing comprehensive features for incident alerting, response, on-call scheduling, communication, and task automation. Its user-friendly interface, inclusive features like role-based access control, and advanced analytics capabilities, including Past Incidents and Service Graph, offer teams valuable insights for efficient incident resolution. On the other hand, xMatters focuses on enhancing operations through automation and analytics, with a strong emphasis on on-call management and incident response. While xMatters offers features such as rule-based alert suppression and automated actions, it may lack some of the advanced incident response functionalities provided by Squadcast, such as manual incident merging and global event rules.
Ultimately, the choice between Squadcast and xMatters depends on your team's specific needs and priorities, with Squadcast offering a more comprehensive incident management solution and xMatters providing a specialized focus on on-call management and incident response.
