MonoDuty

MonoDuty is a workspace-based service for incident response, on-call scheduling, escalation, and website or API monitoring. It suits small operational teams that want a free starting tier and a clear per-user upgrade path. Choose it for integrated alert routing and scheduling; avoid it when certification or infrastructure redundancy is a hard requirement.

Overview

MonoDuty organizes incidents around team-owned services inside workspaces. A universal HTTP Webhook accepts the documented MonoDuty JSON payload, allowing any HTTP-capable system to send alerts without a vendor-specific connector. On-call scheduling is included in Free, Pro, and Business, so the no-cost tier can support an actual rotation rather than merely collecting incidents.

Monitoring is built into the same workflow. Website and API Monitors run checks from Helsinki, record response time, validate responses, verify HTTPS certificates, and issue recovery alerts. That combination is useful for a small team that wants detection and response in one service, but a single stated check location is not a substitute for broad geographic monitoring.

Key features

Incident routing and on-call

Rotation scheduling, handoffs, and escalation policies let teams define who responds and what happens when an acknowledgement does not arrive. Free sends email alerts; Pro adds 500 SMS messages and 200 voice calls per month per user, while Business raises those allowances to 2,000 SMS and 500 voice calls. The paid channels matter for incidents that cannot depend on inbox attention.

Integrations and API

Pro and Business can publish incident lifecycle updates to Slack, Discord, and Microsoft Teams. That is a practical advantage for teams coordinating in chat, while Free remains limited to email delivery. MonoDuty documents a REST API with scoped, short-lived customer tokens and a v1 allowlist covering incidents, services, and Monitors. It is a deliberately bounded interface rather than a claim of unrestricted platform control.

Security and resilience

TLS 1.2/1.3, one-way password and credential hashing where applicable, scoped API tokens, workspace roles, CSRF protection, rate limits, and optional time-based one-time-password MFA provide sensible baseline controls. MonoDuty does not publish ISO, SOC, payment-card, health-data, or similar certifications. Production runs on one European virtual server, without promised geographic failover, load-balanced application replicas, or provider redundancy. Those constraints are material for regulated workloads and services that require high availability.

Pricing

MonoDuty uses a freemium model with a 14-day trial and paid plans from €9/user/mo.

The free plan's single user, short retention, and small quotas are meaningful trade-offs, not cosmetic restrictions. Annual billing lowers the listed monthly equivalent but charges once a year; teams should also account for per-user billing on paid tiers.

Platforms

MonoDuty provides Android, iOS, web, and API access. A mobile app supports responders away from a desk, while the API and web interface cover integration and administration.

Who it's for

MonoDuty is aimed at people responsible when production breaks and at teams that want explicit, testable alert routes. Free is credible for a solo maintainer or one small team with modest incident volume. Pro fits teams adding chat coordination and SMS or voice escalation. Business is the more practical tier for multiple teams and services, provided the single-server architecture and absence of published certifications are acceptable.

Pros and cons

Pros

• On-call scheduling, handoffs, and escalation are included even on Free, giving small teams a usable response structure.
• Website and API monitoring combines response-time tracking, validation, certificate checks, and recovery alerts.
• Pro and Business add Slack, Discord, and Microsoft Teams updates plus SMS and voice channels.
• Scoped, short-lived API tokens and optional MFA support controlled operational access.

Cons

• Free is capped at one user, three services, five Monitors, 50 incidents per month, and seven-day retention.
• Monitoring checks originate from Helsinki, limiting the geographic perspective of uptime checks.
• No published ISO, SOC, payment-card, or health-data certification may disqualify regulated deployments.
• A single European production server without promised redundancy is a substantial resilience limitation.

Alternatives

Choose incident.io instead if native Slack or Microsoft Teams incident response and a status page on its Basic free plan are the priority.

OpsKnight is the better choice for teams wanting an AGPL-3.0-only, self-hosted community edition.

Pick PagerTree when its free five-user, two-team allowance and three-month retention suit your starting scale.

TaskCall fits readers seeking a $9 monthly Starter plan with unlimited global SMS and voice notifications.

Consider PagerDuty for a free five-user incident-management tier with one schedule and one escalation policy.

IncidentRelay is a free, open-source, self-hosted option.

Piro is a free multi-platform alternative.

LinkedIn Databus is a free Apache 2.0 open-source project for teams seeking a self-hosted API and web deployment.

For broader comparisons, see On-Call Scheduling Software and On-Call Management Software.

Verdict

MonoDuty is a sensible choice for small teams that want incident intake, on-call rotation, escalation, and basic monitoring in one affordable service. Its strongest reason to choose it is the capable Free tier and straightforward Pro upgrade. Look elsewhere if your operation needs certified compliance, multi-region resilience, or monitoring from several geographic locations.