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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.
A service reliability platform with a focus on enhancing operations by leveraging automation and analytics capabilities.
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.
| Feature | Squadcast | xMatters |
| Live Call Routing |  |
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| Custom Content Templates | |
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| Round Robin Escalations | |
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| Routing Rules | |
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| Stakeholders | |
Available from Standard Plan |
| Role Based Access Control (RBAC) | |
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| Phone and SMS Notifications | |
Available only in paid plans |
| Schedules | |
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| Schedule Overrides | |
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| Escalation Policies | |
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| Services | |
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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.
| Feature | Squadcast | xMatters |
| Runbooks | |
|
| Incident Notes | |
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| Incident Watchers | |
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| Create Confluence bridge | |
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| ChatOps (Slack, MS Teams) | |
|
| Response Actions | |
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| Incident Operations via API | |
|
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.
| 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 |
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.
| 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 | |
|
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.
| Feature | Squadcast | xMatters |
| Past Incidents | |
|
| Service & Infrastructure Health Analysis | |
|
| Exportable Incident Timelines | |
|
| User and Incident Based Analytics | |
|
| Monthly Overview Analytics | |
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| 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.
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.
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.
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.
