MCP Comparison
Grafana vs PagerDuty
Updated: April 16, 2026
Verdict
Grafana MCP queries dashboards and data sources. PagerDuty MCP manages incidents and on-call. Different problems; Grafana tells you what's broken, PagerDuty wakes the right person.
Pick Grafana if...
- +You query Prometheus, Loki, or Tempo
- +Dashboards are central to your ops
- +OSS observability is the stack
- +You need grafana-maintained MCP
- +You do not need incident response
Pick PagerDuty if...
- +You manage on-call rotations
- +Incidents and escalations are the use case
- +You do not need observability data here
- +Your SREs own the tool
- +Your stack already pages through PagerDuty
Feature comparison
| Feature | Grafana | PagerDuty |
|---|---|---|
| Primary focus | query Grafana dashboards, Prometheus, and Loki | incidents, on-call schedules, and services |
| Vendor / maintainer | Grafana Labs | PagerDuty |
| Implementation language | Go | TypeScript |
| License | Apache 2.0 | MIT |
| Pricing | free, OSS | free server, PagerDuty plan applies |
| Authentication | Grafana service account token | PagerDuty API key |
| Transport | stdio | stdio |
| Official homepage | github.com/grafana/mcp-grafana | github.com/PagerDuty/pagerduty-mcp-server |
Frequently asked questions
Which MCP server is faster to set up, Grafana MCP or PagerDuty MCP?
Grafana MCP typically installs via a single npm or pip command and asks for Grafana service account token. PagerDuty MCP needs PagerDuty API key. Expect 2-5 minutes for either once credentials are ready. If you already have Grafana configured, Grafana MCP wins by a minute or two.
Can I run Grafana MCP and PagerDuty MCP side by side in the same Claude client?
Yes. Claude Desktop, Cursor, and Claude Code all accept multiple MCP servers in the same config file. Each runs in its own process and exposes a distinct tool namespace, so there are no naming collisions. Memory usage is additive; budget roughly 40-80 MB per server.
How do Grafana MCP and PagerDuty MCP compare on cost?
Grafana MCP is free, OSS. PagerDuty MCP is free server, PagerDuty plan applies. Most of the real spend is on the underlying service, not the MCP server itself; the server is almost always free. Budget based on query volume at the backend, not the MCP layer.
Is Grafana MCP or PagerDuty MCP more production-ready?
Grafana MCP is maintained by Grafana Labs, which tends to mean faster fixes. PagerDuty MCP is backed by PagerDuty. For critical workloads, pick the vendor-backed option or pin a specific version.
What authentication does each server need?
Grafana MCP authenticates with Grafana service account token. PagerDuty MCP uses PagerDuty API key. Store secrets in a password manager or your shell's keychain and inject them via environment variables; never commit them to the MCP config file, which is often synced across machines.
Which one should I pick first if I am just starting with MCP?
Start with whichever backend you already pay for or use daily. If you do not use either yet, Grafana MCP is fully OSS, so there is no signup friction. You can always add the second one later without disrupting the first.