My main use case for Squadcast is alert management and incident response. I use Squadcast to get all my alerts in one place, and then I use it to send notifications to my channel. I also have on-call engineers in place so that when a particular alert is triggered, they are notified and can check what the issue is.
Squadcast
Squadcast Inc.External reviews
307 reviews
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External reviews are not included in the AWS star rating for the product.
Centralized alert handling has improved incident response but needs fairer per-user pricing
What is our primary use case?
What is most valuable?
The best features Squadcast offers are the great UI and the metrics I get for alerts, particularly MTTR. What I appreciate most about the UI and alert metrics is how intuitive it is. For first-time users, it is also beneficial as people are able to understand and use it easily.
Squadcast has positively impacted my organization by helping with incident management and enabling alerts to be responded to more quickly. Management has improved overall, and the people on call are now more responsive since using Squadcast.
What needs improvement?
Squadcast could be improved if the pricing could be reduced per user.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Squadcast for one year.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I have not experienced any stability issues.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I have not experienced any scalability issues.
What other advice do I have?
My advice to others looking into using Squadcast is that it is a good tool for alert management and monitoring alerts.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Private Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Improved monitoring and response times have built reliability but integration docs still need work
What is our primary use case?
My main use case for Squadcast is for monitoring. In our team, we have a group of engineers and developers, so we usually schedule monitoring with Squadcast turn by turn. Each person goes to Squadcast to monitor what is happening, take a look at the logs, information, and if there is anything that needs addressing, we do it.
It is mainly for monitoring and if necessary, taking action.
For our use case, Squadcast has what we needed; probably they could have more, but for our use case, we got what we need.
It depends on the project; I have worked with other companies that use other products too, but for this particular company where we use Squadcast, I think Squadcast was our main, our primary product for monitoring. So there was not a switch per se, but in other companies, I have worked with different, similar tools too.
What is most valuable?
I could say a lot about the best features Squadcast offers. In our use case, the features that stand out to me the most are the alerting and incident reporting because with that, we are able to know there is an issue. We go there, take a look, and if necessary, we adjust or we fix it.
I think Squadcast helps us to build a better product because of the alerting. Squadcast helped us build a better product by improving both response time and reliability.
Response time improved by up to 50%, and reliability improved too because we are able to identify something and fix it. That improves a lot too, let us say up to 60%, because our product became more scalable.
Squadcast does the job, especially alerting, reliability, and monitoring, so we can reliably use Squadcast for those things.
What needs improvement?
I think the areas where Squadcast can be improved include the alerting, the integration part, and especially the documentation while we are integrating.
The documentation and integration should be improved. I remember when we were working on the integration, the documentation was not great, and we found it difficult to understand what the document was saying in some parts. So I believe that both should be improved, especially the documentation.
I do not think there are any other improvements needed for Squadcast that I have not mentioned yet, or if there are, I do not remember for now.
Managing permissions and access control with Squadcast is not 100% straightforward; I remember our manager has to configure that to give access to each team member. I thought even that could be improved a little bit, but from my point of view, access control was pretty cool, and it was fine too because you are sure that you have the needed permission you need to do your job.
For how long have I used the solution?
It is mainly for monitoring; that is how we use it.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Squadcast is stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I think Squadcast is scalable; I believe it is stable, scalable, and stable, but in our use case, we do not really go far in terms of scalability.
How are customer service and support?
It was fine; but in our case, I do not think we have a lot of communication with customer support because it was not necessary. Most of the time, the integrations and everything was going well, so we did not have a reason to escalate any complaints. But for customer support, I would say it was good, although I do not have a lot of interaction with them personally.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
This was more for evaluating options before choosing Squadcast.
How was the initial setup?
It was not difficult for our team to onboard and start using Squadcast; I think it is mainly because the people involved are engineers who are used to that. So it was easy.
The learning curve for Squadcast for new team members is easy; I remember in my own case when I started using it, having not used it before, I did not find it difficult to use or even do the integration, so it was straightforward.
What about the implementation team?
It was seamless how Squadcast integrates with our existing tools or systems, and we did not face any real challenges.
For collaboration during incidents, we use Slack for communication among the teams. Usually, in some cases when we receive an alert, someone responsible, like the developer, will call or most of the time go to the dashboard, take a look, investigate, and if necessary, create a ticket for that, so it depends. Mostly what we use in collaboration with Squadcast was Slack.
What was our ROI?
I think money was saved since we have seen a return on investment. Another thing is fewer employees are needed to do things because after the integration, a lot of work has been reduced; you just go there, check, monitor, and if action is needed, we take the action.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I did not do those things directly in terms of pricing, setup cost, and licensing; my manager handled those things, so I was not worried about this. My main concern was more like integration and monitoring, doing the main job, in terms of pricing, which was the responsibility of my manager and other team members.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
I cannot say for sure if we purchased Squadcast through the AWS Marketplace because it was our manager that handled that part. Our part is more like integration and monitoring using it.
What other advice do I have?
On a scale of 1 to 10, I would say Squadcast deserves a seven, which is my overall review rating for the product.
My advice for others looking into using Squadcast is to go ahead and use it because it is a good product.
Squadcast is a good product for monitoring, alerting, and observation. So it is a good thing, and if you have a need for that, you can go for it.
Does what it needs to do
What do you like best about the product?
Generally easy to setup and administer. Mostly a set and forget kind of thing. Price is competitive vs some of the incumbents.
What do you dislike about the product?
There are new features and improvements coming out reguarly, but it's not always clear if they align to our business. AEs / Support could be more proactive in evangelizing these features with existing customers.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Call tree / alerting when there's production incident.
My Review of Squadcase
What do you like best about the product?
Squadcast offers may features, is highly customizable and easy to use.
What do you dislike about the product?
The user interface can be a little overwhelming at first.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Squadcast helps us to easily customize our incident notification levels and our on-call scheduling.
Good alerts launcher
What do you like best about the product?
Good solution to get alerts from a webserver connected to scientific devices. Especially helpful as a platform to send SMS when an alert is emitted
What do you dislike about the product?
Complex to use and administratie for our simple needs
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Allow sending of sms without specific hardware
Our first month with them is very positive
What do you like best about the product?
The possibilities to personalize the notifications, to show the values, and the way to program the escalations.
What do you dislike about the product?
I am waiting for an important feature for us. We need the stakeholders to receive the most critical alerts in real time, not using the notes.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Squadcast is being used to handle the alerts triggered in Grafana when there is an issue on our platforms and services. The low time to display those alerts and the ability to notify using push, calls, SMS, chat, etc., help us receive the alert in real time.
Usefull
What do you like best about the product?
1) SLO tracker: as an SRE its is important to track SLO which will help to track down activity
2)on call schedule: no need to search in roster we will directly know from application who is oncall person
3) Runbook: most use full feature, every one know what step should we follow if we stuck some where with the one go also we can updates runbook easily
And many more
2)on call schedule: no need to search in roster we will directly know from application who is oncall person
3) Runbook: most use full feature, every one know what step should we follow if we stuck some where with the one go also we can updates runbook easily
And many more
What do you dislike about the product?
Overall it is good product, but every thing has some limitations for this product we can see there is no
Free plan and it doesn't let you record vedio in basic paid tier
Free plan and it doesn't let you record vedio in basic paid tier
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
We have 5000+ servers to monitor, squadcast help us to manage monitoring and incidents
Its a batmobile, but needs you to be batman.
What do you like best about the product?
It calls me when my code is going sideways.
The on-call scheduling is a lifesaver too, ensuring that the right people are always ready to swoop in and save the day. Third are the integrations, that allow frequent access of alerts and related data. Since its not practical to open any app repeatedly, quick & easy integrations like slack and email are really helpful.
The on-call scheduling is a lifesaver too, ensuring that the right people are always ready to swoop in and save the day. Third are the integrations, that allow frequent access of alerts and related data. Since its not practical to open any app repeatedly, quick & easy integrations like slack and email are really helpful.
What do you dislike about the product?
As for dislikes, I'd say the learning curve can be a bit steep for newcomers.
It's like getting the keys to the Batmobile without the manual, or rather a very big manual. But once you get the hang of it, the power is undeniable. We have a POC from the team attached to our slack channel who's always eager to support our queries and is proactive in resolving them, but I believe the UI could be polished to make it more intuitive, and stop those queries altogether.
The platform a number of features, which is great, but might be a bit overwhelming for beginners. I'd love a wizard that can be played anytime as a walkthrough of the platform.
We majorly use the slack integration to get all alters in our channels. Like linear, if the slack threads could be sync'd with an incident, it'd be a holy blessing. Imaging clicking on an issue and seeing all conversations that have happened related to it. A massive productivity boost, especially for daily users and devops teams.
It's like getting the keys to the Batmobile without the manual, or rather a very big manual. But once you get the hang of it, the power is undeniable. We have a POC from the team attached to our slack channel who's always eager to support our queries and is proactive in resolving them, but I believe the UI could be polished to make it more intuitive, and stop those queries altogether.
The platform a number of features, which is great, but might be a bit overwhelming for beginners. I'd love a wizard that can be played anytime as a walkthrough of the platform.
We majorly use the slack integration to get all alters in our channels. Like linear, if the slack threads could be sync'd with an incident, it'd be a holy blessing. Imaging clicking on an issue and seeing all conversations that have happened related to it. A massive productivity boost, especially for daily users and devops teams.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Squadcast solves the chaos that comes with incident management. It's a streamlined solution that ensures everyone on the team is on the same page when it comes to tackling issues.
The on-call scheduling feature is a blessing, making sure the right people are always ready for action. No more fumbling around to figure out who's on duty.
Integrations ensure there's no communication gap, get everything in your mailbox and slack.
The on-call scheduling feature is a blessing, making sure the right people are always ready for action. No more fumbling around to figure out who's on duty.
Integrations ensure there's no communication gap, get everything in your mailbox and slack.
Overall good experience & reliable service
What do you like best about the product?
* being able to set multiple policies in case of incidents.
* easy to integrate with multiple services like SMS, slack, etc.
* it is easy to get started.
* Haven't had a chance to interact with customer service till now.
* easy to integrate with multiple services like SMS, slack, etc.
* it is easy to get started.
* Haven't had a chance to interact with customer service till now.
What do you dislike about the product?
* Less feature rich
* some of the feature are behind paywall.
* some of the feature are behind paywall.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
It solves the incident management and alerting parts for us. We get quick alerts in case of any issues with our services helping us in minimizing impact on business.
good
What do you like best about the product?
best about the squadcast i would tell is the features
What do you dislike about the product?
dislike is one thing i have noticed is few alertsgetting late to trigger
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
no issues
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