After Hours Contact
Intelligent on-call routing for IT teams — so after-hours calls always reach the right person.
Features
Intelligent Call Routing
After-hours calls are automatically routed to the on-call engineer's personal phone via Twilio. Business-hours detection ensures normal calls follow your standard process — only true after-hours calls are escalated.
Flexible Rotation Schedules
Configure weekly, bi-weekly, 4-week, or fully custom rotation periods. Assign on-call coverage months in advance with a fast bulk-save workflow. Admins can reassign or adjust any period at any time.
Automatic Retry & Escalation
If the on-call engineer doesn't acknowledge the call, the system automatically retries and then escalates to their designated supervisor. The number of attempts and the retry interval are fully configurable.
Automatic SMS Alerts
Each time the on-call engineer or supervisor is called, they also receive an SMS with the caller's phone number — so they have the information they need even if the call goes to voicemail.
Shift Reminders
The on-call engineer receives a customizable SMS reminder before their shift begins — so no one is caught off guard when the phone rings at 2 AM. Reminder day, time, and message are all configurable.
Incident Tracking
Every routed call automatically creates an incident record with a timestamp, caller ID, and voicemail recording. Admins can replay any recording directly from the Incidents page. All call attempts and escalations are logged for a full audit trail.
Role-Based Access
Admins manage users, schedules, and system settings. Team members log in to view their own upcoming on-call periods and incident history. Secure SMS-based login — no passwords to manage.
Public Status Page
A shareable /oncall page shows who is currently on call
and the upcoming schedule — no login required. Embed it in your
internal wiki or share the link with stakeholders.
How It Works
Call Comes In
A caller dials your Twilio number. If it's outside of configured business hours, the after-hours flow begins.
Voicemail Recorded
The caller hears a greeting and is prompted to leave a message. Their recording is stored and linked to the incident.
On-Call Notified
The on-call engineer receives a phone call playing the recording and an SMS with the caller's number. They press 1 to acknowledge.
Retry or Escalate
If the call isn't acknowledged, the system retries at a configurable interval. After the configured number of attempts, the supervisor is called instead.
Why After Hours Contact?
Enterprise on-call tools charge per user, per month — forever. After Hours Contact is a one-time purchase you host yourself. Your data stays on your servers, your costs stay predictable, and you're not locked into a subscription that grows with every hire.
| After Hours Contact | PagerDuty Professional | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | One-time purchase | ~$21 / user / month |
| Monthly running cost | ~$15–20 (Twilio only, any team size) | $21 × number of users |
| 3-year total — 5 users | ~$1,300 | ~$3,780 |
| 3-year total — 10 users | ~$1,300 | ~$7,560 |
| 3-year total — 20 users | ~$1,300 | ~$15,120 |
| Cost scales with team size | ✅ No — flat rate | ❌ Yes — per user |
| Data ownership | ✅ Self-hosted, you own it | ❌ Vendor cloud |
| No cloud vendor lock-in | ✅ Runs on your Windows server | ❌ SaaS only |
| Voicemail recordings | ✅ Included | Add-on |
| Caller ID with every notification | ✅ Included | ✅ Included |
| Configurable escalation | ✅ Included | ✅ Included |
Packages
- ✅ Permanent license
- ✅ Full source access via self-hosted binary
- ✅ Documentation & setup guides
- ✅ Email support for 30 days
- ❌ No setup assistance
- ✅ Everything in Starter
- ✅ Remote setup & configuration
- ✅ Twilio account setup walkthrough
- ✅ Schedule & user import
- ✅ 30-day priority support
- ✅ Everything in Ready to Run
- ✅ 2 hours of customization
- ✅ Branding & greeting recording setup
- ✅ IVR or escalation workflow tweaks
- ✅ 1-year priority support
Need help?
Visit afterhours.contact for documentation and setup guides, or contact your IT administrator for organization-specific support.