# Can I do on-call without a rotation schedule?

> Yes, for small teams. Use an escalation order instead: the first person gets the alert, and if they don't answer within a few minutes, the next person does. Pagerless works this way, with the first person called after 5 minutes without a tap and the next person after that.

URL: https://pagerless.dev/answers/on-call-without-rotation
Updated: 2026-10-22

When you need rotations: [Pagerless vs PagerDuty](https://pagerless.dev/vs/pagerduty).

## Questions

### Can I do on-call without a rotation schedule?

Yes, for small teams. Use an escalation order instead: the first person gets the alert, and if they don't answer within a few minutes, the next person does. Pagerless works this way, with the first person called after 5 minutes without a tap and the next person after that.