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Server monitoring SMS alerts for the admin on call in Canada

Server monitoring SMS alerts put a failed host, link or backup on the on-call admin's cellphone as one short text. Only the alerts that matter get through. Your monitoring tool already emails the alert, so you add one contact. No agent, no plug-in and no per-seat pricing.

Text me my server alertsBook a demo

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  • No agent or plug-in
  • Text only DOWN and CRITICAL
  • No per-seat pricing

Works by email with

  • Nagios
  • PRTG
  • Zabbix
  • Icinga

A network map watched by Network monitor: five hosts answer pings until core-sw-02 goes down (Not responding) and the monitor raises the alert. The email reaches Welco and the phone shows: “Welco: [core-sw-02] Switch not responding to ping since 2:14 AM. Reply STOP to opt out.”

Animation: an alert email, "Device down: core-sw-02 (10.8.0.2)", arrives at Welco and becomes one text to the night on-call admin: "Welco: [core-sw-02] Switch not responding to ping since 2:14 AM. Reply STOP to opt out."

What changes for the on-call admin

  • You hear first

    The admin on call knows about a dead link or a failed backup before staff open tickets at 8 a.m.

  • Only alerts worth a text

    Text DOWN and CRITICAL. Warnings and recoveries stay in email, where they belong.

  • No 3 a.m. text storms

    Retried emails reach each phone once, and burst limits keep a dead switch from sending a hundred texts.

  • Nothing new to run

    Keep the monitoring you trust. No agent to patch, no gateway account, and no seats to count.

How server monitoring SMS alerts work in 3 steps

There are 3 steps. None of them touch your monitoring server beyond one email setting.

  1. Sign up and verify your business

    Create your account and complete the short business check. Canadian businesses enter their Business Number (BN). Welco reviews every business before it can send, which keeps alert numbers clean.

  2. Invite the admins who should get alerts

    Send each admin an email invite. They join with their own cellphone and reply YES to one text before any server alert reaches them. Anyone can later reply STOP to opt out.

  3. Point the alert email at your Welco address

    In your tool, add your Welco address as an email contact, like a Nagios contact, an Icinga notification user or a PRTG notification template. Then approve the tool's sending address, so only your systems can text your team.

Get your first server alert as a text today

Most teams are done in one sitting. You keep the monitoring you already trust.

7-day free trial, 15 message creditsCard required for verificationNo charge for 7 daysEmail reminder before billing

Text me my server alertsBook a demo

Set up texts for your monitoring tool

Each guide shows where the email setting lives in that tool, a real example alert and the questions admins ask.

What IT alerts look like as texts

Welco keeps the device, the problem and the time. Headers, footers and long check output stay in the email.

  • Host down: Welco: [Server] Host DOWN - db-01 (10.5.160.9) at 3:12 AM. Reply STOP to opt out.
  • Branch link: Welco: [branch-kelowna] WAN link down, failover to LTE at 5:46 AM. Reply STOP to opt out.
  • Nightly job: Welco: [sql-03] Nightly full backup FAILED at 1:20 AM, job step 2. Reply STOP to opt out.

A phone showing these alert texts: Host down, "Welco: [Server] Host DOWN - db-01 (10.5.160.9) at 3:12 AM. Reply STOP to opt out."; Branch link, "Welco: [branch-kelowna] WAN link down, failover to LTE at 5:46 AM. Reply STOP to opt out."; Nightly job, "Welco: [sql-03] Nightly full backup FAILED at 1:20 AM, job step 2. Reply STOP to opt out."

IT alerts before and after Welco

Alerts the old way

  • The alert email sits unread until someone opens a laptop.
  • The carrier address went quiet. Bell's end-of-life notice retired Text via Email on December 31, 2025, and US gateways such as txt.att.net closed too.
  • A full on-call platform, priced per seat, for a team that only needs a text.
  • Warnings, recoveries and flapping checks buzz as loudly as an outage.

Alerts with Welco

  • The on-call phone gets the host, the problem and the time in one text.
  • Verified, alerts-only numbers instead of carrier email-to-text.
  • Plans priced by message credits, with no per-user fees.
  • Rules text only DOWN and CRITICAL. The rest stays in email.

Who uses text alerts for IT monitoring

Welco fits small and mid-size IT teams across Canada that already have monitoring in place. The tool spots the problem, from a SolarWinds alert action to a Datadog monitor mention. The text makes sure a person sees it.

Features that matter for IT alerts

These are the settings IT teams use most. Each one runs on the email your tool already sends.

  • Alert rules

    Match on the sender, subject or words like DOWN and decide who gets the text.

  • On-call and after-hours routing

    Send daytime alerts to the whole team and night alerts to the one phone on call.

  • Alarm flood control

    When a core switch drops and dozens of hosts go red, phones get a few texts instead of a pile.

  • Approved senders only

    Only the monitoring servers you approve can trigger a text. Other mail is refused.

  • No duplicate texts

    If a mail server retries, each phone still gets the alert once.

  • Test mode

    Try a new monitor or rule and see the result without sending a text or using credits.

  • Delivery reports

    Each phone shows sent or failed, with the reason in plain English, such as a landline or a STOP reply.

Text alerts or a full on-call tool

Welco does one job: it gets the alert email onto the right phone as a text. It does not run on-call rotations, escalation chains or acknowledgements. It has no app and makes no voice calls.

Full on-call tools are usually priced per person. PagerDuty's Professional plan is US$21 per user per month billed yearly, as listed on pagerduty.com, October 2026.

If your team needs those, a tool like PagerDuty or OnPage is the better fit. If you want texts from the monitoring you already run, without per-user seats, Welco is the simpler path. Compare Welco with each in our PagerDuty alternative and OnPage comparison pages.

Teams that need an Opsgenie alternative face the same choice. Opsgenie shuts down on April 5, 2027, as reported by Hyperping. Our Opsgenie shutdown guide covers what to check before you move.

What admins set up first

A few habits make IT alert texts useful instead of noisy.

Text problems, keep the rest in email

Warnings and recoveries are useful in a report, but rarely worth waking someone. A keyword alert rule can text only alerts that say down or critical. Everything else stays in the inbox.

Keep each alert to one text

Monitoring emails are long. Very long ones use more credits. Trimming to one text cuts the email down to the line that matters, and our guide to writing short alert texts shows how.

Use the tool's own delay

Most tools can wait a minute or two before they alert. That one setting stops texts for a single dropped ping, which matters more than any filter on the Welco side.

Frequently asked questions

Which monitoring tools can send alerts to Welco?

Any tool that can send an email alert. Teams send from Nagios, PRTG, Zabbix, ManageEngine OpManager, LibreNMS, WhatsUp Gold, OpenNMS notices, APC UPS cards, backup jobs and help desks today. If your tool can email a contact, you add your Welco address as that contact. The full integrations list covers other systems.

Do I need to install an agent or plug-in on the monitoring server?

No. Welco reads the alert email your tool already sends, so nothing is installed on your servers. There is no SMS modem or gateway account to manage either. Everyone who gets alert emails today keeps getting them, and Welco is one more contact in the tool.

Can different alerts go to different admins?

Yes. Alert rules match on the sender, subject or words in the email and pick who gets the text. You can send firewall alerts to the network admin, backup failures to the server admin, and anything after 6 p.m. to whoever is on call.

Will recovery and flapping alerts text us too?

Only if you want them to. A rule can drop emails that say RECOVERY or OK, so those stay in email. For flapping checks, use your tool's own delay or flap detection. Welco also sends a retried email to each phone only once.

Can the on-call admin acknowledge an alert by replying?

Not in your monitoring tool. The reply comes back as an email to the alert's sender, so the team can see who has it. Acknowledge the problem in the tool itself.

How much does it cost to text IT alerts in Canada?

You pay no per-user fees, hardware costs or setup fee, and a short alert uses one credit. Every account starts with a 7-day free trial and 15 message credits, and the verification card isn't charged until you approve a plan. Plans on pricing never add overage charges, and all prices are in US dollars (USD). Customers in Canada pay in US dollars too.

What if a network outage sends hundreds of alerts at once?

Flood limits cap a burst so phones get a few texts instead of hundreds. The best fix for alarm floods still starts in your monitoring tool. Set parent and child dependencies so hosts behind a dead switch don't each raise their own alert.

Put tonight's server alerts on the on-call phone

Add one email contact in your monitoring tool. Welco sends the text.

Text me my server alertsBook a demo

7-day free trial, 15 message creditsCard required for verificationNo charge for 7 daysEmail reminder before billing