Inngest vs Trigger.dev

Two hosted job platform options for background jobs & cron. When each fits, what it costs, who moves from one to the other, and what makers who chose it say.

Ask your AI about this, with this page as the source:ChatGPT ↗Claude ↗Perplexity ↗

Which fits you

Choose Inngest if
  • One user action kicks off several steps with waits between them

Use it whenOne user action fans out into several steps with waits and sleeps in between.

Trade-offPricing scales with executions and steps, so chatty workflows cost more.

Choose Trigger.dev if
  • You deploy to serverless hosting and have tasks that run for minutes

Use it whenA task like video processing or a long AI call keeps hitting your serverless function's timeout.

Trade-offYour job code is deployed to and runs on Trigger.dev's infrastructure unless you self-host it.

At a glance

InngestTrigger.dev
Used by16 makers' products · 11 open-source projects23 makers' products · 5 open-source projects
Cost at default usagejob runs or steps 100k runs, job compute time 20 hours$99/mo Pro$0/mo Free
Downloads1.6M/wk+125% vs npm935.5k/wk3.5× vs npm
PricingFree tier (50k executions/month); paid plans scale by executions, concurrency and events; self-hostable. · paid from $99/moFree tier; usage-based paid cloud plans; unlimited runs when self-hosted under its open-source license. · paid from $10/mo
Free tierYesYes
Open sourceYes · self-hostableYes · self-hostable
Incidents, 90 daysfrom its status page16 (8 major)no public status feed

Cost as you grow

Both cost $0 up to 50 thousand runs; from 100 thousand runs Trigger.dev costs less ($0 vs $99); from about 10k thousand runs Inngest does ($424 vs $493).

$0$10$50$20010501005001k5k10k
Trigger.devInngestx: job runs or steps per month (thousand runs), other usage scaled with it · cheapest usable plan at each point, list prices · try your own numbers
The numbers, plan by plan
Job runs or steps per monthInngestTrigger.dev
10$0 Free$0 Free
50$0 Free$0 Free
100$99 Pro$0 Free
500$99 Pro$25 Hobby
1,000$99 Pro$49 Hobby
5,000$299 Pro$247 Hobby
10,000$424 Pro$493 Hobby

From each vendor's pricing page: Inngest, Trigger.dev.

What makers say

Makers on using it for background jobs & cron, from Product Hunt and Starter Story interviews, each linked to the source. Products with a page of their own and fuller notes first.

On Inngest
We also hosted our own Redis-based queue before managing events infra became a job in itself. Inngest has top tier local dev DX and helps our background jobs scale infinitely.
FirstQuadrant, the makerSep 2026 ↗
All of our async operations run on Inngest. They have the best DX. Super simple to do debouncing, throttling, fanning out, and more. Easy to test in local, and easy to monitor in production.
North, the makerSep 2026 ↗
Inngest's queuing system is a fantastic improvement over managing queues ourselves - it frees up time so we can spend talking to more customers instead.
Cloudglue, the makerSep 2026 ↗
4 more on the Inngest page →
On Trigger.dev
CopyCopter uses Trigger.dev as a background job manager, making the code cleaner, more scalable and more fun to play with! Trigger.dev is a must-have for NextJS Serverless App.s
CopyCopter, the makerSep 2026 ↗
Probably one of the best background task experiences I've ever had, it's so nice working with tools like this. Everything just works and it's super complete
Reloop, the makerSep 2026 ↗
Trigger.dev made it easy for us to do post-processing on Clawcast's conversations to generate audio in parrellel and ensure we create podcast cover art.
Clawcast, the makerSep 2026 ↗
9 more on the Trigger.dev page →

Loved and watch-outs

Themes that recur in makers' words and Hacker News comments, each linked to what it summarises.

Inngest
Most loved
  • It replaces a self-hosted Redis queue and workers, so teams stop running event infrastructure themselves. PHPH 2
  • Workflows can be tested locally, and production runs come with tracing and monitoring built in. PHPH 2inngest.com
  • Debouncing, throttling and fan-out are simple, making complex multi-step flows such as AI agents quick to build. PHinngest.com
On Product Hunt: 5.0★, 11 reviews
Trigger.dev
Most loved
  • Tasks run without timeouts and retry automatically, which suits long-running, multi-step AI workflows and agents. PHPH 2PH 3HN
  • It takes queues and job infrastructure off the team's plate while staying in a TypeScript stack. PHHNHN 2
  • Clear documentation and founders who answer on Discord within hours. PHHN
On Product Hunt: 5.0★, 19 reviews · mentioned most: background job management, developer-friendly, scalability

Who uses each

Used by both — often one replacing the other, or each for a different part of the product

What makers pair each with

TemporalDurable workflow engineLong-running, multi-step workflows — payments, onboarding, AI agent loops — whose state must survive crashes and deploys, in Go, Java, Python, TypeScript and more.vs Inngest →vs Trigger.dev →
UpstashServerless queueSimple scheduled calls and delayed HTTP jobs on serverless or edge hosting, via QStash.
BullMQSelf-run queueNode apps on a long-running server that already have Redis — free and fully in your control.