Temporal vs Inngest

Side-by-side — pricing, strengths, tradeoffs, and fit.

Temporal

Durable execution platform for reliable, long-running workflows in code.

Inngest

Durable background jobs and workflows for serverless, with zero infra.

At a glance

Open SourceFree TierEnterprise
● Established·From $0 self-hosted
Open SourceFree TierEnterprise
● Established·From $20/mo

Overview

One-liner

Durable execution platform for reliable, long-running workflows in code.

One-liner

Durable background jobs and workflows for serverless, with zero infra.

Maturity

Established

Maturity

Established

Open source

✓ Yes

Open source

✓ Yes

Pricing

Free tier

✓ Available

Self-hosted free; Temporal Cloud has usage pricing

Free tier

✓ Available

Free tier (generous monthly runs)

Starts at

$0 self-hosted

Starts at

$20/mo

Model

Usage-based

Model

Usage-based

Enterprise

✓ Available

Enterprise

✓ Available

Best for

✓ Best for

Long-running, mission-critical workflowsDurable execution with guaranteed recovery
Complex orchestration in codeReliable distributed workflows

✓ Best for

Background jobs for serverless/Next.jsDurable steps without queues
Event-driven workflowsTriggers, retries, and scheduling

Not ideal for

✕ Not for

—

✕ Not for

—

Strengths

↑ Strengths

Durable, fault-tolerant workflows
Write workflows as code
Battle-tested at scale

↑ Strengths

Durable jobs without managing queues
Great serverless/Next.js fit
Event-driven + scheduling

Weaknesses

↓ Weaknesses

Operationally complex
Steeper learning curve

↓ Weaknesses

Usage costs at high volume
Younger than Temporal
Full Temporal profile →Full Inngest profile →