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Inngest alternatives (2026)

Inngest: The missing piece for serverless background processing.

Its Catch: License first: the Inngest server is under SSPL v1.0, each version converting to Apache-2.0 three years after release — source-available, not OSI open source today.

Below: 3 free or free-tier tools from the same category (background job queues), free and open source first, then the closest match by shared tags. Each keeps its own Catch.

  1. 1.Trigger.devOpen-source background jobs for Next.js

    Free / OSS · Freemium · 16.6k GitHub stars

    VerdictOpen-source background jobs with a self-host escape hatch.

    Catchv3 was a significant breaking change. The managed platform costs scale with compute. Self-hosting requires maintaining infrastructure.

  2. 2.BullMQMIT Redis-backed Node job queue vs Inngest/Trigger/Temporal SaaS

    Free / OSS · OSS/MIT · 9.5k GitHub stars

    VerdictMIT Node+Redis queue. Free core; Pro for Groups/Batches/Observables.

    CatchYou operate Redis + workers; not zero-infra like Inngest/Trigger.dev. Groups, Batches, and Observables are BullMQ Pro (commercial). Distinct from Inngest/Trigger SaaS and Temporal durable workflows.

  3. 3.RiverMPL-2.0 durable Postgres job queue for Go; Pro is paid add-ons

    Free / OSS · MPL-2.0 · 5.8k GitHub stars

    VerdictMPL-2.0 Postgres jobs. Free forever core; Pro is optional paid power, not required to enqueue.

    CatchVs BullMQ (MIT Redis/Node queue), Inngest/Trigger.dev (hosted job platforms), and Temporal (durable *workflow* engine): River is a *Postgres job queue for Go*, not Redis, not a SaaS meter, and not Temporal workflows. River Pro is paid add-ons (workflows, batching, sequences, concurrency limits, DLQ, …) via a private Go module — core stays free MPL-2.0 with no paid code in the OSS tree.

FAQ

What are the best free alternatives to Inngest?
Trigger.dev, BullMQ, River. All are reviewed on Stack Gems in the same category (background job queues); 3 free or open source.
What is the catch with Inngest?
License first: the Inngest server is under SSPL v1.0, each version converting to Apache-2.0 three years after release — source-available, not OSI open source today.
Is there an open-source alternative to Inngest?
Yes: Trigger.dev (Freemium), BullMQ (OSS/MIT), River (MPL-2.0).

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