Hatchet vs Temporal: Which is Better in 2026?
Choosing between Hatchet and Temporal? Both are popular background jobs & workflows tools. Below we compare them on pricing, free tiers, features, and pros & cons so you can pick the right fit for your stack.
Hatchet is for: Teams orchestrating background tasks and AI agent workflows who want an open-source engine that runs on Postgres.
Temporal is for: Engineering teams running long-lived business workflows across services and languages who need them to survive crashes and restarts.
Quick verdict
There’s no single winner; pick on your constraint. Choose Hatchet if you want an open-source task engine you can self-host on the Postgres you already run. Choose Temporal if your workflows run for days or months and must resume exactly where they stopped after a failure.
Hatchet vs Temporal — Side by Side
| Hatchet | Temporal | |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Background Jobs & Workflows | Background Jobs & Workflows |
| What it is | Task orchestration engine | Durable execution platform |
| Languages | Python, TypeScript, Go, Ruby | Go, Java, .NET, PHP, Python, Ruby, Rust, TypeScript |
| What it runs on | Hatchet Cloud or self-hosted on Postgres | Temporal Cloud or self-hosted server |
| How you pay | Per task run and event; no plan fee | Per million Actions plus storage; no base fee |
| Free access | 1M task runs a month with a card on file | Open source; $150 Cloud credit for 90 days |
| Pricing | Free | Free · then usage-based |
| Starting price | Free tier available | Free tier available |
| Free tier | ||
| Rating | 4.4 | 4.5 |
| Best for | Background Jobs & Workflows — Postgres-backed, AI task orchestration, open source | Background Jobs & Workflows — durable execution, long-running workflows, polyglot teams |
Pros & Cons
- Simple Postgres-based architecture
- Easy to self-host
- Built for AI task orchestration
- Fine-grained concurrency control
- Younger project, smaller community
- Fewer integrations than incumbents
- Battle-tested durable execution
- Polyglot SDKs
- Handles very complex, long-running workflows
- Strong reliability guarantees
- Steep learning curve
- Self-hosting is operationally heavy
- Cloud Action-based pricing can be hard to predict
Key Features Compared
Hatchet
- Open source under the MIT license; self-hosting needs only PostgreSQL for basic use
- Hatchet Cloud is pay-as-you-go with no plan fee
- With a card on file: 1M task runs and 1M events a month included, then $30 per 1M task runs and $5 per 1M events
- Card-on-file plan includes 100 workers, 50 users and 7-day retention
- Without a card, lower limits apply and tasks are dropped once a free limit is reached
- SDKs for Python, TypeScript, Go and Ruby
Temporal
- Open-source server under the MIT license; self-host it yourself
- Temporal Cloud pay-as-you-go: no base fee, Actions from $50 per million
- Active storage $0.042 per GB-hour; retained storage $0.00105 per GB-hour
- $150 of free Cloud credit for 90 days
- Business support from $500 a month or 10% of usage, with 2.5M Actions included
- 99.9% SLA, with a 99.99% high-availability option
Choose Hatchet if…
- You want an open-source task engine you can self-host on the Postgres you already run.
- You need concurrency and rate limits per tenant or per key.
- You want managed hosting with no monthly plan fee.
Choose Temporal if…
- Your workflows run for days or months and must resume exactly where they stopped after a failure.
- Your services are written in several languages and need to share one workflow engine.
- You want the option to run the open-source server yourself or pay per Action on Temporal Cloud.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Hatchet better than Temporal?⌄
There’s no single winner; pick on your constraint. Choose Hatchet if you want an open-source task engine you can self-host on the Postgres you already run. Choose Temporal if your workflows run for days or months and must resume exactly where they stopped after a failure.
What is the difference between Hatchet and Temporal?⌄
What it is — Hatchet: Task orchestration engine. Temporal: Durable execution platform. Languages — Hatchet: Python, TypeScript, Go, Ruby. Temporal: Go, Java, .NET, PHP, Python, Ruby, Rust, TypeScript. What it runs on — Hatchet: Hatchet Cloud or self-hosted on Postgres. Temporal: Temporal Cloud or self-hosted server. How you pay — Hatchet: Per task run and event; no plan fee. Temporal: Per million Actions plus storage; no base fee. Free access — Hatchet: 1M task runs a month with a card on file. Temporal: Open source; $150 Cloud credit for 90 days.
Hatchet vs Temporal: which is cheaper?⌄
Hatchet pricing: Free. Temporal pricing: Free · then usage-based. Confirm current pricing on each tool's official site, as plans change.
Which is rated higher, Hatchet or Temporal?⌄
In our catalog, Hatchet rates 4.4 out of 5 and Temporal rates 4.5 out of 5, so Temporal has a slight edge on reviews.
When should I skip both Hatchet and Temporal?⌄
Skip Hatchet if you want a library rather than a separate engine. Graphile Worker and River run inside your app on Postgres. Skip Temporal if you need simple queued jobs. BullMQ, Sidekiq or Celery are less to learn and run.
Sources · tool facts checked November 2026
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