River vs Trigger.dev: Which is Better in 2026?
Choosing between River and Trigger.dev? 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.
River is for: Go teams on PostgreSQL who want jobs enqueued in the same transaction as their data.
Trigger.dev is for: TypeScript teams running long background tasks and AI agent jobs who want managed workers billed per second of compute.
Quick verdict
There’s no single winner; pick on your constraint. Choose River if your app is written in Go and uses Postgres. Choose Trigger.dev if you write jobs in TypeScript and want them to run on managed machines rather than inside your web server.
River vs Trigger.dev — Side by Side
| River | Trigger.dev | |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Background Jobs & Workflows | Background Jobs & Workflows |
| What it is | Open-source job queue library | Managed background job platform |
| Languages | Go, Java, Ruby, Rust, TypeScript | TypeScript |
| What it runs on | Your Postgres or SQLite | Trigger.dev managed workers or self-hosted |
| How you pay | Free (MPL-2.0); optional Pro subscription | Monthly plan with usage credit; per-second compute |
| Free access | Full open-source library | $5 of compute credit a month |
| Pricing | Free · paid from $125/mo | Free · paid from $10/mo |
| Starting price | Free tier available | Free tier available |
| Free tier | ||
| Rating | 4.4 | 4.6 |
| Best for | Background Jobs & Workflows — Go, Postgres, transactional jobs | Background Jobs & Workflows — TypeScript jobs, long-running tasks, AI agents |
Pros & Cons
- Idiomatic Go with strong typing
- Transactional enqueue on Postgres
- No separate broker needed
- Active development
- Go-first; other languages are newer
- Newer than incumbents
- Needs Postgres or SQLite
- Open-source and self-hostable
- Write jobs in plain TypeScript
- No execution timeouts
- Strong AI-agent/workflow tooling
- TypeScript/Node only
- Self-hosting adds operational work
Key Features Compared
River
- Open source under the MPL-2.0 license
- Enqueues jobs transactionally in your existing database
- Runs on Postgres and SQLite
- Background jobs for Go, Java, Ruby, Rust and TypeScript, per the project site
- River Pro: $125 a month; annual billing saves $300
- Pro adds workflows, sequences, batching, global concurrency limits, a dead letter queue and encrypted jobs
Trigger.dev
- Free: $5 of compute credit a month, 20 concurrent runs, 10 schedules and 1-day log retention
- Hobby $10 a month with $10 of credit and 50 concurrent runs
- Pro $50 a month with $50 of credit, 200 concurrent runs, 25 team members and 30-day logs
- Compute billed per second from $0.0000169 on the smallest machine, plus $0.25 per 10,000 runs
- Runs in the dev environment are not charged
- Open source under Apache-2.0, with Docker and Kubernetes self-hosting guides
Choose River if…
- Your app is written in Go and uses Postgres.
- You want a job to exist only if the transaction that created it commits.
- You want workflows and concurrency limits for a flat monthly fee.
Choose Trigger.dev if…
- Budget is tight — paid plans start lower ($10/mo vs $125/mo).
- You write jobs in TypeScript and want them to run on managed machines rather than inside your web server.
- Your tasks run for minutes or hours, such as AI agent steps or media processing.
- You want to self-host the same open-source platform later.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is River better than Trigger.dev?⌄
There’s no single winner; pick on your constraint. Choose River if your app is written in Go and uses Postgres. Choose Trigger.dev if you write jobs in TypeScript and want them to run on managed machines rather than inside your web server.
What is the difference between River and Trigger.dev?⌄
What it is — River: Open-source job queue library. Trigger.dev: Managed background job platform. Languages — River: Go, Java, Ruby, Rust, TypeScript. Trigger.dev: TypeScript. What it runs on — River: Your Postgres or SQLite. Trigger.dev: Trigger.dev managed workers or self-hosted. How you pay — River: Free (MPL-2.0); optional Pro subscription. Trigger.dev: Monthly plan with usage credit; per-second compute. Free access — River: Full open-source library. Trigger.dev: $5 of compute credit a month.
River vs Trigger.dev: which is cheaper?⌄
River pricing: Free · paid from $125/mo. Trigger.dev pricing: Free · paid from $10/mo. Confirm current pricing on each tool's official site, as plans change.
Which is rated higher, River or Trigger.dev?⌄
In our catalog, River rates 4.4 out of 5 and Trigger.dev rates 4.6 out of 5, so Trigger.dev has a slight edge on reviews.
When should I skip both River and Trigger.dev?⌄
Skip River if your app is in Node.js. Graphile Worker takes the same Postgres approach. Skip Trigger.dev if your team writes Python or Go. Inngest and Hatchet have SDKs for both.
Sources · tool facts checked November 2026
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