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River: Pricing, Features & Alternatives

River is an open-source (MPL-2.0) background job queue that stores jobs in Postgres or SQLite, enabling transactional enqueue alongside your application data. It started in Go and its site lists Go, Java, Ruby, Rust and TypeScript. The core is free; River Pro ($125/month) adds workflows, sequences, batching and concurrency limits.

Who it’s for: Go teams on PostgreSQL who want jobs enqueued in the same transaction as their data.

Category

Background Jobs & Workflows

Pricing

Free tier available

Free tier

Yes

Best for

Background Jobs & Workflows — Go, Postgres, transactional jobs

River at a Glance

What it is
Open-source job queue library
Languages
Go, Java, Ruby, Rust, TypeScript
What it runs on
Your Postgres or SQLite
How you pay
Free (MPL-2.0); optional Pro subscription
Free access
Full open-source library

Checked November 2026 against River, River Pro.

River Pricing Plans (2026)

PlanPrice
Open SourcePopular$0 (self-hosted)
River Pro$125 / month

Pricing summary: Free · paid from $125/mo. Always confirm current pricing on the official site.

Key River Features

  • 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

Pros

  • +Idiomatic Go with strong typing
  • +Transactional enqueue on Postgres
  • +No separate broker needed
  • +Active development

Cons

  • −Go-first; other languages are newer
  • −Newer than incumbents
  • −Needs Postgres or SQLite

Best River Alternatives

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River Compared

River FAQ

What is River used for?⌄

River is a background jobs & workflows tool. Fast, robust background job queue built on Postgres or SQLite with transactional enqueueing, Go-first with clients in other languages.

Is River free?⌄

Yes — River has a free tier you can start with, and paid plans for more usage and features.

How much does River cost?⌄

River offers a free tier, with paid plans starting at $125/month.

What are the best River alternatives?⌄

Popular River alternatives include Temporal, Inngest, Sidekiq, Trigger.dev, BullMQ. Compare pricing and features on our River alternatives page.

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