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
River Pricing Plans (2026)
| Plan | Price |
|---|---|
| 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
Compare allRiver 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.
Not sure if River fits your stack?
Get a free, AI-powered tech stack tailored to your budget, app type, and team size — including the best background jobs & workflows pick for you.
Build my stack free