Harness Hub

The directory · side by side

Compare

Line up two to four entries and see where they differ. The link in your address bar shares this exact comparison.

Restate vs Inngest. Rows marked Differs have different values.

Startup

Restate

Remove

Startup

Inngest

Remove

TypeStartupStartup
Categories
In one lineThe durable runtime for agents and backends.Durable functions and workflows for AI agents.
Stage & fundingDiffers$27M total · $20M Series A (Sep 2026)—
GitHub stars——
License——
Language——
Last push——
Works with——
Built on——
Built on it——
Similar toDiffers
People linkedDiffers32
Events00
Pros
  • Independent testShips as a single binary with its own storage and replication layer, so a simple setup needs no external database or cluster.[1][2]
  • User reportsDurably commits each individual step before the next runs, which suits agent tool calls with side effects.[1]
  • DocsDesigned serverless-first, so handlers run on Lambda-style platforms without long-polling workers.[1]
  • User reportsUsers building agents report the TypeScript SDK is easy to use, and some pair it with Modal sandboxes for crash recovery.[1][2]
  • User reportsOne team chose it over Temporal because it is much simpler to operate.[1]
  • User reportsDurable at the step level: builders say failed steps retry from that step rather than from scratch, which helps multi-step LLM pipelines that hit rate limits.[1][2]
  • DocsSelf-hosting has been supported since 1.0: a single server that defaults to SQLite and in-memory Redis, and can scale horizontally with external Postgres and Redis.[1]
  • User reportsA competitor's comparison recommends it for agents deployed on serverless platforms such as Vercel.[1]
Cons
  • MetadataThe server is under the Business Source License 1.1, which forbids offering it as a public Restate platform service, so it is not OSI open source.[1]
  • MetadataMuch smaller ecosystem than Temporal: about 3K weekly npm downloads against about 25K, and about 4.6K GitHub stars.[1][2]
  • MetadataMost Restate-versus-Temporal comparisons come from Restate's own team or co-founders.[1][2]
  • User reportsA DBOS co-founder argues that running durable execution as a separate service is heavier to integrate than a library on Postgres.[1]
  • MetadataThe server is licensed under the SSPL, converting to Apache-2.0 three years after release, so it is source-available rather than OSI open source.[1]
  • DocsEvery step counts as an execution (a run with 5 steps uses 6), and the free tier allows 50k executions, 5 concurrent steps and 24 hours of trace history.[1]
  • DocsThe single-node 'inngest start' mode is marked [Beta], and Inngest does not guarantee support for self-hosted instances.[1]
  • User reportsAt least one user called it 'unfortunately not very reliable'.[1]
  • User reportsThe cloud product sends your workflow data to Inngest, a point a competitor raised.[1]
Best forTeams that want durable agent steps and state with a lighter footprint than a Temporal cluster, especially on serverless.TypeScript and serverless teams that want durable, step-based agent workflows without running Temporal.
Watch out forBSL licensing and a smaller ecosystem.Count steps, not runs, when you price it, and read the SSPL before self-hosting commercially.
Links

Popular comparisons