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.

Temporal vs Restate. Rows marked Differs have different values.

Startup

Temporal

Remove

Startup

Restate

Remove

TypeStartupStartup
Categories
In one lineDurable execution for long-running agent workflows.The durable runtime for agents and backends.
Stage & fundingDiffers$430M total · $300M Series D (Feb 2026) at $5B valuation$27M total · $20M Series A (Sep 2026)
GitHub stars——
License——
Language——
Last push——
Works with——
Built on——
Built on it——
Similar toDiffers
People linkedDiffers23
Events00
Pros
  • MetadataMature, MIT-licensed durable-execution engine descended from Uber's Cadence, with about 24K GitHub stars and active development.[1][2]
  • DocsEvent history lets a crashed agent resume from its last recorded decision instead of starting over.[1]
  • User reportsPractitioners use it as the main building block for multi-step agents and value its real-time view of running workflows.[1][2]
  • 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]
Cons
  • Independent testThere is a real learning curve around determinism and where to draw the workflow/activity line, and existing agent loops must be restructured to fit.[1]
  • DocsSelf-hosting means operating several Temporal cluster services, a persistence database and your own workers, and the main hidden cost is engineering time.[1][2]
  • DocsTemporal Cloud bills per action with a monthly minimum, which gets expensive for chatty, LLM-heavy agents.[1][2]
  • Independent testLarge LLM prompts and responses can saturate workflow history, which has size limits, forcing payload codecs that offload to external storage.[1]
  • 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]
Best forTeams running long-lived, crash-safe agent workflows that already have platform engineers to operate them.Teams that want durable agent steps and state with a lighter footprint than a Temporal cluster, especially on serverless.
Watch out forThe determinism model and history-size limits when moving an existing agent loop onto Temporal.BSL licensing and a smaller ecosystem.
Links

Popular comparisons