Amazon SQS vs Hatchet
SEPT 2026 auditA comparison of Amazon SQS and Hatchet built from values read directly from each provider's own documentation, with the source recorded against every figure.
The short answer
Choose Amazon SQS if…
AWS-resident systems that want a queue with a permanent free million requests a month and no capacity to plan — SQS scales without a throughput setting to choose.
Editorial · Palash Bagchi · approved
Choose Hatchet if…
Task workloads that want a countable unit and no plan fee: 1M task runs and 1M events free each month with a card on file, then $30 per million runs, with 10,000 concurrent worker slots before any contract.
Editorial · Palash Bagchi · approved
Consider something else if…
- Amazon SQS: Billing is per request rather than per message, and a 1 MiB payload counts as sixteen, so chatty polling or large messages cost far more than the message count suggests.
- Hatchet: You want a published uptime percentage or long run history: SLAs come only on the quoted Custom plan, and history is kept 7 days with a card on file (1 day without) unless you move to Custom.
Neither quite fits? Every other option, ranked by iScore: Amazon SQS alternatives · Hatchet alternatives
15 sourced criteria separate them — see where, with sources, below.
Pick the criteria you care about. The chart counts how many of them lean toward each provider — the same read as scanning the bars below, just totalled for the ones you chose.
Amazon SQS 0
Hatchet 0
At a glance.
| Criterion | Amazon SQS | Hatchet |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | ||
| Free tier | Yes | Yes |
| Kind of free offer | Free tier | Free tier |
| Entry paid plan | No paid plan or minimum fee; billed per request after the free 1 million requests a month. | No plan fee: Pay-as-you-go is $0 a month and bills only usage past the free million runs and events ($30 per million runs). Custom, for 100M+ runs a month or enterprise features, is priced by conversation. |
| Pricing model | Per request, not per message: every API action counts, and a 1 MiB payload is billed as 16 requests. FIFO queues cost $0.50 per million against standard's $0.40 in us-east-1, and fair queue requests add $0.10 per million on top of the standard rate. | Usage-based with no plan fees: 1M task runs and 1M events free every month, then $30 per million runs and $5 per million events, with volume pricing at 100M+ runs a month on Custom. Users past 50 are $10 each. |
| Infrastructure | ||
| Regions | 34 commercial AWS Regions plus 2 AWS GovCloud (US) Regions listed in the SQS service endpoints table. | 3 live AWS regions (Oregon, N. Virginia, Ireland) plus Sydney in private beta; control plane in aws-us-west-2. |
| Uptime SLA | 99.9% monthly uptime per AWS Region, one figure with no configuration split. | Latency guarantees and SLAs on the Custom plan, sold by contract (talk to an engineer). No percentage is published on the pricing page. |
| Queues | ||
| Included per month | 1,000,000 requests a month free, permanently and across all regions. Beyond that, standard queues are $0.40 per million in us-east-1, falling to $0.30 above 100 billion and $0.24 above 200 billion. | 1M task runs and 1M events a month on Pay-as-you-go with a card on file, then $30 per million runs and $5 per million events. Without a card: 2,000 task runs and 2,000 events a day. |
| Maximum message size | 256 KB per message. A single request carries 1 to 10 messages up to 1 MiB total, and each 64 KB chunk of payload is billed as one request. | 4 MB default maximum payload size for a task's input or output between worker and Hatchet engine. |
| Message retention | 4 days by default; configurable from 60 seconds up to 14 days per queue. | Run history, logs and traces stay queryable for 1 day on Pay-as-you-go without a card, 7 days with a card on file, and 90+ days on Custom. This is dashboard and API history, not how long an undelivered task waits in the queue, so no magnitude is recorded. |
| Concurrency | Approximately 120,000 in-flight messages per standard queue (received but not yet deleted); API call rate on standard queues is nearly unlimited. | 2,000 worker slots (tasks running at once, totalled across all workers) on Pay-as-you-go without a card, 10,000 with a card on file; Custom gets dedicated capacity. No requests-per-second ceiling is published. |
| Dead letter queue | Supported | Not supported — No built-in DLQ; failed task instances persist in the dashboard for manual analysis and retry. |
| Compliance | ||
| SOC 2 | Listed as SOC-compliant on AWS's own compliance scope page. | SOC 2 Type II compliant; reports available through the Hatchet Trust Center. |
| HIPAA | Listed as a HIPAA-eligible service on AWS's own reference page. | HIPAA compliant per the security docs; the Scale plan ($1,000/mo) lists audit logs and HIPAA. |
| GDPR / data residency | AWS customers can process personal data on all AWS services in compliance with GDPR, and choose the storage type and geographic region for their data. | GDPR compliant per the security docs; EU data plane available in aws-eu-west-1 (Ireland). |
| Encryption at rest | Server-side encryption of queue contents with SQS-managed keys (SSE-SQS) or AWS KMS keys (SSE-KMS). | Data stored in Hatchet Cloud is encrypted at rest; API and worker traffic encrypted with TLS in transit. |
| Customer-managed keys | Supported via SSE-KMS: queues can use a customer managed KMS key created and policy-controlled in AWS KMS. | Documented SDK middleware pattern encrypts task inputs and outputs before they reach the Hatchet server; the encryption key stays in the worker environment. |
| Role-based access control | IAM identity-based policies on users, groups and roles plus resource-based queue policies control access to queues and actions. | Hierarchical tenant roles OWNER, ADMIN, MEMBER, VIEWER plus organization roles; payload visibility can be restricted per member. |
Where they differ.
Entry paid plan
- Amazon SQS
- No paid plan or minimum fee; billed per request after the free 1 million requests a month.
- Hatchet
- No plan fee: Pay-as-you-go is $0 a month and bills only usage past the free million runs and events ($30 per million runs). Custom, for 100M+ runs a month or enterprise features, is priced by conversation.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Amazon SQS Pricing ↗
“With AWS SQS, you pay only for what you use and there is no minimum fee.”
Read 2026-09-13 · official pricing · Report a correction
- Hatchet Pricing ↗
“Pay-as-you-go $0 to start [...] No surprise bills. No plan fees. You pay $30 per million runs, only after your free million, with volume pricing at 100M+ runs a month.”
Read 2026-09-27 · official pricing · Report a correction
Pricing model
- Amazon SQS
- Per request, not per message: every API action counts, and a 1 MiB payload is billed as 16 requests. FIFO queues cost $0.50 per million against standard's $0.40 in us-east-1, and fair queue requests add $0.10 per million on top of the standard rate.
- Hatchet
- Usage-based with no plan fees: 1M task runs and 1M events free every month, then $30 per million runs and $5 per million events, with volume pricing at 100M+ runs a month on Custom. Users past 50 are $10 each.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- AWS Price List API — AWSQueueService, us-east-1 ↗
“"$0.50 per million Amazon SQS FIFO requests in Tier1 in US East" [...] "$0.40 per million Amazon SQS standard requests in Tier1" [...] "$0.10 per million Amazon SQS fair queue requests in US East"”
Read 2026-09-06 · official pricing · Report a correction
- Hatchet Pricing ↗
“1M runs and 1M events free, every month Then $30 per million runs, $5 per million events [...] No surprise bills. No plan fees. You pay $30 per million runs, only after your free million, with volume pricing at 100M+ runs a month. [...] Users 50 included, then $10/user”
Read 2026-09-27 · official pricing · Report a correction
Regions
34 commercial AWS Regions plus 2 AWS GovCloud (US) Regions listed in the SQS service endpoints table.
3 live AWS regions (Oregon, N. Virginia, Ireland) plus Sydney in private beta; control plane in aws-us-west-2.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Amazon Simple Queue Service endpoints and quotas - AWS General Reference ↗
“Region Name Region Endpoint Protocol US East (Ohio) us-east-2 sqs.us-east-2.amazonaws.com [...] AWS GovCloud (US-West) us-gov-west-1 sqs.us-gov-west-1.amazonaws.com”
Read 2026-09-13 · official docs · Report a correction
- Region Availability - Hatchet Documentation ↗
“aws-us-west-2 Oregon (US) Live aws-us-east-1 N. Virginia (US) Live aws-eu-west-1 Ireland Live aws-ap-southeast-2 Sydney Private Beta”
Read 2026-09-13 · official docs · Report a correction
Uptime SLA
- Amazon SQS
- 99.9% monthly uptime per AWS Region, one figure with no configuration split.
- Hatchet
- Latency guarantees and SLAs on the Custom plan, sold by contract (talk to an engineer). No percentage is published on the pricing page.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- AWS Messaging Service Level Agreement ↗
“make the Included Services each available with a Monthly Uptime Percentage for each AWS Region, during any monthly billing cycle, of at least 99.9%”
Read 2026-09-14 · official site · Report a correction
- Hatchet Pricing ↗
“For 100M+ runs a month, dedicated capacity, or enterprise features. Volume discounts Latency guarantees and SLAs”
Read 2026-09-27 · official pricing · Report a correction
Included per month
- Amazon SQS
- 1,000,000 requests a month free, permanently and across all regions. Beyond that, standard queues are $0.40 per million in us-east-1, falling to $0.30 above 100 billion and $0.24 above 200 billion.
- Hatchet
- 1M task runs and 1M events a month on Pay-as-you-go with a card on file, then $30 per million runs and $5 per million events. Without a card: 2,000 task runs and 2,000 events a day.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- AWS Price List API — AWSQueueService, us-east-1 ↗
“"First 1,000,000 Amazon SQS Requests per month are free" [...] "$0.40 per million Amazon SQS standard requests in Tier1 in US East" [...] "$0.30 per million ... Tier2" [...] "$0.24 per million ... Tier3"”
Read 2026-09-06 · official pricing · Report a correction
- Hatchet Pricing ↗
“1M runs and 1M events free, every month Then $30 per million runs, $5 per million events [...] 2,000/day 1M/mo included then $30/M [...] 2,000/day 1M/mo included then $5/M”
Read 2026-09-27 · official pricing · Report a correction
Maximum message size
256 KB per message. A single request carries 1 to 10 messages up to 1 MiB total, and each 64 KB chunk of payload is billed as one request.
4 MB default maximum payload size for a task's input or output between worker and Hatchet engine.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Amazon SQS Pricing — AWS ↗
“A single request can have from 1 to 10 messages, up to a maximum total payload of 1 MiB. [...] Each 64 KB chunk of a payload is billed as 1 request (for example, an API action with a 1 MiB payload is billed as 16 requests).”
Read 2026-09-06 · official docs · Report a correction
- Troubleshooting Workers - Hatchet Documentation ↗
“The payload is too large for the worker to accept or the Hatchet engine to send. The default maximum payload size is 4MB.”
Read 2026-09-13 · official docs · Report a correction
Message retention
- Amazon SQS
- 4 days by default; configurable from 60 seconds up to 14 days per queue.
- Hatchet
- Run history, logs and traces stay queryable for 1 day on Pay-as-you-go without a card, 7 days with a card on file, and 90+ days on Custom. This is dashboard and API history, not how long an undelivered task waits in the queue, so no magnitude is recorded.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Amazon SQS message quotas - Amazon Simple Queue Service ↗
“Message retention By default, a message is retained for 4 days. The minimum is 60 seconds (1 minute). The maximum is 1,209,600 seconds (14 days).”
Read 2026-09-13 · official docs · Report a correction
- Hatchet Pricing ↗
“Retention How long run history, logs, and traces stay queryable in the dashboard and API. 1 day 7 days 90+ days”
Read 2026-09-27 · official pricing · Report a correction
Concurrency
- Amazon SQS
- Approximately 120,000 in-flight messages per standard queue (received but not yet deleted); API call rate on standard queues is nearly unlimited.
- Hatchet
- 2,000 worker slots (tasks running at once, totalled across all workers) on Pay-as-you-go without a card, 10,000 with a card on file; Custom gets dedicated capacity. No requests-per-second ceiling is published.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Amazon SQS standard queue quotas - Amazon Simple Queue Service ↗
“For most standard queues (depending on queue traffic and message backlog), there can be a maximum of approximately 120,000 in flight messages (received from a queue by a consumer, but not yet deleted from the queue).”
Read 2026-09-13 · official docs · Report a correction
- Hatchet Pricing ↗
“Worker slots Each slot runs one task at a time. A worker with 100 slots can run 100 tasks concurrently. The limit is the total across all workers. 2,000 10,000 Dedicated capacity”
Read 2026-09-27 · official pricing · Report a correction
Dead letter queue
- Amazon SQS
- Supported
- Hatchet
- Not supported — No built-in DLQ; failed task instances persist in the dashboard for manual analysis and retry.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Amazon SQS Pricing — AWS ↗
“API actions for sending, receiving, deleting, and changing visibility of messages from FIFO queues are charged at FIFO rates. All other API requests are charged at standard rates.”
Read 2026-09-06 · official docs · Report a correction
- Bulk Retries & Cancellations - Hatchet Documentation ↗
“While Hatchet does not have a built-in dead letter queue feature, the persistence of failed task instances in the dashboard serves a similar purpose.”
Read 2026-09-13 · official docs · Report a correction
SOC 2
- Amazon SQS
- Listed as SOC-compliant on AWS's own compliance scope page.
- Hatchet
- SOC 2 Type II compliant; reports available through the Hatchet Trust Center.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- AWS Services in Scope — SOC ↗
“This webpage provides a list of AWS Services in Scope of AWS assurance programs. [...] Amazon Simple Queue Service (SQS) ✓ Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3) ✓ Amazon Simple”
Read 2026-09-13 · official site · Report a correction
- Security - Hatchet Documentation ↗
“Hatchet is SOC 2 Type II, HIPAA, and GDPR compliant. Company-level security practices, compliance reports, and security documentation are available at the Hatchet Trust Center .”
Read 2026-09-13 · official docs · Report a correction
HIPAA
- Amazon SQS
- Listed as a HIPAA-eligible service on AWS's own reference page.
- Hatchet
- HIPAA compliant per the security docs; the Scale plan ($1,000/mo) lists audit logs and HIPAA.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- HIPAA Eligible Services Reference — AWS ↗
“The services listed below are eligible to create, receive, process, maintain, or transmit electronic protected health information (ePHI). [...] Amazon Simple Queue Service (SQS) Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3) Amazon Simple Workflow”
Read 2026-09-13 · official site · Report a correction
- Security - Hatchet Documentation ↗
“Hatchet is SOC 2 Type II, HIPAA, and GDPR compliant.”
Read 2026-09-13 · official docs · Report a correction
GDPR / data residency
- Amazon SQS
- AWS customers can process personal data on all AWS services in compliance with GDPR, and choose the storage type and geographic region for their data.
- Hatchet
- GDPR compliant per the security docs; EU data plane available in aws-eu-west-1 (Ireland).
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- GDPR — Amazon Web Services ↗
“AWS customers can use all AWS services to process personal data [...] in compliance with the GDPR. [...] Customers have control of their customer data. With AWS, customers can: Determine where their customer data will be stored, including the type of storage and geographic region of that storage.”
Read 2026-09-12 · official site · Report a correction
- Security - Hatchet Documentation ↗
“Hatchet is SOC 2 Type II, HIPAA, and GDPR compliant.”
Read 2026-09-13 · official docs · Report a correction
Encryption at rest
- Amazon SQS
- Server-side encryption of queue contents with SQS-managed keys (SSE-SQS) or AWS KMS keys (SSE-KMS).
- Hatchet
- Data stored in Hatchet Cloud is encrypted at rest; API and worker traffic encrypted with TLS in transit.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Encryption at rest in Amazon SQS - Amazon Simple Queue Service ↗
“SSE protects the contents of messages in queues using SQS-managed encryption keys (SSE-SQS) or keys managed in the AWS Key Management Service (SSE-KMS).”
Read 2026-09-13 · official docs · Report a correction
- Security - Hatchet Documentation ↗
“Encryption at rest : data stored in Hatchet Cloud is encrypted at rest.”
Read 2026-09-13 · official docs · Report a correction
Customer-managed keys
- Amazon SQS
- Supported via SSE-KMS: queues can use a customer managed KMS key created and policy-controlled in AWS KMS.
- Hatchet
- Documented SDK middleware pattern encrypts task inputs and outputs before they reach the Hatchet server; the encryption key stays in the worker environment.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Encryption at rest in Amazon SQS - Amazon Simple Queue Service ↗
“You can create KMS keys, define the policies that control how KMS keys can be used, and audit KMS key usage using the Customer managed keys section of the AWS KMS console or the CreateKey AWS KMS action.”
Read 2026-09-13 · official docs · Report a correction
- Middleware - Hatchet Documentation ↗
“Encrypt sensitive input fields before they reach the Hatchet server, and decrypt the output on the way back. This ensures plaintext data never leaves your worker process. [...] The encryption key never leaves the worker environment.”
Read 2026-09-13 · official docs · Report a correction
Role-based access control
- Amazon SQS
- IAM identity-based policies on users, groups and roles plus resource-based queue policies control access to queues and actions.
- Hatchet
- Hierarchical tenant roles OWNER, ADMIN, MEMBER, VIEWER plus organization roles; payload visibility can be restricted per member.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Overview of managing access in Amazon SQS - Amazon Simple Queue Service ↗
“An account administrator can attach permissions policies to IAM identities (users, groups, and roles), and some services (such as Amazon SQS) also support attaching permissions policies to resources.”
Read 2026-09-13 · official docs · Report a correction
- User Roles - Hatchet Documentation ↗
“Every user in a tenant has a role that controls what they can do in the dashboard and REST API. Roles are hierarchical: each role can do everything the roles below it can.”
Read 2026-09-13 · official docs · Report a correction
When these numbers change, hear about it. Sources are re-checked monthly; a repricing goes out as a short note.
Documented by only one.
These criteria are published by one provider and not the other. An absence here means we have not found a source, not that the feature is missing — except where we say we read the other provider's own page on a given date and it does not state it. Those rows lean, and the provider can correct them with a link.
Questions this comparison answers.
Entry paid plan: Amazon SQS or Hatchet?
Amazon SQS: No paid plan or minimum fee; billed per request after the free 1 million requests a month.
Hatchet: No plan fee: Pay-as-you-go is $0 a month and bills only usage past the free million runs and events ($30 per million runs). Custom, for 100M+ runs a month or enterprise features, is priced by conversation.
Should I choose Amazon SQS or Hatchet?
Pick Amazon SQS if AWS-resident systems that want a queue with a permanent free million requests a month and no capacity to plan — SQS scales without a throughput setting to choose.
Pick Hatchet if Task workloads that want a countable unit and no plan fee: 1M task runs and 1M events free each month with a card on file, then $30 per million runs, with 10,000 concurrent worker slots before any contract.
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