# Azure Queue Storage vs Hatchet

Canonical: https://inetgeek.com/compare/azure-queue-storage-vs-hatchet/

Every value below is read from Azure Queue Storage's and Hatchet's own documentation. See https://inetgeek.com/methodology/ for how.

## At a glance

| Criterion | Azure Queue Storage | Hatchet |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Pricing model | Per 10,000 operations plus stored data, with the rate set by redundancy: LRS Class 1 operations are $0.004 per 10,000, ZRS and GRS cost more for the same call. There is no plan fee and no included allowance. | Usage-first: every plan is "free + usage" or "$N/mo + usage" at $10 per million task runs, with the plan fee buying users, tenants, retention and throughput rather than volume. Self-hosting is offered with support on the enterprise tier. |
| Included per month | None included — every operation is billed. Class 1 operations are $0.004 per 10,000 on LRS in East US, which is $0.40 per million, matching Amazon SQS's standard rate exactly. | 100,000 task runs included free, then $10 per million. The cleanest per-unit rate in this category — Hatchet counts task runs where Cloudflare counts 64 KB operations and Inngest counts steps. |
| Message retention | Messages in the queue are billed as stored data at $0.045 per GB-month on LRS, rather than granted as a retention window. Azure charges for depth, not for time. | 3 days on the Team plan, stated alongside a 500 requests-per-second throughput ceiling. |
| SOC 2 | Listed among Azure's compliance offerings (SOC 1, SOC 2, SOC 3) on Microsoft's own compliance documentation — a platform-wide list, not scoped to this specific service. | SOC 2 Type II compliant; reports available through the Hatchet Trust Center. |
| HIPAA | Listed among Azure's compliance offerings (HIPAA) on Microsoft's own compliance documentation — a platform-wide list, not scoped to this specific service. | HIPAA compliant per the security docs; the Scale plan ($1,000/mo) lists audit logs and HIPAA. |

## Where they differ

### Pricing model

- Azure Queue Storage: Per 10,000 operations plus stored data, with the rate set by redundancy: LRS Class 1 operations are $0.004 per 10,000, ZRS and GRS cost more for the same call. There is no plan fee and no included allowance. ([source](https://prices.azure.com/api/retail/prices))
- Hatchet: Usage-first: every plan is "free + usage" or "$N/mo + usage" at $10 per million task runs, with the plan fee buying users, tenants, retention and throughput rather than volume. Self-hosting is offered with support on the enterprise tier. ([source](https://hatchet.run/pricing))

### Included per month

- Azure Queue Storage: None included — every operation is billed. Class 1 operations are $0.004 per 10,000 on LRS in East US, which is $0.40 per million, matching Amazon SQS's standard rate exactly. ([source](https://prices.azure.com/api/retail/prices))
- Hatchet: 100,000 task runs included free, then $10 per million. The cleanest per-unit rate in this category — Hatchet counts task runs where Cloudflare counts 64 KB operations and Inngest counts steps. ([source](https://hatchet.run/pricing))

### Message retention

- Azure Queue Storage: Messages in the queue are billed as stored data at $0.045 per GB-month on LRS, rather than granted as a retention window. Azure charges for depth, not for time. ([source](https://prices.azure.com/api/retail/prices))
- Hatchet: 3 days on the Team plan, stated alongside a 500 requests-per-second throughput ceiling. ([source](https://hatchet.run/pricing))

### SOC 2

- Azure Queue Storage: Listed among Azure's compliance offerings (SOC 1, SOC 2, SOC 3) on Microsoft's own compliance documentation — a platform-wide list, not scoped to this specific service. ([source](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/compliance/))
- Hatchet: SOC 2 Type II compliant; reports available through the Hatchet Trust Center. ([source](https://docs.hatchet.run/v1/security))

### HIPAA

- Azure Queue Storage: Listed among Azure's compliance offerings (HIPAA) on Microsoft's own compliance documentation — a platform-wide list, not scoped to this specific service. ([source](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/compliance/))
- Hatchet: HIPAA compliant per the security docs; the Scale plan ($1,000/mo) lists audit logs and HIPAA. ([source](https://docs.hatchet.run/v1/security))

## Which should you choose?

Pick Azure Queue Storage if Azure-resident systems that want a queue billed like storage — operations plus depth, no plan to choose and no capacity to provision.

Pick Hatchet if Task workloads that want a countable unit — 100,000 runs free and $10 per million is the least ambiguous pricing in this category.

Consider something else: Azure Queue Storage — Queued messages are billed as stored data, so a backlog costs money by the gigabyte-month, and there is no free allowance at all where SQS gives a million requests a month.

Consider something else: Hatchet — The jump from free to the first paid tier is $500 a month, which buys retention and throughput rather than volume, so a small production workload pays a lot for features it may not need.

## Documented by only one

- Free tier: Hatchet: Yes
- Entry paid plan: Hatchet: $500/month for Team, which adds users, tenants, retention and throughput on top of usage. Scale is $1,000/month.
- Regions: Hatchet: 3 live AWS regions (Oregon, N. Virginia, Ireland) plus Sydney in private beta; control plane in aws-us-west-2.
- Maximum message size: Azure Queue Storage: 64 KB per message. A queue may hold millions of messages, bounded only by the storage account's capacity rather than a queue-level ceiling.
- Maximum delay: Azure Queue Storage: Time-to-live defaults to seven days and can be set to any positive number, or to -1 for a message that never expires — the only queue here with an unbounded option.
- Concurrency: Hatchet: 500 requests per second of throughput on Team; higher tiers are not published as a number.
- ISO 27001: Azure Queue Storage: Listed among Azure's compliance offerings (ISO 27001) on Microsoft's own compliance documentation — a platform-wide list, not scoped to this specific service.
- GDPR / data residency: Hatchet: GDPR compliant per the security docs; EU data plane available in aws-eu-west-1 (Ireland).
- PCI DSS: Azure Queue Storage: Listed among Azure's compliance offerings (PCI DSS) on Microsoft's own compliance documentation — a platform-wide list, not scoped to this specific service.
- Encryption at rest: Hatchet: Data stored in Hatchet Cloud is encrypted at rest; API and worker traffic encrypted with TLS in transit.
- Role-based access control: Hatchet: Hierarchical tenant roles OWNER, ADMIN, MEMBER, VIEWER plus organization roles; payload visibility can be restricted per member.
- Dedicated infrastructure: Hatchet: Bring-your-own-cloud and self-host support on the Enterprise plan (contact sales).

## Questions this comparison answers

**Should I choose Azure Queue Storage or Hatchet?**

Pick Azure Queue Storage if Azure-resident systems that want a queue billed like storage — operations plus depth, no plan to choose and no capacity to provision.
Pick Hatchet if Task workloads that want a countable unit — 100,000 runs free and $10 per million is the least ambiguous pricing in this category.