Skip to content
inetGeek

Google Cloud Pub/Sub vs Trigger.dev

SEPT 2026 audit

A comparison of Google Cloud Pub/Sub and Trigger.dev built from values read directly from each provider's own documentation, with the source recorded against every figure.

Reviewed by Palash BagchiUpdated 22 criteria comparedSources last checked

The short answer

Choose Google Cloud Pub/Sub if…

Google Cloud systems that want messaging without capacity planning — throughput is metered rather than provisioned, and 10 GiB a month costs nothing.

Editorial · Palash Bagchi · approved

Choose Trigger.dev if…

Teams that want background jobs written as normal code with the bill expressed as compute credits rather than a per-message meter.

Editorial · Palash Bagchi · approved

Consider something else if…

  • Google Cloud Pub/Sub: Throughput counts bytes both in and out, so a message read once is billed twice, and retention is a storage charge rather than an included window — the headline $40 per TiB is not the whole bill.
  • Trigger.dev: Concurrency is the axis that forces an upgrade — 20 simultaneous runs on free, 50 on Hobby, then $10 a month per additional 50.

Neither quite fits? Every other option, ranked by iScore: Google Cloud Pub/Sub alternatives · Trigger.dev alternatives

7 sourced criteria separate them — see where, with sources, below.

Visit Google Cloud Pub/Sub documentationVisit Trigger.dev documentation

No affiliate links, sponsored placements or paid rankings appear on this site. Ordering follows the sourced data and the stated criteria.

01.

At a glance.

CriterionGoogle Cloud Pub/SubTrigger.dev
Pricing
Free tierYesYes
Kind of free offerFree tierFree tier
What the free plan includesThe first 10 GiB of Message Delivery Basic throughput per billing account each calendar month.$5 of credit each month with 20 concurrent runs and one day of log retention.
Pricing modelThree meters: throughput at $40 per TiB counting both publish and subscribe, storage at $0.27 per GiB-month for anything retained beyond a day, and data transfer when throughput crosses a zone or region boundary. Pub/Sub Lite is a separate product priced on reserved capacity rather than usage.A monthly plan fee that is also a credit balance — the fee buys compute rather than sitting on top of it — with concurrency, preview branches, dashboards and schedules each priced as separate add-ons beyond the plan's allowance.
Queues
Included per month10 GiB of throughput free per billing account per calendar month, then $40 per TiB. Throughput counts bytes written to a topic plus bytes read from a subscription, so a message published once and read once is billed twice. BigQuery and Cloud Storage subscriptions are $50 per TiB and the 10 GiB does not apply to them; import topics run $50 or $80 per TiB by source.Credits rather than a message or execution count: $5 a month free, $10 included on Hobby and $50 on Pro, spent against compute.
Maximum message sizePub/Sub bills on bytes rather than message count; the pricing page states no per-message size ceiling and prices throughput and storage instead.3 MB per trigger payload (each batch item up to 3 MB on SDK 4.3.1+); task outputs up to 10 MB; payloads over 512 KB offloaded to object storage.
Message retentionRetention is configurable and charged rather than granted: $0.27 per GiB-month for messages a topic is configured to retain, for snapshots, and for a subscription's backlog older than one day. A subscription's default retention is 7 days.Log retention of 1 day on the free plan, 7 days on Hobby and 30 days on Pro, with the query period matching.
Compliance
SOC 2Covered under Google Cloud's core SOC 2 Type II reports, issued quarterly for Google Cloud and Google Workspace products generally.SOC 2 Type II compliant; latest report available on request for Enterprise customers.
HIPAAPub/Sub is listed as a Covered Product under Google Cloud's HIPAA Business Associate Agreement.Meets HIPAA Business Associate requirements; a signed BAA is a paid add-on for running PHI workloads on Trigger.dev Cloud.

Only criteria both providers publish appear here; a tinted cell marks a real difference. Criteria only one of them documents are listed below, and an absence there means we found no source — not that the feature is missing. How we source this.

The small bar above a value is inetGeek's own lean toward that side — computed from the same facts shown, never a number the provider published. See the picker below "The short answer" to weigh only the criteria you care about.

02.

Where they differ.

What the free plan includes

Google Cloud Pub/Sub
The first 10 GiB of Message Delivery Basic throughput per billing account each calendar month.
Trigger.dev
$5 of credit each month with 20 concurrent runs and one day of log retention.
Sources (2) →

Pricing model

Google Cloud Pub/Sub
Three meters: throughput at $40 per TiB counting both publish and subscribe, storage at $0.27 per GiB-month for anything retained beyond a day, and data transfer when throughput crosses a zone or region boundary. Pub/Sub Lite is a separate product priced on reserved capacity rather than usage.
Trigger.dev
A monthly plan fee that is also a credit balance — the fee buys compute rather than sitting on top of it — with concurrency, preview branches, dashboards and schedules each priced as separate add-ons beyond the plan's allowance.
Sources (2) →
  • Pricing — Google Cloud Pub/Sub ↗

    “Throughput costs for message publishing and delivery [...] Data transfer costs associated with throughput that crosses a Google Cloud zone or region boundary [...] Storage costs associated with retaining messages [...] Pub/Sub Lite throughput and storage charges, by contrast, are based on reserved capacity.”

    Read 2026-09-06 · official pricing · Report a correction

  • Pricing — Trigger.dev ↗

    “$10 / month credits included [...] Then $10/month per 50 [...] Then $20/month per seat [...] Then $10/month per branch [...] Then $10/month per 1,000”

    Read 2026-09-06 · official pricing · Report a correction

Included per month

Google Cloud Pub/Sub
10 GiB of throughput free per billing account per calendar month, then $40 per TiB. Throughput counts bytes written to a topic plus bytes read from a subscription, so a message published once and read once is billed twice. BigQuery and Cloud Storage subscriptions are $50 per TiB and the 10 GiB does not apply to them; import topics run $50 or $80 per TiB by source.
Trigger.dev
Credits rather than a message or execution count: $5 a month free, $10 included on Hobby and $50 on Pro, spent against compute.
Sources (2) →
  • Pricing — Google Cloud Pub/Sub ↗

    “the first 10 GiB of throughput [...] is free. After that, the price is $40 per TiB in all Google Cloud regions. [...] BigQuery subscriptions cost $50 per TiB [...] Import topics (for Cloud Storage, Azure Event Hubs, AWS MSK, or Confluent Cloud) cost $80 per TiB”

    Read 2026-09-06 · official pricing · Report a correction

  • Pricing — Trigger.dev ↗

    “$5 / month free credits [...] $10 / month credits included [...] $50 / month credits included”

    Read 2026-09-06 · official pricing · Report a correction

Maximum message size

Google Cloud Pub/Sub
Pub/Sub bills on bytes rather than message count; the pricing page states no per-message size ceiling and prices throughput and storage instead.
Trigger.dev
3 MB per trigger payload (each batch item up to 3 MB on SDK 4.3.1+); task outputs up to 10 MB; payloads over 512 KB offloaded to object storage.
Sources (2) →
  • Pricing — Google Cloud Pub/Sub ↗

    “Throughput is the total number of bytes written (publish throughput) to a Pub/Sub topic or read (subscribe throughput) from a subscription to a topic over an interval of time.”

    Read 2026-09-06 · official docs · Report a correction

  • Limits - Trigger.dev ↗

    “Single trigger payload Must not exceed 3MB Batch trigger payload Each item can be up to 3MB (SDK 4.3.1+). Prior: 1MB total combined Task outputs Must not exceed 10MB”

    Read 2026-09-13 · official docs · Report a correction

Message retention

Google Cloud Pub/Sub
Retention is configurable and charged rather than granted: $0.27 per GiB-month for messages a topic is configured to retain, for snapshots, and for a subscription's backlog older than one day. A subscription's default retention is 7 days.
Trigger.dev
Log retention of 1 day on the free plan, 7 days on Hobby and 30 days on Pro, with the query period matching.
Sources (2) →

SOC 2

Google Cloud Pub/Sub
Covered under Google Cloud's core SOC 2 Type II reports, issued quarterly for Google Cloud and Google Workspace products generally.
Trigger.dev
SOC 2 Type II compliant; latest report available on request for Enterprise customers.
Sources (2) →
  • SOC 2: compliance — Google Cloud ↗

    “Google Cloud regularly undergoes third-party audits for our products, systems, and infrastructure related to this standard. [...] The core Google Cloud and Google Workspace SOC 2 Type II reports are issued quarterly.”

    Read 2026-09-12 · official site · Report a correction

  • Security | Trigger.dev ↗

    “Yes, Trigger.dev is SOC 2 Type II compliant. Visit our Security Portal for more information. Our latest report is available upon request for our Enterprise customers.”

    Read 2026-09-13 · official site · Report a correction

HIPAA

Google Cloud Pub/Sub
Pub/Sub is listed as a Covered Product under Google Cloud's HIPAA Business Associate Agreement.
Trigger.dev
Meets HIPAA Business Associate requirements; a signed BAA is a paid add-on for running PHI workloads on Trigger.dev Cloud.
Sources (2) →
  • HIPAA Compliance on Google Cloud ↗

    “Covered Products [...] The Google Cloud BAA covers Google Cloud's entire infrastructure [...] and the following products: [...] Pub/Sub [...]”

    Read 2026-09-12 · official site · Report a correction

  • Security | Trigger.dev ↗

    “Yes. Trigger.dev meets HIPAA Business Associate requirements. To run tasks that process PHI on Trigger.dev Cloud you'll need a signed BAA with us, which is available as a paid add-on.”

    Read 2026-09-13 · official site · Report a correction

When these numbers change, hear about it. Sources are re-checked monthly; a repricing goes out as a short note.

Confirm by email; unsubscribe from any issue. Your address goes to Kit and nowhere else — what we do with it.

03.

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.

Entry paid planTrigger.dev: $10/month for Hobby, which includes $10 of credits; Pro is $50/month including $50 of credits.
RegionsTrigger.dev: Three AWS regions for running tasks: us-east-1 (US East, Virginia), us-west-2 (US West, Oregon) and eu-central-1 (Europe, Frankfurt). Changelog dated July 13, 2026; region set per project or per run on the dashboard Regions page.
Uptime SLAGoogle Cloud Pub/Sub: 99.95% or better for Pub/Sub. Pub/Sub Lite is 99.95% for regional topics and 99.5% for zonal topics. Published as an SLO.
Ingest price per GBGoogle Cloud Pub/Sub: $40 per TiB, which is $0.039 per GiB, for standard publish and subscribe throughput in every Google Cloud region.
ConcurrencyTrigger.dev: 20 concurrent runs on the free plan, 50 on Hobby, and more on Pro at $10 a month per additional 50.
Support on entry paid planTrigger.dev: Community support on the $5 and $10 plans; dedicated Slack support on Pro ($50/month); priority support on Enterprise.
ISO 27001Google Cloud Pub/Sub: The Google Cloud Services ISMS holds an accredited ISO/IEC 27001 certification, audited by an independent third party.Trigger.dev: not stated on its own page when read on 2026-09-22 — corrections welcome · every such claim about Trigger.dev.
GDPR / data residencyTrigger.dev: Stated GDPR compliant; DPA forms part of the Terms of Service automatically on sign-up.Google Cloud Pub/Sub: not stated on its own page when read on 2026-09-21 — corrections welcome · every such claim about Google Cloud Pub/Sub.
PCI DSSGoogle Cloud Pub/Sub: Pub/Sub is listed among the individual Google Cloud products certified against PCI DSS via annual third-party audit.Trigger.dev: not stated on its own page when read on 2026-09-22 — corrections welcome · every such claim about Trigger.dev.
Encryption at restTrigger.dev: Data encrypted at rest with AES-256 and in transit with HTTPS/TLS.Google Cloud Pub/Sub: not stated on its own page when read on 2026-09-21 — corrections welcome · every such claim about Google Cloud Pub/Sub.
Role-based access controlTrigger.dev: Role-based access control (RBAC) and SSO listed as Enterprise plan features.
Private networking / VPCTrigger.dev: AWS PrivateLink to resources in your own AWS VPC; a Pro and Enterprise feature enabled on request.Google Cloud Pub/Sub: not stated on its own page when read on 2026-09-21 — corrections welcome · every such claim about Google Cloud Pub/Sub.
Dedicated infrastructureTrigger.dev: Cloud is fully managed; the docs route teams with data residency, compliance or infrastructure-control requirements to self-hosting instead.
04.

Questions this comparison answers.

Should I choose Google Cloud Pub/Sub or Trigger.dev?

Pick Google Cloud Pub/Sub if Google Cloud systems that want messaging without capacity planning — throughput is metered rather than provisioned, and 10 GiB a month costs nothing.

Pick Trigger.dev if Teams that want background jobs written as normal code with the bill expressed as compute credits rather than a per-message meter.

Provider pages

Google Cloud Pub/SubGoogle Cloud's messaging service, billed per TiB of throughput with message storage charged separately by the GiB-month.Trigger.devBackground jobs platform billed as monthly credits against compute, with plan tiers set by concurrent runs.

Related comparisons

Amazon SQS vs Google Cloud Pub/SubAmazon SQS vs Trigger.devAzure Queue Storage vs Google Cloud Pub/SubCloudflare Queues vs Google Cloud Pub/SubCloudflare Queues vs Trigger.devGoogle Cloud Pub/Sub vs Upstash QStashGoogle Cloud Pub/Sub vs TemporalHatchet vs Trigger.dev

Comments

Every page here is sourced and dated.