Hatchet vs Trigger.dev
A comparison of Hatchet and Trigger.dev built from values read directly from each provider's own documentation, with the source recorded against every figure.
The short answer
- 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.
- 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.
5 sourced criteria separate them:
- Entry paid plan
- Hatchet: $500/month for Team, which adds users, tenants, retention and throughput on top of usage. Scale is $1,000/month.
- Trigger.dev: $10/month for Hobby, which includes $10 of credits; Pro is $50/month including $50 of credits.
- Pricing model
- Hatchet: Usage-first: every plan is "free + usage" or "$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.
- 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.
- Included per month
- 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.
- 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.
- Message retention
- Hatchet: 3 days on the Team plan, stated alongside a 500 requests-per-second throughput ceiling.
- 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.
- Concurrency
- Hatchet: 500 requests per second of throughput on Team; higher tiers are not published as a number.
- Trigger.dev: 20 concurrent runs on the free plan, 50 on Hobby, and more on Pro at $10 a month per additional 50.
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.
Hatchet 0
Trigger.dev 0
At a glance.
| Criterion | Hatchet | Trigger.dev |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | ||
| Free tier | Yes | Yes |
| Entry paid plan | $500/month for Team, which adds users, tenants, retention and throughput on top of usage. Scale is $1,000/month. | $10/month for Hobby, which includes $10 of credits; Pro is $50/month including $50 of credits. |
| Pricing model | Usage-first: every plan is "free + usage" or "$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. | 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 month | 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. | Credits rather than a message or execution count: $5 a month free, $10 included on Hobby and $50 on Pro, spent against compute. |
| Message retention | 3 days on the Team plan, stated alongside a 500 requests-per-second throughput ceiling. | Log retention of 1 day on the free plan, 7 days on Hobby and 30 days on Pro, with the query period matching. |
| Concurrency | 500 requests per second of throughput on Team; higher tiers are not published as a number. | 20 concurrent runs on the free plan, 50 on Hobby, and more on Pro at $10 a month per additional 50. |
Where they differ.
Entry paid plan
- Hatchet
- $500/month for Team, which adds users, tenants, retention and throughput on top of usage. Scale is $1,000/month.
- Trigger.dev
- $10/month for Hobby, which includes $10 of credits; Pro is $50/month including $50 of credits.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Pricing — Hatchet ↗
“Team $500 /mo + usage Everything in Developer, plus: 10 users & 5 tenants 3-day retention 500 RPS throughput [...] Scale $1,000 /mo + usage”
Read 2026-09-06 · official pricing
- Pricing — Trigger.dev ↗
“Hobby $10/month [...] $10 / month credits included [...] Pro $50/month [...] $50 / month credits included”
Read 2026-09-06 · official pricing
Pricing model
- Hatchet
- Usage-first: every plan is "free + usage" or "$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.
- 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) →Sources ↓
- Pricing — Hatchet ↗
“Developer Free + usage $10 per 1M task runs [...] Team $500 /mo + usage [...] SSO Audit logging Bring your own cloud Self-host support Custom SLAs”
Read 2026-09-06 · official pricing
- 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
Included per month
- 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.
- 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) →Sources ↓
- Pricing — Hatchet ↗
“Developer Free + usage $10 per 1M task runs First 100,000 runs included”
Read 2026-09-06 · official pricing
- Pricing — Trigger.dev ↗
“$5 / month free credits [...] $10 / month credits included [...] $50 / month credits included”
Read 2026-09-06 · official pricing
Message retention
3 days on the Team plan, stated alongside a 500 requests-per-second throughput ceiling.
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) →Sources ↓
- Pricing — Hatchet ↗
“10 users & 5 tenants 3-day retention 500 RPS throughput”
Read 2026-09-06 · official pricing
- Pricing — Trigger.dev ↗
“1 day log retention 1 day query period [...] 7 day log retention 7 days query period [...] 30 day log retention”
Read 2026-09-06 · official pricing
Concurrency
500 requests per second of throughput on Team; higher tiers are not published as a number.
20 concurrent runs on the free plan, 50 on Hobby, and more on Pro at $10 a month per additional 50.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Pricing — Hatchet ↗
“3-day retention 500 RPS throughput See all features”
Read 2026-09-06 · official pricing
- Pricing — Trigger.dev ↗
“20 concurrent runs [...] 50 concurrent runs [...] Then $10/month per 50”
Read 2026-09-06 · official pricing
When these numbers change, hear about it. Sources are re-checked monthly; a repricing goes out as a short note.
Which should you choose?
Choose 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.
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…
- 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.
- 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.
Questions this comparison answers.
Entry paid plan: Hatchet or Trigger.dev?
Hatchet: $500/month for Team, which adds users, tenants, retention and throughput on top of usage. Scale is $1,000/month.
Trigger.dev: $10/month for Hobby, which includes $10 of credits; Pro is $50/month including $50 of credits.
Should I choose Hatchet or Trigger.dev?
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.
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.