Inngest vs Kestra (2026): which should you pick?
As of Nov 12, 2026, Inngest and Kestra share a 2.4 GPA, both have a free plan and their prices can't be set side by side, so the choice depends on which features you need.
Checked Nov 12, 2026 · graded Nov 12, 2026 by ToolGPA
They get the same grade on all five counts.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
Inngest
Durable execution for background jobs, event-driven apps and agents
Which one is for you
Pick Inngest if
- Fits if you are a developer who needs reliable background jobs
- Works for a small team that can stay inside 50k executions
Look elsewhere if
- Skip it if you do not write code, as there is no drag-and-drop builder
- Tight if you stay free: 5 concurrent steps and 24 hours of traces
- Watch out: Pro and Business bill extra executions, steps, workers and span data
- Watch out: HIPAA is an add-on on Pro and Business, and sandboxes in open beta are billed per second
Pick Kestra if
- Fits if you are an engineer who wants to own the orchestrator
- Works for data teams already using dbt, Spark or Kafka
Look elsewhere if
- Skip it if you do not write YAML or run servers
- Tight if you need SSO, roles, audit logs or multi-tenancy, as those are Enterprise
- Watch out: no Cloud or Enterprise price is published
- Watch out: you run and upgrade the platform yourself
How we grade them
| 2.4GPAInngestFair | 2.4GPAKestraFair | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | CPro is $99 a month for 15 seats, which is about $20 a head for five people, near the middle of automation ($19). Extra executions cost $50 per 1M. | CThe open-source edition is $0 but needs your own servers, which is a C. Cloud and Enterprise prices are not published. |
| Free plan and trial | BFree plan with no card: 5 seats, 50k executions, 500k events a month and 24 hours of traces. One small project can live on it. | BFree to self-host under Apache 2.0, with unlimited flows and executions. You pay for the server. |
| Features | BDurable step functions, queues, events, observability and AI agent tooling. Nothing in the listing shows a gap in the core work. | BDeclarative workflows, code and no-code editors, event-driven scheduling and over 2,600 plugins. Nothing in the listing shows a gap in the core work. |
| Ease of use | DWorkflows are written in code with an SDK, so it needs a developer. | DFlows are YAML, and self-hosting means running and upgrading it yourself. |
| Platforms and integrations | BWeb service with open-source SDKs and a Datadog integration. No desktop or phone app. | BWeb interface with plugins for PostgreSQL, MySQL, Kafka, Terraform, dbt, Spark and Redis. No desktop or phone app. |
| Best for | background jobs written in code | workflows defined in YAML |
The GPA is the average of the five grades: an A is 4 points, an F is none. The full reasons are on each tool's page: Inngest and Kestra. How we grade
Where they differ
- Kestra is self-hostable, according to its own site.
- Inngest also covers AI agents.
At a glance
| Inngest | Kestra | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free plan | Free plan |
| Starts at | $99 per month (Pro), billing basis not stated | Not published |
| Free plan | 5 seats, 50k executions, 5 concurrent steps and 500k events a month, with 24 hours of trace history. No credit card required. | The open-source edition is free to self-host, with unlimited flows and executions. |
| Free trial | None listed | None listed |
| Web | ||
| Made by | Inngest Inc. | Kestra |
| Price read from | inngest.com | kestra.io |
| Checked | Nov 12, 2026 | Nov 12, 2026 |
Worth knowing
Inngest
- Workflows are written in code using an SDK; there is no drag-and-drop builder.
- Pro and Business prices are shown as a base with usage on top: extra executions, concurrent steps, workers and span data are billed beyond the included amounts.
- HIPAA support is an add-on on Pro and Business, and included only on Enterprise.
- Sandboxes are in open beta and are billed per second: $0.000011 for a vCPU and $0.000003 for 1 GB of memory.
Kestra
- No Cloud or Enterprise price is published; Cloud is by access request and Enterprise by contact with sales.
- SSO, role-based access, audit logs and multi-tenancy are Enterprise Edition features.
- Workflows are defined in YAML, so it assumes engineering skills.
- Self-hosting means running and upgrading the platform yourself.
Key features
Inngest
- Durable step functions
- Functions are split into steps that are retried and resumed on failure. A single run can last up to 30 days on Free, 90 on Pro and 366 on Business, including sleeps and waits.
- Queues and flow control
- Concurrency and queue depth are managed for you. Concurrent steps start at 5 on Free and 100 on Pro, with more sold in packs of 25 for $25.
- Events and webhooks
- Functions start from events sent from your app or other sources. Free allows 500k events a month and 256 KiB per event; paid plans allow 3 MiB.
- Observability
- Every function run is traced, with metrics and span data. Trace history is 24 hours on Free, 7 days on Pro, 14 days on Business and 90 days on Enterprise.
- AI agents and sandboxes
- Inngest has an AgentKit project and a sandbox product, in open beta, billed per second for vCPU and memory. Agent evaluation scores are metered by plan.
- Open source SDKs
- The server and SDKs for TypeScript, Python, Go and Kotlin are published on GitHub, and you can develop locally before moving to Cloud.
Kestra
- Declarative workflows
- Workflows, triggers and dependencies are written as YAML, versioned in Git and deployed through CI/CD.
- Code and no-code editors
- Flows can be written in code or built in a visual editor.
- Event-driven scheduling
- Flows run on schedules, on events or through the API, with retries, backfills and failure handling.
- 2,600+ plugins
- Plugins and scripts orchestrate SQL, Python, shell, APIs, Terraform, dbt and Spark in one workflow.
- AI features
- An MCP server for AI agents is in open source; an agentic AI copilot on any LLM is an Enterprise feature.
- Enterprise governance
- Enterprise adds SSO, LDAP and SCIM, role-based access, audit logs, multi-tenancy and secrets management.
Plans
Inngest
Free$0
5 seats, 50k executions, 5 concurrent steps, 3 workers and 500k events a month, with 24 hours of trace history.
Pro$99
per month and up, includes 1M executions
15 seats ($10 per extra), 100 concurrent steps, 20 workers, 5M+ events and 7 days of traces. Extra executions $50 per 1M.
Business$499
per month and up, includes 10M executions
30 seats ($10 per extra), 500 concurrent steps, 100 workers, 50M+ events and 14 days of traces. Extra executions $25 per 1M.
EnterpriseCustom
Custom limits, 90 days of trace history, SAML, RBAC, audit trails, HIPAA included and a dedicated Slack channel.
Kestra
Open Source$0
Self-hosted under Apache 2.0. Unlimited flows and executions, queue on PostgreSQL or MySQL.
CloudCustom
Managed by Kestra with scaling and enterprise plugins; priced by usage, access by request.
Enterprise EditionCustom
Annual subscription per instance, with SSO, RBAC, audit logs, worker groups and SLA support.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, Inngest or Kestra?
As of Nov 12, 2026, Inngest starts at $99 per month (Pro), billing basis not stated, and Kestra publishes no starting price.
Which has a free plan, Inngest or Kestra?
As of Nov 12, 2026, both Inngest and Kestra have a free plan.
More comparisons
How this page was made
- The verdict at the top follows a fixed rule. When both tools are in the same category and either is in our top three for it, the verdict follows that ranking: the higher-placed tool is our pick. The top three weigh who each tool suits as well as its grades, so a pick can go against the GPA. Otherwise the page does not pick one and says which grades higher: the higher GPA first; on a tie, the one with a free plan, then the one that starts cheaper in dollars a month, counted the same way for both; if they are still level, what the choice depends on.
- The grades are our own, from each tool’s review or report card. The GPA is their average.
- Prices, plans and platforms come from each tool’s listing. The table above says where each price was read and when.
- The differences and the answers to the questions are worked out from those listings.