Trigger.dev

YES

Replaceable in one session with an AI coding agent.

Background jobs written as TypeScript with no timeout: long-running tasks, retries and scheduling, with a dashboard showing every run — and an open-source version.

Promptfree, for everyone, and the only version there is

Self-host it, or run a worker on a small server.

THE HONEST OPTION
- Trigger.dev is open source; self-hosting removes the fee and keeps the dashboard

IF YOU WANT SOMETHING SMALLER

STACK
- A Node worker on a $5 server, Postgres for the queue

WHY A SERVER RATHER THAN SERVERLESS
- Serverless timeouts are the whole problem this category solves
- One long-lived process removes it entirely, at the cost of you keeping it alive

THE QUEUE
- SELECT FOR UPDATE SKIP LOCKED to claim work, with a visibility timeout so a crashed worker's job returns
- A run row written before the first step; steps appended as they complete

KEEPING IT ALIVE
- systemd with restart on failure, plus a heartbeat to an external monitor
- A dead worker is silent, which is the failure mode to design against

Include the claim query, the visibility timeout and the heartbeat.

What you lose

Execution without the timeout limits serverless platforms impose, which is the reason people reach for it
A run dashboard with step-level detail
A hosted instance rather than a worker you keep alive

If you would rather not build

A Postgres queue and one worker, which is often enough

The escape hatch

open source · no votes, no paid placement

Trigger.dev

The product itself, self-hostable with the same dashboard.

triggerdotdev/trigger.devfree · open source

BullMQ

A mature Redis-backed queue with retries and scheduling.

taskforcesh/bullmqfree · open source

Why this verdict

our own opinion · changed only by a person

76/100

Verdict yes at 76. A long-lived worker on a cheap server removes the timeout problem entirely; the heartbeat is what stops a dead worker going unnoticed.

History

tracked since 10 Aug 2026 · nothing is ever overwritten

Interest · last 30 days

Nothing recorded yet. This chart fills in once the page has visitors, votes or prompt copies — it will not draw a flat line to look busy.

Questions about Trigger.dev

answered from the record above

Is Trigger.dev free?

No — the plan we track is $20 a month. Hobby is free; paid plans start around $20/month billed monthly plus compute.

Can you replace Trigger.dev by building your own?

YES. Replaceable in one session with an AI coding agent. Replacement score 76 out of 100, build time one session. Read what you lose before you decide.

How much does Trigger.dev cost?

$20 a month on Pro — $240 a year. Recorded 10 Aug 2026.

What do you lose by replacing Trigger.dev?

Execution without the timeout limits serverless platforms impose, which is the reason people reach for it; A run dashboard with step-level detail; A hosted instance rather than a worker you keep alive. If any of those carry weight for you, keep paying.

Is there an open-source alternative to Trigger.dev?

Yes: Trigger.dev, BullMQ. The prompt on this page is for when you want it your way instead.

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