autobrr vs Trigger.dev
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted automation & workflows options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
autobrr
Automation tool for filtering and processing release feeds
VS
Trigger.dev
Open-source background jobs and workflows for code
| Feature | autobrr | Trigger.dev |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 87 · Excellent | 95 · Excellent |
| Category | Automation & Workflows | Automation & Workflows |
| License | GPL-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Language | Go | TypeScript |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 128 MB | 1,024 MB |
| Deployment | docker, binary | docker |
| GitHub stars | ★ 3,045 | ★ 16,376 |
| First released | 2021 | 2022 |
| Replaces | Zapier | Zapier |
What are autobrr and Trigger.dev?
autobrr
autobrr is an open-source automation tool that monitors IRC and RSS release feeds, applies filters, and triggers actions such as sending releases to download clients. It is fully self-hosted.
- IRC and RSS monitoring
- Powerful filtering rules
- Download client actions
- Web interface
Trigger.dev
Trigger.dev is an open-source platform for writing long-running background jobs and workflows directly in code with no timeouts. It targets developers building reliable async tasks. It is deployed via Docker.
- Background jobs written in code
- No execution timeouts
- Built-in retries and observability
- Scheduling and webhooks
autobrr vs Trigger.dev: key differences
Autobrr is written in Go, while Trigger.dev is built with TypeScript. Licensing differs — GPL-2.0 for autobrr versus Apache-2.0 for Trigger.dev. Autobrr is the lighter option, starting around 128 MB of RAM against 1,024 MB for Trigger.dev. Trigger.dev has the considerably larger community, at 16,376 GitHub stars versus 3,045.
Why pick each one
Choose autobrr if…
- Released under the GPL-2.0 license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Active community (3k GitHub stars)
- Written in Go
Choose Trigger.dev if…
- Code-first and developer friendly
- Reliable long-running tasks
- Good observability
Watch out for
- Aimed at developers only
- Requires Postgres and Redis
Frequently asked questions
Is autobrr or Trigger.dev better?
Neither is universally better. Trigger.dev has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are autobrr and Trigger.dev free and open-source?
Yes. autobrr is licensed under GPL-2.0 and Trigger.dev under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run autobrr and Trigger.dev with Docker?
autobrr: yes. Trigger.dev: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, autobrr or Trigger.dev?
autobrr has the smaller minimum footprint at 128 MB of RAM, compared to about 1,024 MB for Trigger.dev. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.