Hatchet vs Procrastinate
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted automation & workflows options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | Hatchet | Procrastinate |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Read-the-docs project |
| Health score | 92 · Excellent | 84 · Excellent |
| Category | Automation & Workflows | Automation & Workflows |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Language | Go | Python |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 1,024 MB | 256 MB |
| Deployment | docker, kubernetes | source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 7,993 | ★ 1,394 |
| First released | 2024 | 2019 |
| Replaces | Celery, Temporal | Celery |
What are Hatchet and Procrastinate?
Hatchet
Hatchet is a self-hostable task orchestration platform for running background jobs and workflows with durable execution, retries, and observability. It is backed by PostgreSQL and exposes a clean dashboard.
- Durable task execution
- PostgreSQL-backed queue
- Retries and timeouts
- Workflow dashboard
Procrastinate
Procrastinate is an open-source Python task queue that uses PostgreSQL as its backing store, with support for scheduling, retries and priorities. It is self-hosted within Python applications for background automation.
- Postgres-backed task queue
- Scheduling and retries
- No extra broker needed
- Python-native
Hatchet vs Procrastinate: key differences
Hatchet is written in Go, while Procrastinate is built with Python. Procrastinate is the lighter option, starting around 256 MB of RAM against 1,024 MB for Hatchet. Procrastinate is the more established project (first released 2019), while Hatchet arrived in 2024. Hatchet has the considerably larger community, at 7,993 GitHub stars versus 1,394. Hatchet lists first-class Docker deployment; Procrastinate does not.
Why pick each one
Choose Hatchet if…
- Released under the MIT license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Kubernetes-ready with Helm charts available
- Mature project with 8k GitHub stars
Choose Procrastinate if…
- Released under the MIT license
- Active community (1.4k GitHub stars)
- Written in Python
- Tiny footprint — runs in 256 MB RAM
Frequently asked questions
Is Hatchet or Procrastinate better?
Neither is universally better. Hatchet has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Hatchet and Procrastinate free and open-source?
Yes. Hatchet is licensed under MIT and Procrastinate under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Hatchet and Procrastinate with Docker?
Hatchet: yes. Procrastinate: check the project docs for container support.
Which is lighter on resources, Hatchet or Procrastinate?
Procrastinate has the smaller minimum footprint at 256 MB of RAM, compared to about 1,024 MB for Hatchet. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.