Hatchet vs Restate
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted automation & workflows options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | Hatchet | Restate |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 92 · Excellent | 89 · Excellent |
| Category | Automation & Workflows | Automation & Workflows |
| License | MIT | BUSL-1.1 |
| Language | Go | Rust |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 1,024 MB | 512 MB |
| Deployment | docker, kubernetes | docker, binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 7,993 | ★ 4,468 |
| First released | 2024 | 2023 |
| Replaces | Celery, Temporal | Temporal |
What are Hatchet and Restate?
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
Restate
Restate is a system for building resilient applications using durable execution, ensuring workflows, handlers, and communication survive failures. It runs as a single self-hostable binary.
- Durable execution runtime
- Single-binary deployment
- Exactly-once handlers
- Built-in observability
Hatchet vs Restate: key differences
Hatchet is written in Go, while Restate is built with Rust. Licensing differs — MIT for Hatchet versus BUSL-1.1 for Restate. Restate is the lighter option, starting around 512 MB of RAM against 1,024 MB for Hatchet.
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 Restate if…
- Released under the BUSL-1.1 license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Active community (4.5k GitHub stars)
- Written in Rust
Frequently asked questions
Is Hatchet or Restate 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 Restate free and open-source?
Yes. Hatchet is licensed under MIT and Restate under BUSL-1.1. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Hatchet and Restate with Docker?
Hatchet: yes. Restate: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Hatchet or Restate?
Restate has the smaller minimum footprint at 512 MB of RAM, compared to about 1,024 MB for Hatchet. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.