Inngest vs Kestra
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted automation & workflows options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Kestra
Declarative orchestration and scheduling platform
| Feature | Inngest | Kestra |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 90 · Excellent | 97 · Excellent |
| Category | Automation & Workflows | Automation & Workflows |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Language | Go | Java |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Hard |
| Min. RAM | 512 MB | 1,024 MB |
| Deployment | docker, binary | docker, kubernetes |
| GitHub stars | ★ 5,879 | ★ 28,316 |
| First released | 2021 | 2021 |
| Replaces | Zapier, AWS Step Functions | Zapier, Make |
What are Inngest and Kestra?
Inngest
Inngest is an open-source platform for building event-driven workflows and reliable background jobs. It provides durable step functions, automatic retries and a local development server, and the execution engine can be self-hosted.
- Event-driven background jobs
- Durable step functions
- Local development server
- Self-hostable execution engine
Kestra
Kestra is an event-driven orchestration platform for building and scheduling data and automation workflows declared in YAML. It targets data engineers and platform teams. It is deployed via Docker.
- Declarative YAML workflows
- Event-driven and scheduled runs
- Rich plugin ecosystem
- Built-in UI and API
Inngest vs Kestra: key differences
Inngest is written in Go, while Kestra is built with Java. Inngest is the lighter option, starting around 512 MB of RAM against 1,024 MB for Kestra. Kestra has the considerably larger community, at 28,316 GitHub stars versus 5,879.
Why pick each one
Choose Inngest if…
- Good developer experience
- Reliable step execution
Watch out for
- Some features tied to Inngest Cloud
Choose Kestra if…
- Strong for data orchestration
- Scalable architecture
- Open-source license
Watch out for
- Steeper learning curve
- Heavier resource needs
Frequently asked questions
Is Inngest or Kestra better?
Neither is universally better. Kestra has the larger community, while Inngest is simpler to set up (medium difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Inngest and Kestra free and open-source?
Yes. Inngest is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Kestra under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Inngest and Kestra with Docker?
Inngest: yes. Kestra: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Inngest or Kestra?
Inngest has the smaller minimum footprint at 512 MB of RAM, compared to about 1,024 MB for Kestra. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.