Inngest vs Luigi
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted automation & workflows options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | Inngest | Luigi |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Read-the-docs project |
| Health score | 90 · Excellent | 90 · Excellent |
| Category | Automation & Workflows | Automation & Workflows |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Language | Go | Python |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 512 MB | 256 MB |
| Deployment | docker, binary | bare-metal, binary, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 5,879 | ★ 18,777 |
| First released | 2021 | 2012 |
| Replaces | Zapier, AWS Step Functions | AWS Step Functions |
What are Inngest and Luigi?
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
Luigi
Luigi is a Python package that helps build complex pipelines of batch jobs. It handles dependency resolution, workflow management, visualization and failure handling for long-running data tasks.
- Dependency-driven batch pipelines
- Central scheduler with web UI
- Built-in support for Hadoop and databases
- Simple Python task model
Inngest vs Luigi: key differences
Inngest is written in Go, while Luigi is built with Python. Luigi is the lighter option, starting around 256 MB of RAM against 512 MB for Inngest. Luigi is the more established project (first released 2012), while Inngest arrived in 2021. Luigi has the considerably larger community, at 18,777 GitHub stars versus 5,879. Inngest lists first-class Docker deployment; Luigi does not.
Why pick each one
Choose Inngest if…
- Good developer experience
- Reliable step execution
Watch out for
- Some features tied to Inngest Cloud
Choose Luigi if…
- Lightweight and easy to start
- Created and used by Spotify
Watch out for
- Less actively developed than newer tools
Frequently asked questions
Is Inngest or Luigi better?
Neither is universally better. Luigi has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Inngest and Luigi free and open-source?
Yes. Inngest is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Luigi under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Inngest and Luigi with Docker?
Inngest: yes. Luigi: check the project docs for container support.
Which is lighter on resources, Inngest or Luigi?
Luigi has the smaller minimum footprint at 256 MB of RAM, compared to about 512 MB for Inngest. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.