Inngest vs Skyvern
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted automation & workflows options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | Inngest | Skyvern |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 90 · Excellent | 96 · Excellent |
| Category | Automation & Workflows | Automation & Workflows |
| License | Apache-2.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Language | Go | Python |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 512 MB | 4,096 MB |
| Deployment | docker, binary | docker |
| GitHub stars | ★ 5,879 | ★ 23,058 |
| First released | 2021 | 2024 |
| Replaces | Zapier, AWS Step Functions | UiPath, Zapier |
What are Inngest and Skyvern?
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
Skyvern
Skyvern automates browser-based workflows by combining large language models with computer vision, allowing it to operate on websites it has never seen before. It runs as a self-hosted service with an API.
- LLM-driven browser automation
- Works on unseen sites
- Vision-based interaction
- Workflow API
Inngest vs Skyvern: key differences
Inngest is written in Go, while Skyvern is built with Python. Licensing differs — Apache-2.0 for Inngest versus AGPL-3.0 for Skyvern. Inngest is the lighter option, starting around 512 MB of RAM against 4,096 MB for Skyvern. Inngest is the more established project (first released 2021), while Skyvern arrived in 2024. Skyvern has the considerably larger community, at 23,058 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 Skyvern if…
- Handles unseen websites
- Vision-based automation
- API-first design
Watch out for
- LLM costs add up
- Postgres required
Frequently asked questions
Is Inngest or Skyvern better?
Neither is universally better. Skyvern has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Inngest and Skyvern free and open-source?
Yes. Inngest is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Skyvern under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Inngest and Skyvern with Docker?
Inngest: yes. Skyvern: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Inngest or Skyvern?
Inngest has the smaller minimum footprint at 512 MB of RAM, compared to about 4,096 MB for Skyvern. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.