head to head · open source
Temporal vs Inngest
Temporal has 24,173 GitHub stars, 2,072 forks, 956 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Inngest has 6,017 stars, 387 forks, 234 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Temporal leads on adoption by 302% (24,173 vs 6,017 stars). Temporal is written in Go under MIT; Inngest is written in Go under a custom or non-standard licence. Temporal has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, Inngest 6%. Temporal was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
← all 20902 open source comparisons
Side by side
| Temporal | Inngest | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 24K | ★ 6.0K |
| License | MIT | Custom / other |
| Written in | Go | Go |
| Last push | 2026-11-04 | 2026-11-04 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.1K | ⑂ 387 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Temporal if
- You weight community size — 24K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Inngest if
- You want the Inngest feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and Inngest fits your workflow better
About Temporal
Temporal—durable execution platform Introduction • Getting Started • Contributing • Temporal Docs • Temporal 101 Introduction Temporal is a durable execution platform that enables developers to build scalable applications without sacrificing productivity or reliability. The Temporal server executes units of application logic called Workflows in a resilient manner that automatically handles intermittent failures, and retries failed operations. Temporal is a mature technology that originated as a fork of Uber's Cadence. It is developed by Temporal Technologies, a startup by the creators of…
read the full Temporal overview →
About Inngest
Inngest's durable functions replace queues, state management, and scheduling to enable any developer to write reliable step functions faster without touching infrastructure. 1. Write durable functions using any of our language SDKs 2. Run the Inngest Dev Server for a complete local development experience, with production parity. 3. Deploy your functions to your own infrastructure 4. Sync your application's functions with the Inngest Platform or a self hosted Inngest server. 5. Inngest invokes your functions securely via HTTPS whenever triggering events are received. An example durable function Inngest Functions…
read the full Inngest overview →
More in Infrastructure & Operations
Related comparisons
More Orchestration & Scheduling projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the Orchestration & Scheduling field.
Frequently asked questions
Is Temporal or Inngest more popular?
Temporal has 24,173 GitHub stars and Inngest has 6,017. Temporal has the larger community by that measure.
Are Temporal and Inngest free?
Both are open source. Temporal is licensed under MIT, and Inngest has no licence declared in this registry. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Temporal and Inngest?
Temporal is written in Go and Inngest in Go. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Temporal or Inngest?
Choose Temporal if you want the larger community (24,173 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose Inngest if its feature set, stack or Custom / other licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.