head to head · open source
Trigger vs atom
Trigger has 16,706 GitHub stars, 1,522 forks, 342 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. atom has 911 stars, 93 forks, 2 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Trigger leads on adoption by 1,734% (16,706 vs 911 stars). Trigger is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0; atom is written in Python under AGPL-3.0. Trigger has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, atom 10%. atom was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (ai, scheduler), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| Trigger | atom | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 17K | ★ 911 |
| License | Apache-2.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Python |
| Last push | 2026-11-03 | 2026-11-04 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.5K | ⑂ 93 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Trigger if
- You weight community size — 17K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick atom if
- You want the atom feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and atom fits your workflow better
About Trigger
Build and deploy fully‑managed AI agents and workflows Website Docs Issues Example projects Feature requests Public roadmap Self hosting About Trigger.dev Trigger.dev is the open source platform for building AI workflows in TypeScript. Long running tasks with retries, queues, observability, and elastic scaling. The platform designed for building AI agents Build AI agents using all the frameworks, services and LLMs you're used to, deploy them to Trigger.dev and get durable, long running tasks with retries, queues, observability, and elastic scaling out of the box. Long running without timeouts : Execute your…
read the full Trigger overview →
About atom
ATOM Platform The governed agent platform — autonomy, earned. 88% of AI agent pilots never reach production. Atom is built for the other path. Industry figure (Turion 2026). Atom makes no claims about its own deployments. What is Atom? Atom is an open source, self hosted AI agent workforce — a team of specialty agents (sales, support, finance, engineering) that your people delegate to in plain language. Where other platforms sell agent capability , Atom sells agent accountability : autonomy that is earned through verified outcomes, executed inside a deterministic safety net, on your hardware. Agents that earn…
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Frequently asked questions
Is Trigger or atom more popular?
Trigger has 16,706 GitHub stars and atom has 911. Trigger has the larger community by that measure.
Are Trigger and atom free?
Both are open source. Trigger is licensed under Apache-2.0 and atom under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Trigger and atom?
Trigger is written in TypeScript and atom in Python. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Trigger or atom?
Choose Trigger if you want the larger community (16,706 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose atom if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.