head to head · open source
Trigger vs hcom
Trigger has 16,712 GitHub stars, 1,524 forks, 342 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. hcom has 627 stars, 104 forks, 38 open issues and last shipped 15 days ago. Trigger leads on adoption by 2,565% (16,712 vs 627 stars). Trigger is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0; hcom is written in Rust under MIT. Trigger has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, hcom 17%. Trigger was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 3 topic tags (ai, ai-agents, automation), 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.
← all 20902 open source comparisons
Side by side
| Trigger | hcom | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 17K | ★ 627 |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-11-03 | 2026-10-21 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.5K | ⑂ 104 |
| 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 hcom if
- You want the hcom feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You evaluated both and hcom 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 hcom
hcom Hook your coding agents together hcom is a CLI that coding agents use to message, watch, and spawn each other across terminals. Works with Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode, Kilo Code, Pi, Oh My Pi, Antigravity, Cursor, Kimi and Copilot in any combination, without changing how you use them. Use it to coordinate pipelines, run different AI CLIs as each other's subagents, or just instead of copy paste. Single Rust binary, no background services. Start an agent with hcom in front, then prompt normally. Install Other install options Quickstart Terminal 1: Terminal 2: Prompt: ask the other agent their favorite cake…
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 Trigger or hcom more popular?
Trigger has 16,712 GitHub stars and hcom has 627. Trigger has the larger community by that measure.
Are Trigger and hcom free?
Both are open source. Trigger is licensed under Apache-2.0 and hcom under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Trigger and hcom?
Trigger is written in TypeScript and hcom in Rust. 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 hcom?
Choose Trigger if you want the larger community (16,712 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose hcom if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.