Apache OpenWhisk vs Trigger.dev
Apache OpenWhisk
openwhisk.apache.orgTrigger.dev
trigger.devSide by side
| Figure | Apache OpenWhisk | Trigger.dev |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | — | $10/mo |
| Free plan | — | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | — | Yes |
| Windows | Yes | — |
| macOS | Yes | — |
| Linux | Yes | — |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 0 | 4 |
| Spec score · Serverless Platforms | 7.9 (#8) | 7.6 (#14) |
| Integrations | Packages include integrations for Kafka, Cloudant, push notifications, Slack, RSS feeds, GitHub, JIRA, and custom data services. | The product page lists GitHub and Vercel integrations; the home page also shows compatibility with frameworks and platforms including Next.js, AWS, Google Cloud, Azure, Netlify, Cloudflare, and SvelteKit. |
| Support | The developer mailing list is for project design and development, not technical support; the project points users to documentation and community channels for help. | Free and paid Hobby include community support, Pro includes dedicated Slack support, and Enterprise includes priority support. |
| What it does | Apache OpenWhisk is an open-source, distributed serverless platform that runs functions in response to events at any scale. | Trigger.dev is an open source platform for building AI agents and workflows in TypeScript, with long-running tasks, retries, queues, observability, and elastic scaling. |
Plans
In their own words
Apache OpenWhisk
Apache OpenWhisk has no write-up on Specifiction yet; its figures are above.
Trigger.dev
Trigger.dev is an open-source platform for building AI agents and TypeScript workflows through web, API, or self-hosted deployment. Its managed tasks have no timeout, and the pricing FAQ says they can run as long as needed. Agent workflows support durable chat, tool calls, streamed responses, and human approval gates that pause and resume runs. Reliability features include cron schedules, retries, checkpointing, queues, concurrency controls, and task versioning. Run pages show live traces, logs, and debugging details; LLM observability records model, provider, token, cost, and latency information. Tasks can use Python scripts and libraries, while build extensions add dependencies, system packages, browser tools, and FFmpeg. Integrations include GitHub and Vercel, with compatibility shown for Next.js, AWS, Google Cloud, Azure, Netlify, Cloudflare, and SvelteKit. Free is free; Hobby costs $10 a month, Pro $50 a month, and Enterprise has custom pricing. All plans limit API requests to 1,500 per minute, with higher paid limits available by request.