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BullMQ vs pg-boss

BullMQ

bullmq.io

pg-boss

pgboss.io

Side by side

FigureBullMQpg-boss
Price from$116.25/moFree
Free plan—Yes
Free trial——
Open source——
Web—Yes
Linux—Yes
API—Yes
Self-hostedYesYes
Plans published31
Spec score · Task Queue Software7.6 (#25)8.2 (#8)

Plans

BullMQ

  • Standard$1,395 a year
  • EmbeddedPriced on request
  • EnterprisePriced on request

BullMQ pricing →

pg-boss

  • pg-bossFree

pg-boss pricing →

In their own words

BullMQ

BullMQ has no write-up on Specifiction yet; its figures are above.

Visit bullmq.io

pg-boss

pg-boss is a Node.js job queue that uses PostgreSQL for background processing and asynchronous job execution. It can add a job in the same database transaction as the data change it belongs to, so the job is created only when that transaction commits. Workers use PostgreSQL SKIP LOCKED to claim jobs without blocking one another, with atomic commit safety; delivery is at least once, so a handler may run more than once. Queue controls include priorities, rate limits, debouncing, concurrency policies, retries with exponential backoff, and dead-letter queues. Scheduling covers cron and RRULE, deferral, and dependency-based workflows. Transaction adapters are available for Knex, Kysely, Drizzle, and Prisma. Supported databases include PostgreSQL, CockroachDB, YugabyteDB, Citus, and PGlite. A dashboard can monitor and manage jobs, queues, and schedules, while a JSON HTTP API proxy serves non-Node runtimes. It is MIT-licensed and self-hosted, with a listed price of free. It requires Node 22.12 or higher or Bun, plus PostgreSQL 13 or higher.

Visit pgboss.io