Cadence vs Inngest
Cadence
cadenceworkflow.io
Inngest
inngest.comSide by side
| Figure | Cadence | Inngest |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | $99/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | Yes |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| Windows | — | Yes |
| macOS | — | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 1 | 4 |
| Spec score · Process Orchestration Software | 8.0 (#9) | 9.1 (#3) |
| Spec score · Workflow Orchestration Software | 8.0 (#15) | 9.0 (#4) |
| Deployment | Deployment options include embedded SQLite, Docker Compose, and Kubernetes with Helm; the page also lists a managed Uber cluster for Uber internal teams. | Inngest functions can run wherever an app is hosted, with platform guides for Vercel, Netlify, Cloudflare Pages, Render, and DigitalOcean. |
| Founded | 2017 | 2022 |
| Security | TLS is configurable on backing service connections, and SDK connections to the frontend support mutual TLS. | Inngest states it is SOC 2 Type II compliant and offers a signed DPA to customers on paid plans. |
| What it does | Cadence is an open-source workflow engine for building fault-tolerant, stateful distributed applications. | Inngest runs durable, observable workflows and agents in existing application code, retrying failed steps and preserving their results. |
Plans
In their own words
Cadence
Cadence has no write-up on Specifiction yet; its figures are above.
Inngest
Inngest runs asynchronous code as durable functions for event-driven workflows, background jobs, and agents. Its execution steps handle retries, retain state, and recover from failures; traces show activity from trigger to completion. Flow controls manage concurrency and fairness when users compete for resources. Developers can use open-source SDKs for TypeScript, Python, and Go, or the REST API. Functions can run wherever an app is hosted, with deployment guides for services including Vercel, Netlify, Cloudflare Pages, Render, and DigitalOcean. Inngest also describes isolated sandboxes for testing changes and tools for scoring and comparing variants on production traffic. The Free plan includes 5 seats, 50k executions, 500k events ingested, and 24-hour trace history. Execution pauses when the free quota is reached until the account upgrades. Pro starts at $99/mo. Inngest states that it is SOC 2 Type II compliant, and that its US-based databases are encrypted at rest and application traffic uses TLS/SSL in transit.