Dapr vs Google Cloud Workflows
Dapr
dapr.io
Google Cloud Workflows
cloud.google.comSide by side
| Figure | Dapr | Google Cloud Workflows |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | $1,199/mo | $0.01/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | Yes | Yes |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | — | Yes |
| Windows | Yes | — |
| macOS | Yes | — |
| Linux | Yes | — |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | — |
| Plans published | 4 | 6 |
| Spec score · Process Orchestration Software | 9.2 (#1) | 8.8 (#6) |
| Integrations | Official integrations include AWS, Azure, KEDA, GitHub Actions, the Dapr Kubernetes Operator, Kratix Marketplace, and Argo CD. | Connectors integrate workflows with Google Cloud APIs and handle request formatting, retries, and long-running operations; examples include Pub/Sub, Firestore, and Secret Manager. |
| Observability | Dapr emits metrics, logs and traces and supports W3C Trace Context and OpenTelemetry. | Workflows automatically integrates with Cloud Logging, Cloud Monitoring, and Cloud Audit Logs for execution and health visibility. |
| SDK languages | Stable SDKs are available for .NET, Python, Java, Go, PHP, and JavaScript; C++ and Rust SDKs are in development. | Official client libraries are documented for C++, C#, Go, Java, Node.js, Python, and Ruby. |
| Security | Dapr uses automatically enabled mutual TLS between sidecars, App IDs, namespace isolation and policy-based access controls for services, topics, components and secrets. | Workflows runs in a sandboxed environment without code or library dependencies that require security patches, and it can use Secret Manager to store and retrieve secrets. |
| Support | Diagrid pricing lists portal, email and Slack support, unlimited support calls, onboarding support and tiered response times for commercial offerings. | Google Cloud customers, including free trial customers, receive Basic Support with documentation, community forums, billing assistance, and Active Assist. |
Plans
Dapr
- Cloud FreeFree
- Dedicated Cloud$1,199 a month
- BYOC$1,599 a month
- Enterprise ServerPriced on request
Google Cloud Workflows
- Always FreeFree
- Always Free external stepsFree
- Always Free internal stepsFree
- Internal steps$0.01 a month
- Pay as you go$0.01 a month
- External steps$0.03 a month
In their own words
Dapr
Dapr is an open-source runtime that provides APIs for durable workflows and distributed application services. Its workflows handle long-running stateful processes with retries, timers, human approvals, and sagas. Dapr also supports AI agents using checkpointed plans to recover after failures. Service invocation offers HTTP or gRPC communication with discovery, tracing, and error handling; additional APIs cover pub/sub, state, actors, jobs, secrets, configuration, bindings, distributed locks, and cryptography. Dapr runs as a sidecar process or container, keeping its runtime code out of application code. It can run on Kubernetes or self-hosted on Windows, Linux, or macOS machines, including physical and virtual machines across cloud and edge environments. Security includes mTLS encryption in transit, access policies, and automatic certificate rotation. Stable SDKs are available for.NET, Python, Java, Go, PHP, and JavaScript. Dapr is free and open source. Separate paid options include Dedicated Cloud starting at $1,199 a month and BYOC starting at $1,599 a month; both list a first 14 days free.
Google Cloud Workflows
Google Cloud Workflows is a managed orchestration platform for running Google Cloud services, custom services, and HTTP APIs in a chosen sequence. Workflow definitions use YAML or JSON and can combine ordered steps with conditions, loops, parallel work, and reusable subworkflows. Start an execution manually, through client libraries or REST, or on a schedule with Cloud Scheduler. Connectors link workflows to Google Cloud APIs such as Pub/Sub, Firestore, and Secret Manager, while workflow steps can also call custom or private HTTP and HTTPS endpoints. Reliability features include retries, polling, error handling, callbacks, and waits of up to one year. A single execution can run up to 100,000 steps and last no more than one year. IAM controls access; Secret Manager can store and retrieve secrets. Cloud Logging and Cloud Monitoring surface execution logs, volume, errors, and duration. Pricing is based on executed steps, including failed and retried steps, while idle workflows incur no charges. The free plan includes 5,000 internal and 2,000 external steps; paid usage starts at $0.01 per month, with rates that vary by step type and volume.