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APIs · head to head

Convoy vs Maestro

Convoy logo

Convoy

APIs

Open source webhooks gateway you self-host, handling both sending and receiving

From
Free
Rated
-
Maestro logo

Maestro

Mobile Development

Open source mobile UI testing with YAML flows, and a cloud priced per concurrent device rather than per test minute

From
Free
Rated
-

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: Convoy the default deployment is self-hosted, so you operate Convoy plus Postgres and Redis and carry the on-call burden for the system that delivers your customers' events.; Maestro cloud pricing is per concurrent device at 250 USD per month, so the cost is driven by how quickly you need the suite to finish rather than by how much you test, and a team wanting a fast pull request gate buys several devices at once.
  • They diverge on capability: Convoy covers Inbound and outbound, Maestro covers YAML test flows.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Convoy and Maestro actually diverge.

Attributes where Convoy and Maestro differ
AttributeConvoyMaestro
Pricing modelPer month, flat rate regardless of volumePer concurrent cloud device per month
PlatformsLinux, Docker, Kubernetes, CloudiOS, Android, Web, macOS, Linux, Windows
CategoryAPIsMobile Development

Identical on both: starting price (Free), free tier (Yes), user rating (Not yet rated).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in Convoy

  • Inbound and outbound
  • Broker-driven ingestion
  • Payload transformation
  • Portal links
  • Circuit breaking
  • Retry policies
  • OpenTelemetry export
  • Role-based access control

Only in Maestro

  • YAML test flows
  • Built-in flakiness tolerance
  • Maestro Studio
  • Open source CLI
  • Cloud device runs
  • CI and pull request integration

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Convoy

  • A fintech that cannot route customer webhook traffic through a third-party SaaS for compliance reasonsnot Maestro
  • A high-volume platform for which per-message webhook pricing costs more than the flat premium licencenot Maestro
  • A team that also receives webhooks from many providers and wants ingestion, verification and deduplication in the same gatewaynot Maestro
  • An engineering group that wants webhook delivery driven directly from an existing Kafka or SQS topicnot Maestro

Maestro

  • A mobile team replacing an Appium suite that spends more engineering time on maintenance than on new coveragenot Convoy
  • Running smoke tests on every pull request without buying and maintaining a physical device labnot Convoy
  • Letting a QA specialist who does not write application code author and own the end-to-end suitenot Convoy
  • Reproducing a reported bug by recording the exact flow in Studio and committing it as a regression testnot Convoy

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Convoy

  • The default deployment is self-hosted, so you operate Convoy plus Postgres and Redis and carry the on-call burden for the system that delivers your customers' events.
  • Frain Technologies is a small startup, and putting customer-facing delivery infrastructure on it means accepting real vendor continuity risk on a component that is hard to swap out quickly.
  • The premium tier at a flat 999 US dollars a month is poor value below substantial volume, while the community edition omits the portal, transformations and RBAC that most production deployments end up wanting.
  • The hosted cloud trial is capped at one project and 100 events a day, which is too small to properly evaluate the service before committing.
  • Documentation and the third-party ecosystem are thinner than the established webhook services, so unusual configurations often mean reading the Go source.

Maestro

  • Cloud pricing is per concurrent device at 250 USD per month, so the cost is driven by how quickly you need the suite to finish rather than by how much you test, and a team wanting a fast pull request gate buys several devices at once.
  • YAML is deliberately limited, so tests with real conditional logic or data-driven permutations end up in embedded scripting blocks where the readability advantage that justified the format disappears.
  • Maestro drives the app as a black box, so it cannot assert on internal state, mock a network layer from inside the process or inspect application memory the way an in-process framework can.
  • The hosted device catalogue is narrower than dedicated device clouds, so testing against a long tail of specific manufacturer builds and older operating system versions still requires another provider.
  • The project rebranded from mobile.dev to Maestro, so a share of existing tutorials, blog posts and links point at old domains and documentation that no longer match the current tooling.

Pricing, plan by plan

Convoy

Free
  • CommunityFree
    • Self-hosted open source gateway
    • Inbound and outbound webhooks
    • Automatic retries and message broker support
  • Premium$999/month
    • Flat rate irrespective of message volume
    • Portal links and payload transformation
    • RBAC, circuit breaking and white labelling
  • Enterprise$undefined/year
    • SAML SSO
    • Dedicated support with SLA
    • On-premises deployment assistance
  • Cloud$undefined/month
    • Hosted by Convoy
    • 14 day trial limited to one project and 100 events a day
    • Usage-based tiers above the trial

Maestro

Free
  • LocalFree
    • Free and open source CLI
    • Maestro Studio, Viewer and MCP
    • Runs on your own simulators, emulators and devices
  • Cloud$250/month
    • Per device per month
    • Unlimited hosted test runs
    • Hosted Android, iOS and web devices
  • Enterprise Cloud$undefined/year
    • Quoted
    • SSO and dedicated support
    • Custom contracts

Which should you pick?

Choose Convoy if

  • You need inbound and outbound.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Linux, Docker, Kubernetes, Cloud.
  • You also want broker-driven ingestion.

Choose Maestro if

  • You need yaml test flows.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on iOS, Android, Web, macOS, Linux, Windows.
  • You also want built-in flakiness tolerance.

Questions people ask

Is Convoy or Maestro better?
Neither clearly leads. Convoy starts at Free and Maestro at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Convoy or Maestro?
Convoy starts at Free and Maestro at Free.
Does Convoy or Maestro run on more platforms?
Convoy runs on Linux, Docker, Kubernetes, Cloud. Maestro runs on iOS, Android, Web, macOS, Linux, Windows.
Can I use Convoy for free?
Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
What is Convoy best used for?
Convoy is most often used for a fintech that cannot route customer webhook traffic through a third-party saas for compliance reasons, a high-volume platform for which per-message webhook pricing costs more than the flat premium licence, a team that also receives webhooks from many providers and wants ingestion, verification and deduplication in the same gateway, an engineering group that wants webhook delivery driven directly from an existing kafka or sqs topic. Of those, a fintech that cannot route customer webhook traffic through a third-party saas for compliance reasons and a high-volume platform for which per-message webhook pricing costs more than the flat premium licence are not what Maestro is typically brought in for.
What can Convoy do that Maestro cannot?
Convoy covers Inbound and outbound, Broker-driven ingestion, Payload transformation, Portal links. Maestro covers YAML test flows, Built-in flakiness tolerance, Maestro Studio, Open source CLI.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Convoy: Is Convoy really open source?

Yes, the community edition is open source and self-hostable, covering both inbound and outbound webhooks with retries.

Maestro: Is Maestro free?

The CLI, Studio and local execution are free and open source. The hosted device cloud is 250 USD per device per month.

Convoy: What does premium cost?

A flat 999 US dollars a month, self-hosted, regardless of message volume.

Maestro: What exactly does per device mean?

It is a concurrency slot. One device runs one test at a time, so suite duration is a function of how many devices you buy.

Convoy: Does it receive webhooks as well as send them?

Yes, inbound ingestion with verification and deduplication is a first-class feature, unlike most webhook services.

Maestro: How does it compare with Appium?

Tests are YAML rather than code and flakiness handling is built in, which reduces maintenance, at the cost of lower-level control.

Convoy: Do I have to self-host?

No, there is a hosted cloud, but the trial is capped at 100 events a day and self-hosting is the primary model.

Maestro: Can it test web applications too?

Yes, the cloud offers hosted web devices alongside Android and iOS, though the product centre of gravity is mobile.

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