Automation Integration · head to head
CrewAI vs Hatchet
CrewAI
Automation Integration
The Enterprise Agent Build and Runtime for the work your business runs on
- From
- Free
- Rated
- -
Hatchet
Automation Integration
Postgres-backed distributed task queue and workflow engine for Python, TypeScript and Go
- From
- Free
- Rated
- -
The short version
- Each has a real cost: CrewAI free tier limited to only 50 workflow executions per month; Hatchet postgres as the queue backend simplifies operations but sets a throughput ceiling, and very high task rates require database tuning or partitioning work that a purpose-built queue would not demand.
- Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.
Where they differ
Only the attributes on which CrewAI and Hatchet actually diverge.
Identical on both: starting price (Free), free tier (Yes), user rating (Not yet rated), category (Automation Integration).
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 CrewAI
Nothing recorded that Hatchet does not also cover.
Only in Hatchet
- Postgres-backed queue
- Durable execution
- DAG workflows
- Concurrency and fairness
- Rate limiting
- Cron and scheduling
- Multi-language SDKs
- Self-hosting
What people use each for
The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.
CrewAI
- Enriching sales leads with company revenue and insights automaticallynot Hatchet
- Accelerating first contact with leads from multiple systemsnot Hatchet
- Automating quality assurance testing for voice agentsnot Hatchet
- Generating curriculum content and instructor materials instantlynot Hatchet
Hatchet
- An AI product running long agent pipelines that must survive worker restarts and resume mid-workflownot CrewAI
- A team that outgrew Celery and wants concurrency keys, fairness and rate limiting without building themnot CrewAI
- An engineering group that wants durable execution self-hosted with no datastore beyond the Postgres they already runnot CrewAI
- A multi-tenant SaaS that needs one noisy customer's jobs not to starve everyone else'snot CrewAI
Where each one falls short
Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.
CrewAI
- Free tier limited to only 50 workflow executions per month
- Enterprise pricing is not published; requires contact for quote
- No public information about paid tier pricing between free and enterprise
Hatchet
- Postgres as the queue backend simplifies operations but sets a throughput ceiling, and very high task rates require database tuning or partitioning work that a purpose-built queue would not demand.
- Data retention on the managed tiers is three days on Team and seven on Scale, which is short for debugging intermittent failures and forces you to export run history elsewhere.
- The step from the free tier to Team is 500 US dollars a month plus usage, which is a large increment for a small team that simply needs a production SLA.
- Hatchet is a young company in a category with Temporal, Inngest and cloud-native alternatives already established, so ecosystem, hiring pool and third-party material are all thin.
- Self-hosting the MIT engine is realistic but you then run the engine, its Postgres and its workers yourself, and the managed features such as audit logs and support are not part of that.
Pricing, plan by plan
CrewAI
Free- BasicFree
- 50 workflow executions/month
- Visual editor and AI copilot
- GitHub integration
- Enterprise$null/month
- Custom pricing upon request
- Everything in Basic plus advanced features
- Enterprise connectors
Hatchet
Free- DeveloperFree
- First 100,000 task runs included
- $10 per million task runs after
- No card required
- Team$500/month
- Usage billed on top of the base fee
- 10 users and 5 tenants
- 3 day data retention
- Scale$1000/month
- Unlimited users and tenants
- 7 day data retention
- Audit logs
- Enterprise$undefined/year
- 300 million plus runs a month
- Latency guarantees and custom SLAs
- SSO and audit logging
Which should you pick?
Choose Hatchet if
- You need postgres-backed queue.
- You want to start without paying.
- You work on Linux, Docker, Kubernetes, Cloud.
- You also want durable execution.
Questions people ask
- Is CrewAI or Hatchet better?
- Neither clearly leads. CrewAI starts at Free and Hatchet at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
- Which is cheaper, CrewAI or Hatchet?
- CrewAI starts at Free and Hatchet at Free.
- Does CrewAI or Hatchet run on more platforms?
- CrewAI runs on Web. Hatchet runs on Linux, Docker, Kubernetes, Cloud.
- Can I use CrewAI for free?
- Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
- What is CrewAI best used for?
- CrewAI is most often used for enriching sales leads with company revenue and insights automatically, accelerating first contact with leads from multiple systems, automating quality assurance testing for voice agents, generating curriculum content and instructor materials instantly. Of those, enriching sales leads with company revenue and insights automatically and accelerating first contact with leads from multiple systems are not what Hatchet is typically brought in for.
- What can CrewAI do that Hatchet cannot?
- Hatchet covers Postgres-backed queue, Durable execution, DAG workflows, Concurrency and fairness.
Answered from the vendors’ own pages
CrewAI: Is CrewAI free?
CrewAI offers a free Basic tier that includes 50 workflow executions per month, access to the visual editor, AI copilot, and GitHub integration. Enterprise plans with custom pricing are available for larger deployments.
SourceHatchet: Is Hatchet open source?
Yes, the engine is MIT licensed and can be self-hosted, with a managed cloud offered alongside.
CrewAI: How much does CrewAI Enterprise cost?
CrewAI Enterprise pricing is custom and available upon request. Enterprise includes dedicated VPC deployment, FedRamp High compliance, SSO and RBAC, PII redaction, and dedicated support with 45-day onboarding.
SourceHatchet: What does it cost?
Free for the first 100,000 task runs, then 10 US dollars per million. Team is 500 US dollars a month plus usage; Scale is 1,000.
CrewAI: Can I self-host CrewAI?
Enterprise tier customers can deploy CrewAI on their own VPC or own infrastructure in addition to CrewAI cloud deployment, but specific pricing for self-hosted options is not published.
SourceHatchet: Why Postgres as the queue?
So durable task state lives in a database your team already backs up, replicates and can inspect with SQL, instead of a second system.
Hatchet: How does it compare with Temporal?
Lighter to adopt and operate, with a much smaller ecosystem and a lower throughput ceiling from the Postgres backend.
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