Developer Tools · head to head
Dagger vs Fig
Dagger
Developer Tools
Programmable CI/CD engine that runs your pipeline as containers on any runner
- From
- Free
- Rated
- -
F
Fig
Developer Tools
IDE-style autocomplete for your existing terminal
- From
- Free
- Rated
- -
The short version
- Each has a real cost: Dagger dagger is not a CI provider, so you keep paying for GitHub Actions or GitLab runners underneath it; the Dagger Cloud subscription is an addition to your CI bill, not a replacement for it.; Fig shut down on 1 September 2024. Amazon acquired Fig in August 2023 and folded it into Amazon Q Developer, which now carries the terminal autocomplete
- Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.
Where they differ
Only the attributes on which Dagger and Fig actually diverge.
Identical on both: starting price (Free), free tier (Yes), user rating (Not yet rated), category (Developer Tools).
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 Dagger
- Pipelines as code
- Local and CI parity
- Content-addressed caching
- Dagger Functions and modules
- CI-provider agnostic
- Dagger Cloud traces
- GitHub Checks integration
- Container-native execution
Only in Fig
Nothing recorded that Dagger does not also cover.
What people use each for
The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.
Dagger
- A platform team maintaining near-identical build YAML across forty repositories that wants one versioned module every repository calls insteadnot Fig
- An engineering organisation migrating off a CI provider that does not want to rewrite every pipeline as part of the migrationnot Fig
- A team whose engineers waste hours pushing commits to debug CI-only failures and needs to reproduce the exact run locallynot Fig
- A monorepo where most commits touch a small subset of services and cache-accurate step skipping cuts build minutes materiallynot Fig
Fig
No use cases recorded yet. See the Fig review.
Where each one falls short
Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.
Dagger
- Dagger is not a CI provider, so you keep paying for GitHub Actions or GitLab runners underneath it; the Dagger Cloud subscription is an addition to your CI bill, not a replacement for it.
- Writing pipelines in Go or TypeScript raises the barrier to entry: a release engineer who could edit a YAML step now needs to read code, and the people who can fix a broken build shrink to those comfortable with the SDK.
- The engine runs as a container on the runner and needs a persistent cache volume to deliver its main benefit, so ephemeral CI runners give you correctness without the speed, and provisioning durable cache storage is extra platform work.
- The Team plan caps at ten users and ten million events per month; an organisation of any size crosses that quickly and moves to Enterprise pricing that is not published, so cost at scale is unknowable up front.
- The module ecosystem is young and thinly maintained relative to the marketplace of a mature CI provider, so integrations that exist as a one-line Action often have to be written yourself as a Dagger function.
Fig
- Shut down on 1 September 2024. Amazon acquired Fig in August 2023 and folded it into Amazon Q Developer, which now carries the terminal autocomplete
- The standalone desktop app is no longer available or supported
- The completion specs remain open source on GitHub, but the product that consumed them is gone
Pricing, plan by plan
Dagger
Free- IndividualFree
- One user
- One million events per month
- Workflow logs and function call traces
- Team$50/month
- Up to ten users
- Ten million events per month
- Module insights and module catalogue
- Enterprise$undefined/year
- Custom user and event limits
- SSO
- Managed single-tenant deployment
Fig
FreeNo published plan breakdown. See the Fig review.
Which should you pick?
Choose Dagger if
- You need pipelines as code.
- You want to start without paying.
- You work on Linux, macOS, Windows, Self-hosted.
- You also want local and ci parity.
Questions people ask
- Is Dagger or Fig better?
- Neither clearly leads. Dagger starts at Free and Fig at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
- Which is cheaper, Dagger or Fig?
- Dagger starts at Free and Fig at Free.
- Does Dagger or Fig run on more platforms?
- Dagger runs on Linux, macOS, Windows, Self-hosted. Fig runs on Web.
- Can I use Dagger for free?
- Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
- What is Dagger best used for?
- Dagger is most often used for a platform team maintaining near-identical build yaml across forty repositories that wants one versioned module every repository calls instead, an engineering organisation migrating off a ci provider that does not want to rewrite every pipeline as part of the migration, a team whose engineers waste hours pushing commits to debug ci-only failures and needs to reproduce the exact run locally, a monorepo where most commits touch a small subset of services and cache-accurate step skipping cuts build minutes materially. Of those, a platform team maintaining near-identical build yaml across forty repositories that wants one versioned module every repository calls instead and an engineering organisation migrating off a ci provider that does not want to rewrite every pipeline as part of the migration are not what Fig is typically brought in for.
- What can Dagger do that Fig cannot?
- Dagger covers Pipelines as code, Local and CI parity, Content-addressed caching, Dagger Functions and modules.
Answered from the vendors’ own pages
Dagger: Does Dagger replace GitHub Actions?
No. Dagger runs inside GitHub Actions or any other CI. It replaces the YAML that describes your pipeline steps, not the trigger and runner layer.
Dagger: Is the engine open source?
Yes, the Dagger engine and SDKs are open source and free. Dagger Cloud, the observability product, is what costs money.
Dagger: What is an event in the pricing?
Dagger Cloud meters pipeline telemetry events. One million per month is free; the Team plan at 50 USD per month allows ten million.
Dagger: Can I run the same pipeline on my laptop?
Yes, that is the main reason teams adopt it. The dagger CLI executes the identical graph locally, so CI-only failures become reproducible.
Related pages
Other head to heads
- Dagger vs Earthly
- Dagger vs Buildkite
- Dagger vs Tilt
- Dagger vs Nixpacks
- Dagger vs Depot
- Dagger vs Blacksmith
- Dagger vs WarpBuild
- Dagger vs Cloud Native Buildpacks
- Dagger vs Nx Cloud
- Dagger vs Namespace
- Dagger vs Pants Build
- Dagger vs StackBlitz
- Dagger vs PartyKit
- Dagger vs PhpStorm
- Dagger vs Pieces for Developers
- Dagger vs RAD Studio
- Dagger vs Refact
- Dagger vs Restate
- Dagger vs Visual Studio Code
- Dagger vs ESLint
- Dagger vs Turborepo
- Dagger vs pnpm
- Dagger vs Sweep
- Dagger vs Cody
- Dagger vs Warp
- Dagger vs Keycloak
- Dagger vs Rust
- Dagger vs CodeSandbox
- Dagger vs Vite
- Dagger vs Daytona
- Dagger vs Ona (formerly Gitpod)
- Dagger vs GNU Emacs
- Dagger vs Keil MDK
- Dagger vs Bazel
- Fig vs Earthly
- Fig vs Buildkite
- Fig vs Tilt
- Fig vs Nixpacks
- Fig vs Depot
- Fig vs Blacksmith
- Fig vs WarpBuild
- Fig vs Cloud Native Buildpacks
- Fig vs Nx Cloud
- Fig vs Namespace
- Fig vs Pants Build
- Fig vs StackBlitz
- Fig vs PartyKit
- Fig vs PhpStorm
- Fig vs Pieces for Developers
- Fig vs RAD Studio
- Fig vs Refact
- Fig vs Restate
- Fig vs Visual Studio Code
- Fig vs ESLint
- Fig vs Turborepo
- Fig vs pnpm
- Fig vs Sweep
- Fig vs Cody
- Fig vs Warp
- Fig vs Keycloak
- Fig vs Rust
- Fig vs CodeSandbox
- Fig vs Vite
- Fig vs Daytona
- Fig vs Ona (formerly Gitpod)
- Fig vs GNU Emacs
- Fig vs Keil MDK
- Fig vs Bazel