Automation Integration · head to head
Hatchet vs Orkes
Hatchet
Automation Integration
Postgres-backed distributed task queue and workflow engine for Python, TypeScript and Go
- From
- Free
- Rated
- -
Orkes
Automation Integration
Commercial Conductor, now the maintainer of the workflow engine Netflix archived
- From
- Free
- Rated
- -
The short version
- Each has a real cost: 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.; Orkes netflix archived the Conductor repository in December 2023 and Orkes took over maintenance, so the large-company backing that justified many original adoptions no longer exists.
- They diverge on capability: Hatchet covers Postgres-backed queue, Orkes covers JSON workflow definitions.
- Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.
Where they differ
Only the attributes on which Hatchet and Orkes actually diverge.
Identical on both: starting price (Free), free tier (Yes), platforms (Linux, Docker, Kubernetes, Cloud), 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 Hatchet
- Postgres-backed queue
- Durable execution
- DAG workflows
- Concurrency and fairness
- Rate limiting
- Cron and scheduling
- Multi-language SDKs
- Self-hosting
Only in Orkes
- JSON workflow definitions
- Polyglot workers
- Visual workflow builder
- AI and LLM tasks
- Human tasks
- Event handlers
- RBAC and secrets
- Hosted or self-hosted
What people use each for
The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.
Hatchet
- An AI product running long agent pipelines that must survive worker restarts and resume mid-workflownot Orkes
- A team that outgrew Celery and wants concurrency keys, fairness and rate limiting without building themnot Orkes
- An engineering group that wants durable execution self-hosted with no datastore beyond the Postgres they already runnot Orkes
- A multi-tenant SaaS that needs one noisy customer's jobs not to starve everyone else'snot Orkes
Orkes
- A microservices estate that needs orchestration across services written in different languages without a shared SDKnot Hatchet
- A team already running Conductor OSS that wants a supported distribution now that Netflix has stopped maintaining itnot Hatchet
- An AI platform composing agent steps, model calls and vector lookups as versioned workflow definitionsnot Hatchet
- A business process needing human approval steps interleaved with automated service callsnot Hatchet
Where each one falls short
Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.
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.
Orkes
- Netflix archived the Conductor repository in December 2023 and Orkes took over maintenance, so the large-company backing that justified many original adoptions no longer exists.
- Enterprise pricing is entirely unpublished, and the only free option is explicitly a prototyping sandbox whose limits can change at any time, so there is no supported low-cost entry point.
- Self-hosting Conductor OSS in production means operating the engine plus its persistence and indexing dependencies, typically Postgres or Cassandra with Elasticsearch, which is a substantial platform commitment.
- JSON workflow definitions are language agnostic but verbose and awkward to test, and teams accustomed to defining workflows in code find them a step backwards in developer experience.
- Orkes is a small company whose commercial future is tied to a single open source project it also maintains, which concentrates both vendor and project risk in the same place.
Pricing, plan by plan
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
Orkes
Free- Developer EditionFree
- All Conductor OSS features plus enterprise capabilities
- Sandbox for prototyping only
- Rate limits and resources may change without notice
- Enterprise$undefined/year
- Availability SLA up to 99.99%
- Orkes-hosted or customer-hosted deployment
- Dedicated technical account manager
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.
Choose Orkes if
- You need json workflow definitions.
- You want to start without paying.
- You work on Linux, Docker, Kubernetes, Cloud.
- You also want polyglot workers.
Questions people ask
- Is Hatchet or Orkes better?
- Neither clearly leads. Hatchet starts at Free and Orkes at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
- Which is cheaper, Hatchet or Orkes?
- Hatchet starts at Free and Orkes at Free.
- Does Hatchet or Orkes run on more platforms?
- Both run on Linux, Docker, Kubernetes, Cloud, so platform support will not decide this one for you.
- Can I use Hatchet for free?
- Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
- What is Hatchet best used for?
- Hatchet is most often used for an ai product running long agent pipelines that must survive worker restarts and resume mid-workflow, a team that outgrew celery and wants concurrency keys, fairness and rate limiting without building them, an engineering group that wants durable execution self-hosted with no datastore beyond the postgres they already run, a multi-tenant saas that needs one noisy customer's jobs not to starve everyone else's. Of those, an ai product running long agent pipelines that must survive worker restarts and resume mid-workflow and a team that outgrew celery and wants concurrency keys, fairness and rate limiting without building them are not what Orkes is typically brought in for.
- What can Hatchet do that Orkes cannot?
- Hatchet covers Postgres-backed queue, Durable execution, DAG workflows, Concurrency and fairness. Orkes covers JSON workflow definitions, Polyglot workers, Visual workflow builder, AI and LLM tasks.
Answered from the vendors’ own pages
Hatchet: Is Hatchet open source?
Yes, the engine is MIT licensed and can be self-hosted, with a managed cloud offered alongside.
Orkes: Does Netflix still maintain Conductor?
No. Netflix archived its repository in December 2023. The open source project continues at conductor-oss under Apache 2.0, maintained by Orkes.
Hatchet: 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.
Orkes: Is there a free production tier?
No. The Developer Edition is a sandbox that the vendor states is unsuitable for production. Self-hosting Conductor OSS is the free production route.
Hatchet: 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.
Orkes: What does Enterprise cost?
Nothing is published; it is quoted by deployment and support requirements.
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.
Orkes: How does it compare with Temporal?
Conductor uses declarative JSON workflow definitions and external workers; Temporal defines workflows in code. Temporal has the larger community.
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