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Automation Integration · head to head

Orkes vs Restate

Orkes logo

Orkes

Automation Integration

Commercial Conductor, now the maintainer of the workflow engine Netflix archived

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Restate logo

Restate

Developer Tools

Durable execution engine in Rust with a free tier and low-latency workflows

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: 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.; Restate the runtime is under a Business Source Licence rather than an open source licence, so building a competing managed offering on it is prohibited and some procurement functions will reject it on licence grounds alone.
  • They diverge on capability: Orkes covers JSON workflow definitions, Restate covers Durable execution.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Orkes and Restate actually diverge.

Attributes where Orkes and Restate differ
AttributeOrkesRestate
Pricing modelquotePer month by durable action count
PlatformsLinux, Docker, Kubernetes, CloudLinux, macOS, Web
CategoryAutomation IntegrationDeveloper Tools

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 Orkes

  • JSON workflow definitions
  • Polyglot workers
  • Visual workflow builder
  • AI and LLM tasks
  • Human tasks
  • Event handlers
  • RBAC and secrets
  • Hosted or self-hosted

Only in Restate

  • Durable execution
  • Virtual objects
  • Single binary runtime
  • Multi-language SDKs
  • Workflows and sagas
  • Restate Cloud

What people use each for

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

Orkes

  • A microservices estate that needs orchestration across services written in different languages without a shared SDKnot Restate
  • A team already running Conductor OSS that wants a supported distribution now that Netflix has stopped maintaining itnot Restate
  • An AI platform composing agent steps, model calls and vector lookups as versioned workflow definitionsnot Restate
  • A business process needing human approval steps interleaved with automated service callsnot Restate

Restate

  • Payment or order flows where a crash between two external API calls must not double-charge or lose the ordernot Orkes
  • AI agent loops that call tools over minutes or hours and must survive a deployment mid-runnot Orkes
  • Replacing hand-rolled retry, idempotency key and outbox code across a set of microservicesnot Orkes
  • A small team that wants durable workflows without operating a Temporal cluster and its databasenot Orkes

Where each one falls short

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

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.

Restate

  • The runtime is under a Business Source Licence rather than an open source licence, so building a competing managed offering on it is prohibited and some procurement functions will reject it on licence grounds alone.
  • Restate Cloud jumps from a free fifty thousand actions straight to 300 US dollars a month for twenty million, so a workload sitting at a few hundred thousand actions pays enterprise-shaped money for hobby-shaped volume.
  • It is a young project against Temporal’s established base, so hiring engineers who already know it is unrealistic and the answer to most questions is in the docs rather than on Stack Overflow.
  • The programming model requires structuring code around durable handlers and virtual objects, which is a genuine rewrite for existing services rather than a library you add.
  • The single-binary simplicity that makes small deployments cheap also means fewer operational knobs at very large scale than a system designed as separable components.

Pricing, plan by plan

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

Restate

Free
  • FreeFree
    • Fifty thousand durable actions per month
    • No credit card required
    • Community support
  • Starter$300/month
    • Twenty million actions per month
    • Two hundred actions per second, bursting to one thousand
    • Twenty GB storage
  • Pro$1000/month
    • Fifty million actions per month
    • Five hundred actions per second, bursting to two thousand
    • Fifty GB storage
  • Enterprise$undefined/year
    • Negotiated volume
    • Twenty-four seven P0 support
    • 99.99 per cent SLA

Which should you pick?

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.
Orkes review

Choose Restate if

  • You need durable execution.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Linux, macOS, Web.
  • You also want virtual objects.
Restate review

Questions people ask

Is Orkes or Restate better?
Neither clearly leads. Orkes starts at Free and Restate at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Orkes or Restate?
Orkes starts at Free and Restate at Free.
Does Orkes or Restate run on more platforms?
Orkes runs on Linux, Docker, Kubernetes, Cloud. Restate runs on Linux, macOS, Web.
Can I use Orkes for free?
Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
What is Orkes best used for?
Orkes is most often used for a microservices estate that needs orchestration across services written in different languages without a shared sdk, a team already running conductor oss that wants a supported distribution now that netflix has stopped maintaining it, an ai platform composing agent steps, model calls and vector lookups as versioned workflow definitions, a business process needing human approval steps interleaved with automated service calls. Of those, a microservices estate that needs orchestration across services written in different languages without a shared sdk and a team already running conductor oss that wants a supported distribution now that netflix has stopped maintaining it are not what Restate is typically brought in for.
What can Orkes do that Restate cannot?
Orkes covers JSON workflow definitions, Polyglot workers, Visual workflow builder, AI and LLM tasks. Restate covers Durable execution, Virtual objects, Single binary runtime, Multi-language SDKs.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

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.

Restate: Is Restate open source?

The SDKs are MIT. The runtime is under a Business Source Licence, which permits self-hosting but not offering it as a competing service.

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.

Restate: How does it compare with Temporal?

Same problem, different shape: one Rust binary with embedded storage instead of a server plus database plus workers, and lower per-step latency.

Orkes: What does Enterprise cost?

Nothing is published; it is quoted by deployment and support requirements.

Restate: Is there a free tier?

Yes, fifty thousand durable actions a month on Restate Cloud with no card required.

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.

Restate: Which languages are supported?

TypeScript, Java, Kotlin, Go, Python and Rust.

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