Cloud · head to head
Render vs Restate
Restate
Developer Tools
Durable execution engine in Rust with a free tier and low-latency workflows
- From
- Free
- Free plan
- Yes
The short version
- Each has a real cost: Render the free Hobby workspace is limited to 25 services and 5 GB of bandwidth; 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: Render covers Web services, Restate covers Durable execution.
- Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.
Where they differ
Only the attributes on which Render and Restate actually diverge.
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 Render
- Web services
- Static sites
- Background workers
- Postgres database
- Redis database
- Scheduled jobs
- Environment variables
- Custom domains
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.
Render
- Deploying web services, static sites and cron jobs from a Git repository without managing serversnot Restate
- Running managed Postgres and Redis alongside application servicesnot Restate
- Preview environments per pull request for small teamsnot Restate
Restate
- Payment or order flows where a crash between two external API calls must not double-charge or lose the ordernot Render
- AI agent loops that call tools over minutes or hours and must survive a deployment mid-runnot Render
- Replacing hand-rolled retry, idempotency key and outbox code across a set of microservicesnot Render
- A small team that wants durable workflows without operating a Temporal cluster and its databasenot Render
Where each one falls short
Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.
Render
- The free Hobby workspace is limited to 25 services and 5 GB of bandwidth
- Every paid plan charges the workspace fee plus compute on top, so $25 per month for Pro is a floor rather than a total
- SAML SSO and SCIM require the Scale plan at $499 per month
- HIPAA-compliant workspaces, inbound IP rules and advanced RBAC roles are Scale plan features
- Organization-level audit logs require Scale; Pro provides only workspace audit logs
- Contractual uptime SLAs, support response SLAs and a technical account manager are Enterprise only, and Enterprise is custom priced with no published rate
- Included bandwidth is 25 GB on Pro and 1 TB on Scale, with usage beyond that billed separately
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
Render
Free- FreeFree
- 1 web service
- 1 static site
- Shared CPU
- Starter$7/month
- Unlimited services
- Dedicated CPU
- 2GB RAM
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 Render if
- You need web services.
- You want to start without paying.
- You work on Web, Api.
- You also want static sites.
Choose Restate if
- You need durable execution.
- You want to start without paying.
- You work on Linux, macOS, Web.
- You also want virtual objects.
Questions people ask
- Is Render or Restate better?
- Neither clearly leads. Render 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, Render or Restate?
- Render starts at Free and Restate at Free.
- Does Render or Restate run on more platforms?
- Render runs on Web, Api. Restate runs on Linux, macOS, Web.
- Can I use Render for free?
- Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
- What is Render best used for?
- Render is most often used for deploying web services, static sites and cron jobs from a git repository without managing servers, running managed postgres and redis alongside application services, preview environments per pull request for small teams. Of those, deploying web services, static sites and cron jobs from a git repository without managing servers and running managed postgres and redis alongside application services are not what Restate is typically brought in for.
- What can Render do that Restate cannot?
- Render covers Web services, Static sites, Background workers, Postgres database. Restate covers Durable execution, Virtual objects, Single binary runtime, Multi-language SDKs.
Answered from the vendors’ own pages
Render: What is Render's pricing?
Render's pricing details are not disclosed on the public pricing page. The site references workspace plans, compute services, and features but does not display specific costs. Users must visit the pricing page directly or contact Render for detailed information.
SourceRestate: 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.
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.
Restate: Is there a free tier?
Yes, fifty thousand durable actions a month on Restate Cloud with no card required.
Restate: Which languages are supported?
TypeScript, Java, Kotlin, Go, Python and Rust.
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- Restate vs Fly.io
- Restate vs Vagrant
- Restate vs VictoriaMetrics
- Restate vs Vultr
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- Restate vs Alibaba Cloud
- Restate vs Buildah
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- Restate vs Atlantis
- Restate vs Jitsu
- Restate vs Okteto
- Restate vs Argo CD
- Restate vs Steampipe
- Restate vs Cloud Native Buildpacks
- Restate vs Deno
- Restate vs Visual Studio Code
- Restate vs Turborepo
- Restate vs Keycloak
- Restate vs Garden
- Restate vs GitLab CI/CD
- Restate vs HCP Terraform
- Restate vs Helm
- Restate vs Notepad++