Inngest vs Napkin
A detailed comparison to help you choose between Inngest and Napkin.
Quick Verdict
3.9/5
Inngest
0 reviews
3.5/5
Napkin
0 reviews
Inngest is rated higher (3.9 vs 3.5). Inngest is a developer platform for building reliable event-driven background functions. Automatic retries, delays, fan-out, and step functions. Works with Next.js, Node.js, Go, and Python. Napkin lets you write and run Node.js and Python serverless functions directly in the browser with zero setup, deploying them as authenticated HTTP endpoints.
Inngest Event-driven functions with automatic retries | Napkin Write and deploy Node.js and Python functions as HTTP endpoints from a browser editor | |
|---|---|---|
| Overview | ||
| Rating | 3.9 (0 reviews)✓ | 3.5 (0 reviews) |
| Pricing model | freemium | freemium |
| Starting price | Free tier available | Free tier available |
| Best for | Full-stack and product developers adding reliable background jobs, webhooks, scheduled tasks, or multi-step AI agent workflows to existing apps without building queue infrastructure | Developers who need an HTTP endpoint today — webhooks, bots, scheduled automations, and prototypes — without opening a cloud console or running infrastructure. |
| Features | ||
| IPv6 | ||
| DDoS protection | ||
| Automated backups | ||
| Snapshots | ||
| Managed option | ||
| Bare metal | ||
| GPU available | ||
| S3-compatible | ||
| Hourly billing | ||
| Free tier | ||
| Tags | ||
| Tags | free tieropen sourceapi access | free tier |
| Visit Inngest → | Visit Napkin → | |
Inngest
Pros
- + Real free tier ($0, no card, 50k executions) that pauses at quota instead of billing overage
- + Durable execution without operating queues, brokers, or worker fleets — code stays on your infra
- + Open-source, self-hostable server as an exit path from vendor lock-in
- + Strong SDK coverage (TypeScript, Python, Go, Kotlin) and developer tooling (dev server, replay, traces)
- + Per-run economics are excellent at volume on Pro ($99/mo for 1M executions)
Cons
- - Execution billing counts every step (runs x steps+1), so step-heavy workflows burn quota fast
- - Steep free-to-Pro jump to $99/mo once free caps (5 concurrent steps, 24h traces) bite
- - No published uptime SLA below enterprise agreements
- - Not infrastructure — you still need somewhere to run your code
- - Plan walls on workspaces, apps, and trace retention push growing teams upward quickly
Napkin
Pros
- + Genuinely free plan: $0/month with 25,000 API calls, unlimited functions, custom domains, and team invites
- + One-click deploy from a browser editor — Node.js and Python, no cloud console or CLI required
- + Clear published limits: 500 MB/0.5 vCPU free (2 GB/2 vCPU Pro), 15s/30s timeouts, explicit rate caps
- + Endpoint SSL, auth, production logs, and scheduled triggers included on both tiers
- + Pro tier is capacity-only at $10 per user per month — no feature gating, no sales call
Cons
- - No published SLA, regions, or data residency; small-vendor reliability story
- - Free tier caps at 5 requests/second and a 15-second timeout — real design constraints
- - Browser-only workflow with no local development story and no obvious export path
- - Node.js and Python only — no Go, Rust, PHP, or Ruby runtimes
- - Stale limit figures circulate on marketing and third-party pages, so verify before budgeting
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