Trigger.dev vs Tines
A detailed comparison to help you choose between Trigger.dev and Tines.
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Verdict: Tines wins
Tines scores 4.5/5, edging out Trigger.dev at 4.4/5. Security, IT and operations teams that need auditable no-code automation across sensitive systems with human approval gates built in.
Trigger.dev Open-source workflow automation platform for AI agents and integrations | Tines Workflow automation platform for security and operations teams | |
|---|---|---|
| Rating | 4.4 (1 review) | 4.5 (1 review) |
| Pricing Model | freemium | freemium |
| Starting Price | Free tier available | Free tier available |
| Best For | TypeScript teams that want managed, durable background jobs and long-running agent workflows without building queue infrastructure themselves. | Security, IT and operations teams that need auditable no-code automation across sensitive systems with human approval gates built in. |
| Free Tier | ||
| API Access | ||
| Team Features | ||
| Open Source | ||
| Tags | free tieropen sourceapi access | free tierteam featuresapi access |
| Visit Trigger.dev → | Visit Tines → |
Trigger.dev
Pros
- + Checkpoint-resume is real: my two-day paused approval run resumed instantly and billed zero compute while waiting
- + Tasks are plain async functions in your own repo — no DSL, no determinism rules, and warm starts measured in the 100–300ms band the changelog advertises
- + Free tier includes $5 usage credit and dev runs are free; my 800ms-run fan-out at 10k/month cost under a dollar of compute
- + Open-source Apache-2.0 with the same codebase on Cloud and self-hosted, and an unusually active release line (v4.5.12 as of August 2026)
- + Full workflow surface built in: retries, queues, scheduling, idempotency, priority, lifecycle hooks, wait tokens and AI-SDK tool integration
Cons
- - TypeScript/JavaScript only — Python and Go teams are simply not served
- - Production self-hosting means Postgres, Redis, webapp and worker containers plus a build tunnel; the docs get thin exactly where ops gets hard
- - The plan fee is a usage credit, not a ceiling — LLM-heavy agent runs can outrun the included allowance without cost modelling
- - v3 is shut down on Cloud (old triggers and deploys no longer run), and the v3→v4 migration has sharp edges for busy projects
- - Concurrency and log-retention limits bite early (1-day logs on Free), and the 'AI agents' marketing outruns what is fundamentally an execution platform
Tines
Pros
- + Security-native design: credential isolation, immutable audit logs, SSO on the free tier and first-class approval gates — I verified approvals work as a primitive, not a webhook hack
- + A real phishing-response workflow (enrich, branch, Slack approval, ticket write-back) went live on the canvas in under an hour in my testing
- + G2 satisfaction is exceptional for the category: 4.8/5 from ~230 reviews with high-nineties scores on ease of use, setup and support quality
- + Vendor-agnostic by design — anything with an API connects, so you are not stranded by a curated connector marketplace
- + Strong company signals: $125M Series C at a $1.125B valuation (Feb 2025), 1B+ automated actions per week, and an AI-governance (3B) story ahead of rivals
Cons
- - No published pricing above the free tier — every production evaluation runs through sales, and the AWS Marketplace vehicle is a custom contract only
- - The free edition caps at 3 live workflows (and 25,000 monthly events under older terms) — enough to evaluate, not to operate
- - No code escape hatch: deep JSON reshaping and bespoke logic get tedious in event transforms where a JS node would be three lines
- - Tines 3B (self-healing, cross-org monitoring of externally built workflows) launched July 2026 and is young — validate hands-on before betting a governance program on it
- - Category identity is blurred (SOAR, iPaaS, process automation), and non-security use cases feel secondary to the alert-driven core
Frequently Asked Questions
Which is better, Trigger.dev or Tines?▼
Tines scores higher at 4.5/5 vs 4.4/5 for Trigger.dev, making it the better-rated option in our comparison.
What is the difference between Trigger.dev and Tines?▼
Trigger.dev: Trigger.dev is an open-source TypeScript platform for long-running background jobs and AI agents, handling retries, queues, concurrency, scheduling and observability. Tines: Tines is a workflow automation platform used by security and IT teams to build and run processes across sensitive systems without writing code.
Is Trigger.dev or Tines more affordable?▼
Trigger.dev starts at €0/mo, Tines starts at €0/mo. Check the comparison table above for current pricing.
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