Staxly

Trigger.dev vs LangChain

Open-source background jobs with no timeouts and full observability
vs. The framework for building LLM apps — chains, agents, RAG, LangGraph

Trigger.dev websiteLangChain website

Pricing tiers

Trigger.dev

Free
$0. 5K runs/mo. 1 concurrent run. 1 team member. 7-day log retention.
Free
Self-Host (OSS)
Free. Apache-2.0 license. Docker Compose + Postgres + Redis.
$0 base (usage-based)
Hobby
$10/mo. 50K runs/mo. 25 concurrent. Unlimited queue time.
$10/mo
Pro
$50/mo (starts at — usage scales). 250K runs/mo baseline. 100 concurrent. Priority.
$50/mo
Enterprise
Custom. HIPAA, SSO, dedicated clusters, on-prem.
Custom
Trigger.dev website

LangChain

OSS (MIT)
MIT-licensed core library. Free forever. Python + JS.
$0 base (usage-based)
LangSmith (see entry)
Observability layer — Developer free, Plus $39/seat. Separate platform.
$0 base (usage-based)
LangGraph Platform — Developer
Deploy LangGraph agents as an API. Free tier — limited execution minutes.
$0 base (usage-based)
LangGraph Platform — Plus
$39/seat/mo (tied to LangSmith Plus). More execution credit. Production features.
$39/mo
Enterprise
Custom. Self-host, dedicated support, SSO.
Custom
LangChain website

Free-tier quotas head-to-head

Comparing free on Trigger.dev vs oss on LangChain.

MetricTrigger.devLangChain
No overlapping quota metrics for these tiers.

Features

Trigger.dev · 13 features

  • Batch TriggerTrigger many runs at once with limits.
  • Environment VariablesManage secrets in dashboard.
  • Idempotency KeysPrevent duplicate runs.
  • Machine SizingPick CPU/RAM per task.
  • Queues + ConcurrencyNamed queues for controlled throughput.
  • Realtime + React HooksSubscribe to run progress from client.
  • RetriesExponential + custom strategies.
  • SchedulesCron-triggered runs.
  • Self-HostingRun locally or on your infra.
  • Subtasks + triggerAndWaitCompose tasks by triggering children.
  • Task MetadataAttach arbitrary metadata to runs.
  • TasksDefine long-running TS tasks.
  • wait.for / wait.untilDurable waits — minutes, hours, days.

LangChain · 18 features

  • AgentsTool-using agents with reasoning loops.
  • Chains (LCEL)LangChain Expression Language — pipe primitives into chains.
  • Checkpointers (LangGraph)Persist agent state to SQL, Mongo, Redis, Postgres.
  • Document Loaders150+ loaders for PDF, HTML, Notion, Google Drive, S3, GitHub, etc.
  • Human-in-the-loopPause agent for approval, then resume.
  • LangGraphStateful graph-based agent runtime. Durable, replayable, human-in-the-loop.
  • LangGraph PlatformManaged hosting for LangGraph agents with state persistence.
  • LangGraph StudioDesktop IDE for debugging agent graphs.
  • LangServeDeploy chains as FastAPI endpoints.
  • MemoryBuffer, summary, entity, vector memory stores.
  • Output ParsersStructured JSON, Pydantic schemas, function calling.
  • Prompt TemplatesTemplating + partial filling + output parsers.
  • RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation)Standard patterns + 50+ retrievers.
  • StreamingFirst-class streaming at every layer.
  • SubgraphsCompose agent graphs hierarchically.
  • Text SplittersRecursive, token, semantic splitters for chunking.
  • Tools400+ pre-built tools (web search, code, databases, APIs).
  • Vector Store Integrations60+ vector DBs (Pinecone, Chroma, Weaviate, PGVector, Qdrant, Milvus).

Developer interfaces

KindTrigger.devLangChain
CLItrigger.dev CLI
SDK@trigger.dev/react-hooks, @trigger.dev/sdk@langchain/core (Node), langchain (Python), langgraph (JS), langgraph (Python), LangServe
RESTTrigger.dev REST APILangGraph Platform
OTHERTrigger.dev Dashboard, Trigger.dev Webhooks
Staxly is an independent catalog of developer platforms. Outbound links to Trigger.dev and LangChain are plain references to their official websites. Pricing is verified against vendor pages at publication time — reconfirm before buying.

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