Our take
Pick Dagger if platform teams who will run the OSS engine at $0 while they write a first function, then start Starter’s Try for free and land on $20/month (1 user, 1-month traces) — or Scale at $200/month when they need unlimited users and 1-year traces. Pick Trigger.dev if app teams who will burn the Free $5 credits on a first durable task, then buy Hobby $10 or Pro $50 when concurrency and retention matter.
portable CI desk
Best for
Dagger A pipeline you start at $20
Trigger.dev Long-running agents or background jobs you meter in credits
Free plan
Dagger No free plan
Trigger.dev $0 · /month. $5 free credits. 20 concurrent runs. 5 members. 10 schedules. 1-day logs. 10 Realtime connections. Community support
Lowest paid
Dagger Starter $20/mo
Trigger.dev Invocation $0.000025
Next step up
Dagger Scale $200/mo
Trigger.dev Compute $0.0000338
Runs where
Dagger Hosted
Trigger.dev
Watch out
Dagger $20 is 1 user and 1-month traces
Trigger.dev Free is $5 of credits, then you stop
Last checked
Dagger 2026-10-22 · dagger.io/pricing
Trigger.dev 2026-10-22 · trigger.dev/pricing
platform teams who will run the OSS engine at $0 while they write a first function, then start Starter’s Try for free and land on $20/month (1 user, 1-month traces) — or Scale at $200/month when they need unlimited users and 1-year traces.
Read the Dagger pageapp teams who will burn the Free $5 credits on a first durable task, then buy Hobby $10 or Pro $50 when concurrency and retention matter.
Read the Trigger.dev page