River: Pricing, Features & Alternatives
River is an open-source background job queue for Go that stores jobs in PostgreSQL, enabling transactional enqueue alongside your application data. It offers strong typing, retries, periodic jobs, and a UI. The core is free and open-source; River Pro adds workflow and sequencing features.
Category
Background Jobs & Workflows
Pricing
Free tier available
Free tier
Yes
Best for
Background Jobs & Workflows — queue, postgres
River Pricing Plans (2026)
| Plan | Price |
|---|---|
| Open SourcePopular | $0 (self-hosted) |
| River Pro | Paid (license) |
Pricing summary: Free · then usage-based. Always confirm current pricing on the official site.
Key River Features
- Open-source
- Postgres-backed
- Transactional enqueue
- Periodic jobs
Pros
- +Idiomatic Go with strong typing
- +Transactional enqueue on Postgres
- +No separate broker needed
- +Active development
Cons
- −Go only
- −Newer than incumbents
- −Postgres required
Best River Alternatives
Compare allRiver Compared
River FAQ
What is River used for?⌄
River is a background jobs & workflows tool. Fast, robust background job queue for Go, built on Postgres with transactional enqueueing.
Is River free?⌄
Yes — River has a free tier you can start with, and paid plans for more usage and features.
How much does River cost?⌄
River is free to use, with usage-based pricing on some features.
What are the best River alternatives?⌄
Popular River alternatives include Temporal, Inngest, Sidekiq, Trigger.dev, BullMQ. Compare pricing and features on our River alternatives page.
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