Tools/temporalio/temporal

Temporal

Durable execution platform for workflow orchestration

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The Lens

By Erik Loyd, SaaS CEO and former COO/CFO of an AWS Premier Partner.

Updated Oct 2026

Temporal keeps long-running code from losing its place. Payments, order pipelines, agent loops: you write them as normal functions in Go, Java, Python, TypeScript, .NET, Ruby or PHP, and Temporal records each step so a crash or deploy resumes right where it stopped. The server, CLI, web UI and SDKs are MIT licensed and free.

Self-hosting is hard. Production needs Postgres, MySQL or Cassandra, plus a visibility store for searching workflows; the docs still recommend Elasticsearch or OpenSearch past a few workflows. temporal server start-dev covers your laptop. You also own patching: September brought a command-injection CVE in the Worker Service (1.31.0 to 1.31.2).

Temporal Cloud dropped its plan minimums. Pay-as-you-go starts at $0 with $150 in credits for 90 days, then a flat $50 per million actions plus support at 10% of usage. Volume pricing down to $25 needs Business support, the greater of $500/month or 10%. Solo: start-dev locally. Small and medium teams: Cloud. Large teams with a platform group: self-host or Enterprise.

The catch: determinism. Workflow code can't branch on the local clock or a random number, API calls belong in Activities, and changing a running workflow without versioning breaks replay. Inngest and Restate are lighter if you only need retries.

Free vs Self-Hosted vs Paid

free self hosted paid cloud

Free: The full Temporal platform is open source under MIT: the Temporal Service, the CLI, the web UI and the SDKs (Go, Java, Python, TypeScript, .NET, Ruby, PHP). No server features are held back for Cloud. Community support via Slack and the forum.

Self-hosted: Persistence on Cassandra, PostgreSQL or MySQL (SQLite is supported for development and testing only). Advanced visibility (searching workflows) runs on MySQL, PostgreSQL or SQLite since server 1.20, but the docs still recommend Elasticsearch or OpenSearch for any setup that spawns more than a few workflow executions; Cassandra visibility was deprecated in 1.21 and removed in 1.24. temporal server start-dev runs a local dev server. Current lines are 1.32.1, 1.31.4 and 1.30.8 (October 2026). Budget for patching: GHSA-w8cx-4cf2-9hvr (Sept 21, 2026, high) is OS command injection in the Worker Service by anyone with a namespace write role, affecting 1.31.0 to 1.31.2 (fixed in 1.31.3 and 1.32.0); GHSA-pv35-7w89-v65c (same day, high) is a Schedule-spec denial of service; April brought CVE-2026-5724 (missing auth on a replication streaming endpoint, fixed in 1.28.4, 1.29.6, 1.30.4) and CVE-2026-5199 (cross-namespace workflow signal/delete/reset).

Paid: Temporal Cloud is pay-as-you-go from $0/month: no base fee, no minimum, $150 in free credits that expire after 90 days (credit card required). Actions cost a flat $50 per million at every volume on the Developer plan. On Business, Enterprise and Mission Critical, volume tiers apply: $50 per million for the first 5M, $45 for the next 5M, $40 for the next 10M, $35 for the next 30M, $30 for the next 50M, $25 for the next 100M, and over 200M is a sales conversation. Storage is $0.042 per GBh active and $0.00105 per GBh retained (retention up to 90 days). Developer support (1 business day P0) is billed at 10% of usage. Business is the greater of $500/month or 10% of usage, includes 2.5M actions, 2.5 GB active and 100 GB retained storage, a 2 business hour P0 response, and SCIM as a +$500/month add-on. Enterprise (annual commitment) includes 10M actions, 24/7 support with under 30 minute P0 response and SCIM; Mission Critical adds a 15 minute P0 and a dedicated platform architect. Cost traps: enabling Task Queue Fairness bills an extra 0.1 Action per Action across the whole namespace, and HA replicas apply a 2x multiplier to Actions and Storage. Startups under $30M in funding can apply for $6,000 in credits.

No minimum anymore: Cloud bills a flat $50 per million actions plus storage and 10% for support, after $150 in 90-day credits. Volume pricing down to $25 per million starts on Business support, at least $500/month, and HA doubles action and storage billing.

What to do by team size

Solo: free; run temporal server start-dev locally, or Cloud pay-as-you-go once the $150 credits run out
Small team: Cloud pay-as-you-go: no base fee, per-action billing plus 10% for support
Medium team: Cloud with Business support (greater of $500/month or 10% of usage) once you need a 2 business hour P0 response
Large team: self-host with a platform team that patches promptly, or Enterprise for 24/7 support and SCIM

Self-hosting ops:heavy

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