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Ballast vs Trigger.dev
Trigger.dev is the closest peer to Ballast — an open-source platform for building AI workflows, self-hostable, with durable, observable runs. The difference is how you build them and what comes in the box.
At a glance
The three biggest differences
Visual builder, not just code
Trigger.dev defines tasks in TypeScript. Ballast adds a canvas teammates can read — with code SDKs when you want them.
Python and TypeScript
First-class SDKs for both, so data and ML teams aren't locked into a TypeScript-only workflow.
Governance in the box
Approval UI, per-step USD cost, evaluations, and audit/RBAC ship as features — not patterns you assemble.
Feature by feature
Ballast vs Trigger.dev, in detail
Trigger.dev is code-first and TypeScript-centric: you define tasks in code and get retries, queues, and observability. Ballast gives you a visual builder that non-engineers can read, first-class SDKs for Python and TypeScript, and human-approval gates, per-step USD cost, evaluations, and governance as product features rather than patterns you assemble.
| Capability | Ballast | Trigger.dev |
|---|---|---|
| Build | ||
| Built for AI workflows | ||
| Visual workflow builderA graph non-engineers can read | ||
| Code-defined tasks | Optional (SDKs) | |
| Languages | Python + TypeScript | TypeScript-first |
| Run | ||
| Durable, checkpointed execution | ||
| Human approval gates | Built-in UI | Wait tokens (code) |
| Govern & measure | ||
| Per-step LLM cost in USD | Compute cost only | |
| Built-in evaluations | ||
| Audit log + RBAC | Built-in | Enterprise |
| Self-host |
Fair play
When Trigger.dev is the better choice
Choose Trigger.devif you're an all-TypeScript team that prefers defining jobs in code, you want a mature, permissively-licensed (Apache-2.0) open-source project with a large community today, or your workload is general background jobs as much as agents. It's excellent at what it does — Ballast's bet is the visual builder plus a bundled governance and evaluation layer.
See it on a canvas.
Design a workflow visually and run it in minutes — no API keys to start.