TL;DR
Temporal is a workflow platform with SDKs for several languages. You can run Temporal Server yourself or use Temporal Cloud. OpenWorkflow gives you durable workflows without a separate orchestration server. Your workers connect directly to PostgreSQL or SQLite.What This Looks Like in Practice
In Temporal, you put work such as API calls in Activity functions and call them from a workflow. In OpenWorkflow, you wrap each operation instep.run. Both
run your code in workers, but the services you operate differ:
Temporal uses a Visibility store for listing and filtering workflows.
Supported PostgreSQL and MySQL versions provide Advanced Visibility;
Elasticsearch is not required.
When OpenWorkflow is the Better Fit
- Self-hosting: You already run PostgreSQL or SQLite and want workers to use that database directly. You manage the workers and database without deploying a separate orchestration server.
- TypeScript workflows: You need saved step results, retries, long waits,
and deadlines. OpenWorkflow provides these through
step.run,step.sleep, retry policies, anddeadlineAt.
When Temporal is the Right Call
- Multiple languages: You need one workflow platform across multiple languages.
- Queries and Updates: You need to read workflow state or submit changes and await a response. OpenWorkflow has Signals, but no equivalent Query or Update APIs. Its signals only reach workflows already waiting for them; they aren’t buffered.
- Long-running Activities: You need Activity heartbeats to save progress
for the next attempt. OpenWorkflow’s worker heartbeats renew run leases;
they don’t save progress inside a
step.runfunction. - Managed orchestration: You want Temporal Cloud to operate the service that stores workflow history and schedules work.