Open-source Azure Functions alternatives

Inngest is a workflow orchestration platform built around durable functions. These functions replace separate queues, state management and scheduling so developers can write reliable step functions and background jobs without managing the underlying infrastructure.

An Inngest function has three parts. Triggers are events, cron schedules or webhook events, flow control configures how runs are queued and executed through concurrency, throttling, debouncing, rate limiting and prioritization, and steps are the building blocks that can retry on error and run for months. You write functions with a language SDK, test them with the Inngest Dev Server, deploy them to your own infrastructure and sync them with the Inngest Platform or a self-hosted server, which then calls them securely over HTTPS when events arrive.

Inngest is written in Go. Its quick starts cover Next.js, Node.js and Python, and the documentation includes project architecture and self-hosting guides. The repository lists its licence as other, so check the terms before running it yourself.

OpenFaaS is a serverless platform that lets developers run event-driven functions and microservices on Kubernetes with little boilerplate code. Your code or a ready-made binary goes into an OCI-compatible container image, and you receive a scalable HTTP endpoint that auto-scales and exposes metrics.

Highlights include ease of use through a UI portal and a one-click install, and the ability to write services and functions in many languages. The project integrates with Prometheus for metrics and with GitOps workflows, and its topics place it in the functions-as-a-service and PaaS categories. The gateway and tooling are written in Go.

Licensing needs attention. The README states that the Community Edition is licensed for individual exploration and hobbyist use, with a 60-day limit for commercial proofs of concept, and that commercial and production use calls for the paid OpenFaaS Standard or Enterprise editions. GitHub reports the license as 'Other'. You run it on your own Kubernetes cluster.

Tau is the open-source core of Taubyte, described as a fullstack workspace for humans and machines. It is a cloud platform written in Go that spans the development environment, building applications, and deploying and running them. Topics place it in serverless computing, WebAssembly, peer-to-peer distributed systems, CDN, and cloud-native platform-as-a-service. It is released under the BSD-3-Clause license.

The quickest way to try it is to start a local cloud with the dream tool. For real use, you deploy Taubyte to your own servers or VMs, either manually or with the automated Spore Drive tool, and the documentation at tau.how covers the platform, deployment, and getting started. A video series called the Hitchhiker's Guide to Taubyte provides guided demos.

The project welcomes contributions through a standard fork, branch, test, and pull request workflow, with good first issues labeled. Tau suits developers and platform teams that want to run their own cloud-like environment, avoid dependence on a single hyperscaler, and experiment with a WebAssembly-based serverless model.