Side by side

AWS Step Functions vs Cloudflare Workflows

Both stand on process orchestration software. Which one you can start free with, which one lets you read the code, and what each costs once you pay.

AWS Step Functions

Free plan APIWeb

Step Functions offers visual workflow design, AWS and HTTPS integrations, and execution monitoring. Its execution duration and payload limits differ by workflow and should be considered when planning a workflow.

Visit AWS Step Functions

Cloudflare Workflows

Free plan APIWeb

Cloudflare Workflows combines durable steps, retries and waiting periods for applications built on Workers. Check the plan limits and deployment restriction against your intended use.

Visit Cloudflare Workflows

The facts

	AWS Step Functions	Cloudflare Workflows
Free plan	Yes	Yes
Open source	Not published	Not published
Runs on	API, Web	API, Web
Lowest paid plan	Free or on request	Free or on request
Plans published	3	2
Maker	Not published	Not published
Website	aws.amazon.com	developers.cloudflare.com
On process orchestration software	#9 of 31	#13 of 31

AWS Step Functions: what it does well

Visual workflow designer is included in the console.
Integrates with over 200 AWS services.
Distributed Map supports up to 10,000 parallel child executions.
Execution history, CloudWatch Logs, and AWS X-Ray are available.
Free plan is listed.

What to know first

Task, state, or execution payloads are limited to 256 KiB.
Express executions can run for up to five minutes.
Standard and Express pricing is usage-based.

Cloudflare Workflows: what it does well

Retries failed tasks and preserves state.
Can wait for webhooks or external responses.
Waiting and sleeping do not incur CPU time.
Can call Cloudflare services including R2, KV and D1.

What to know first

Free plan usage limits apply.
Paid pricing starts at 5 /mo.
CPU time remains subject to configured limits.
Cannot deploy to Workers for Platforms namespaces.

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