TrigRun vs AWS EventBridge Scheduler
Detailed comparison of TrigRun and AWS EventBridge Scheduler. Purpose-built cron SaaS vs cloud-native infrastructure scheduler.
AWS EventBridge Scheduler is a powerful, infrastructure-grade scheduler built deep into the AWS ecosystem. TrigRun is a purpose-built cron SaaS for developers who want scheduled HTTP calls without cloud infrastructure overhead.
At a glance
| Feature | TrigRun | AWS EventBridge Scheduler |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free 500 exec/mo, Pro 50k exec/mo, Team 200k exec/mo | $1/million invocations, 14M free/mo |
| Setup | Sign up, create a job | AWS account, IAM role, trust policy, target permissions |
| HTTP targets | Native — URL + method + headers + body | Requires Lambda or API Destinations as proxy |
| Scheduling | Cron, recurring, one-time, scheduled | Cron (6-field), rate expressions, one-time (at()) |
| Retry logic | Exponential backoff, configurable | 0-185 retries, configurable max age |
| Dead-letter queue | — | Native SQS DLQ |
| Execution logs | Built-in dashboard with status, duration, response body | CloudWatch metrics + CloudTrail (separate tools) |
| Secret management | AES-256-GCM encrypted vault | AWS Secrets Manager (separate service) |
| Scale | Designed for SaaS workloads | 10M schedules/account, 1000+ invocations/sec |
| CLI | trigrun | aws scheduler CLI |
| IaC | — | CloudFormation, Terraform, CDK, SAM, Pulumi |
| MCP / AI agent support | Native MCP server, llms.txt / llms-full.txt | — |
| Vendor lock-in | Cloud-agnostic SaaS | Deep AWS dependency |
Where TrigRun wins
Zero infrastructure setup
TrigRun: sign up, paste a URL, pick a cron expression, done. AWS EventBridge Scheduler requires an AWS account, IAM execution role with a trust policy for scheduler.amazonaws.com, target-specific permissions, and iam:PassRole configuration. For HTTP endpoints, you also need Lambda or API Destinations as an intermediary.
Native HTTP targets
TrigRun calls any public URL directly — with custom headers, JSON body, and secret interpolation. EventBridge Scheduler targets are AWS service ARNs. To call an external HTTP endpoint, you must create a Lambda function or configure API Destinations — adding complexity, latency, and cost.
Built-in execution dashboard
TrigRun shows every execution with status code, latency, response body, and retry attempts in one view. With EventBridge, you piece together CloudWatch metrics (aggregate, not per-schedule), CloudTrail logs (API operations, not execution results), and DLQ messages (only if configured). There is no unified execution viewer.
Encrypted secrets
TrigRun's secret:// syntax resolves credentials at execution time from a built-in vault. With AWS, you use Secrets Manager ($0.40/secret/month + API charges) as a separate service, then wire it into your Lambda or target.
AI agent integration
TrigRun ships a native MCP server, llms.txt / llms-full.txt, and an OpenAPI spec designed for agent consumption. EventBridge Scheduler has no agent-specific integration.
Where AWS EventBridge Scheduler wins
Massive scale
10 million schedules per account (increasable), 1,000-5,000 schedule creates/second, 1,000 invocations/second throughput. TrigRun is designed for SaaS workloads, not per-entity scheduling patterns at this scale.
Universal AWS targets
EventBridge can natively trigger 6,000+ API operations across 270+ AWS services — Lambda, Step Functions, ECS/Fargate, SQS, SNS, CodeBuild, SageMaker, and more. No other scheduler offers this breadth.
14 million free invocations/month
The permanent free tier covers most small-to-medium workloads entirely. A job running every minute (43,200/month) stays well within limits.
Dead-letter queues
Native SQS DLQ support captures failed invocations after retry exhaustion. TrigRun does not currently support DLQs.
Flexible time windows
EventBridge can disperse invocations across a configurable window (e.g., 15 minutes) to reduce thundering-herd effects on downstream services. Unique feature for high-fanout scheduling.
IaC ecosystem
Full support for CloudFormation, Terraform, CDK, SAM, and Pulumi. TrigRun manages scheduling through its API and CLI, not infrastructure-as-code.
At-least-once delivery guarantee
Formally guaranteed with configurable retry policy (up to 185 retries over 24 hours). TrigRun provides at-least-once semantics but without a formal SLA on delivery guarantees.
Who should use what
Choose TrigRun if: You want to schedule HTTP webhooks without managing AWS infrastructure. You value a clean execution dashboard, encrypted secrets, and AI agent integration. You are not already heavily invested in the AWS ecosystem.
Choose AWS EventBridge Scheduler if: You are already running on AWS and need to trigger Lambda, Step Functions, ECS tasks, or other AWS services on a schedule. You need massive scale (millions of schedules) or deep cloud-native integration.
The core tradeoff: EventBridge Scheduler is an infrastructure primitive — powerful but requires cloud engineering expertise. TrigRun is a product — purpose-built for scheduled HTTP calls with the operational overhead removed.