Agenda
Agenda is a free, MIT-licensed job scheduling library for Node.js applications.
What Agenda is
Agenda is a free, MIT-licensed job scheduling library for Node.js applications. Jobs can be scheduled with cron expressions or human-readable time syntax, with configurable concurrency and locking for execution control. Agenda 6.x supports MongoDB, PostgreSQL, and Redis storage backends, plus custom backend implementations. Optional real-time notifications can use Redis Pub/Sub, PostgreSQL LISTEN/NOTIFY, or another pub/sub system. The official MongoDB backend provides polling only, while PostgreSQL and Redis provide notifications as well as storage. Workers can run in a sandboxed fork mode. Version 6.x is an ESM-only TypeScript rewrite with strict typing and decorators for class-based job definitions. It requires Node.js 18 or later and a database such as MongoDB 4+, PostgreSQL, or Redis. The project lists agendash as a web dashboard and agenda-rest as a REST API tool. Agenda is self-hosted, offers custom retry policy support, and has no dead-letter queue. Official SDK languages are JavaScript and TypeScript.
Good
- Free MIT-licensed library
- Supports MongoDB, PostgreSQL, Redis, or custom storage
- Cron and human-readable scheduling syntax
- Configurable concurrency and locking
- Sandboxed worker execution is available
Watch out
- Requires Node.js 18 or later
- Requires a separate database
- MongoDB backend offers polling only
- No dead-letter queue is listed
Who it suits
Agenda suits developers building self-hosted Node.js systems that need scheduled jobs and configurable execution. It is useful for teams working with JavaScript or TypeScript and supported databases.
Verdict
Agenda provides flexible, self-hosted scheduling for Node.js with several storage choices and execution controls. Its database and runtime requirements, plus the lack of a dead-letter queue, matter when planning deployments.
Plans and prices
From Agenda's own pricing page, checked 7 Oct 2026.
| Plan | Price | What it gives you |
|---|---|---|
| Agenda | Free | MIT-licensed Node.js job scheduling library |
The facts
Each one read from Agenda's own pages, with the date it was checked.
What it does
- Backend limitation
- The official MongoDB backend provides polling only; PostgreSQL and Redis backends provide notifications as well as storage.checked 7 Oct 2026
- Concurrency and locking
- Agenda supports configurable job concurrency and locking.checked 7 Oct 2026
- License
- Agenda is MIT licensed.checked 7 Oct 2026
- Notifications
- Optional real-time job notifications use Redis Pub/Sub, PostgreSQL LISTEN/NOTIFY, or other pub/sub systems.checked 7 Oct 2026
- Purpose
- Agenda is a lightweight job scheduling library for Node.js.checked 7 Oct 2026
- Related tools
- The project lists agendash as a web dashboard and agenda-rest as a REST API tool for Agenda.checked 7 Oct 2026
- Requirements
- Agenda 6.x requires Node.js 18 or later and a database such as MongoDB 4+, PostgreSQL, or Redis.checked 7 Oct 2026
- Scheduling
- Jobs can be scheduled with cron expressions or human-readable time syntax.checked 7 Oct 2026
- Storage backends
- Agenda 6.x supports pluggable MongoDB, PostgreSQL, and Redis storage backends, with the option to implement a custom backend.checked 7 Oct 2026
- TypeScript
- Version 6.x is an ESM-only TypeScript rewrite with strict typing and TypeScript decorators for class-based job definitions.checked 7 Oct 2026
- Worker execution
- Agenda supports sandboxed worker execution through fork mode.checked 7 Oct 2026
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