Gearman
Gearman is a free, open-source framework for distributing work across machines or processes, including parallel processing and load balancing.
What Gearman is
Gearman is a free, open-source framework for distributing work across machines or processes, including parallel processing and load balancing. An application uses a client to submit jobs, a job server to route them, and a worker to perform them. Jobs can run asynchronously in the background or receive priority. Clients and workers may use different language interfaces when both understand the workload; listed interfaces include C, C#/.NET, Go, Java, Lisp, Node.js, PHP, Perl, Python, Ruby, and Rust.
Messages can be up to 4 GB, and larger messages can be chunked. Clients and workers can be configured to connect to multiple job servers and fail over if one stops. The C job server supports persistent queues. MySQL and PostgreSQL functions expose Gearman client calls to SQL queries, triggers, and stored procedures, while the pure Perl client and worker API supports SSL. Gearman is self-hosted and has Linux and Windows installation options. It is available under the BSD license at no cost, with no free trial. GearmanSharp is incomplete and does not implement the full protocol.
Good
- Supports background asynchronous and prioritized jobs
- Clients and workers can fail over between job servers
- Messages up to 4 GB; larger ones can be chunked
- Persistent queues supported by the C job server
- Free under the BSD license
Watch out
- GearmanSharp does not implement the full protocol
- No free trial is listed
- Self-hosted deployment is required
Who it suits
Gearman suits developers who need to distribute jobs among machines or processes and can operate a self-hosted system. Its listed language interfaces and database integrations may suit teams using those environments.
Verdict
Gearman offers a client-server-worker model with cross-language interfaces and job-server failover. Teams considering the C# GearmanSharp interface should account for its incomplete protocol support.
Plans and prices
From Gearman's own pricing page, checked 7 Oct 2026.
| Plan | Price | What it gives you |
|---|---|---|
| Gearman | Free | Open source · BSD license |
| Gearman open-source software | Free | self-hosted job server · client and worker APIs · BSD-licensed components |
The facts
Each one read from Gearman's own pages, with the date it was checked.
What it does
- Architecture
- A Gearman deployment has clients that submit jobs, a job server that routes them, and workers that execute them and return results.checked 15 Oct 2026
- Build requirements
- The Ubuntu build guide lists GCC, autoconf, bison, flex, libtool, make, Boost, libcurl, libevent, memcached, UUID, SQLite, and MySQL development packages.checked 15 Oct 2026
- Command-line interface
- The Ubuntu manpage documents command-line client and worker modes, background and priority options, multiple servers, timeouts, and worker counts.checked 15 Oct 2026
- Cross-language execution
- Clients and workers can use different language APIs while communicating through the same Gearman protocol.checked 15 Oct 2026
- Cross-language work
- Clients and workers can use different language interfaces as long as their applications understand the workload being sent.checked 7 Oct 2026
- Database integration
- MySQL and PostgreSQL UDF packages expose Gearman client calls to SQL queries, triggers, and stored procedures.checked 15 Oct 2026
- Database integrations
- The download page lists MySQL and PostgreSQL user-defined functions that expose Gearman client calls to SQL queries, triggers, and stored procedures.checked 7 Oct 2026
- Documentation depth
- The documentation site includes getting started material, a manual, protocol specifications, generated gearmand documentation, libgearman references, install guides, SSL instructions, and changelogs.checked 15 Oct 2026
- Fault tolerance
- Multiple job servers can be configured so clients and workers fail over when one server becomes unavailable.checked 15 Oct 2026
- Homebrew packaging
- Homebrew identifies gearman as the gearmand application, labels it BSD-3-Clause licensed, and provides bottles for macOS and Linux architectures.checked 15 Oct 2026
- HTTP integration
- An HTTP protocol plugin maps GET and POST requests to Gearman jobs, but the documentation marks it experimental.checked 15 Oct 2026
- Installation methods
- The getting-started guide covers RHEL/Fedora and Debian/Ubuntu packages, Windows installation, source tarballs, and Git checkout builds.checked 15 Oct 2026
- Job modes
- Gearman supports background asynchronous jobs and prioritized jobs.checked 7 Oct 2026
- Language APIs
- Official downloads list C, C#/.NET, Go, Java, Lisp, Node.js, PHP, Perl, Python, Ruby, Rust, database UDFs, and shell tooling.checked 15 Oct 2026
- Language support
- The project lists client and worker interfaces for languages including C, C#/.NET, Go, Java, Node.js, PHP, Perl, Python, Ruby, and Rust.checked 7 Oct 2026
- Latest release
- GitHub lists gearmand 2.1.0 as an August 2026 feature and bug-fix release improving thread safety, connection lifecycle reliability, OpenSSL diagnostics, health checks, and persistent-storage plugins.checked 15 Oct 2026
- Licence
- The project describes itself as open source and BSD licensed; the C server and libgearman are specifically identified as BSD licensed.checked 15 Oct 2026
- Limit: configuration guidance
- A project maintainer on the mailing list said Gearman had suffered prolonged silence and advised listing all job servers in every client and worker configuration for failover and distribution.checked 15 Oct 2026
- Limit: documentation
- The independent deployment report calls job-server documentation insufficient and says some socket keep-alive behavior was undocumented.checked 15 Oct 2026
- Limit: duplicate work after failure
- The independent report warns that a job can repeat database writes if it crashes after partially completing its database operations.checked 15 Oct 2026
- Limit: network security configuration
- A 2014 independent report said Gearman then lacked built-in access security and recommended firewall protection; current official documentation separately describes optional SSL configuration.checked 15 Oct 2026
- Limit: operational complexity
- A Gearman mailing-list user reported uneven worker utilization, queued jobs, stalled status reporting, high CPU use, and inconsistent multi-server statistics.checked 15 Oct 2026
- Limit: PHP operations
- A Reddit PHP discussion reports recurring queue errors, historical high-CPU extension bugs, and the operational burden of restarting large numbers of workers during updates.checked 15 Oct 2026
The company
- Founded
- 2005checked 28 Sep 2026
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