Adoption Brief
Dagu Adoption Brief
Everything needed to evaluate and approve Dagu for production use. Written so it can be attached to an internal approval request as-is.
Executive summary
- What
- Dagu is a self-hosted workflow orchestrator: a single binary that replaces scattered cron jobs and hand-run scripts with versioned, observable, retryable workflows.
- Cost
- The Community edition is free and open source (GPLv3). Paid licenses start at $50/month or $500/year for 3 servers, cancellable anytime.
- Data risk
- None. Dagu runs entirely on your infrastructure and contains no telemetry — nothing about you or your workflows leaves your network.
- Reversal cost
- An afternoon. All state is plain files on disk; stop the binary and the files remain yours.
- The ask
- Approve a self-host license purchase. A free trial comes first — no credit card required.
Why teams adopt Dagu
One auditable place for automation
Scheduled jobs stop living in scattered crontabs and shell scripts. Every workflow is versioned YAML with logs, run history, and access control.
Fewer silent overnight failures
Retries, timeouts, notifications, and run history are built in, so failures surface immediately instead of days later.
No new infrastructure
One binary with file-based storage. No database, no message broker, no operators to run — and it works fully offline.
What it costs
| Plan | Price | Covers |
|---|---|---|
| Community | Free | Open source (GPLv3), the full engine, unlimited workflows |
| Minimum | $50/mo or $500/yr | 3 server licenses plus SSO, RBAC, audit logging, and incident routing |
| Pro | $150/mo or $1,500/yr | 15 server licenses with the same features |
| Enterprise | Custom | Custom server allotment and terms |
- Workers are not licensed separately — only servers count toward the license.
- A free license trial is available without a credit card.
- For most teams the license costs less per month than one engineer-hour spent debugging a failed cron job.
Risk assessment
| Risk | Mitigation | Residual |
|---|---|---|
| Data leaves our network | Self-hosted with zero telemetry and zero analytics in the product. Runs fully offline or airgapped. | None |
| Vendor lock-in | Workflows are plain YAML; run history and state are plain files in a documented layout, readable without Dagu. | None |
| Vendor disappears | The core is GPLv3 open source and outlives any company. An existing deployment keeps running either way. | Low |
| License lapses | Running workflows and schedules are never stopped by license state; paid features degrade gracefully. | None |
| Security posture | The full codebase is open and auditable before deployment. Releases ship with checksums, and vulnerabilities are handled through a public process. | Standard |
Deployment fit
Dagu deploys the way your team already ships software:
- Single static binary — systemd, bare metal, or a VM
- Docker image and Compose files
- Helm chart, production-ready for private and airgapped clusters — mirror the image to your internal registry; no external pulls, no operators, no CRDs
- Fully offline operation with no cloud dependency of any kind
Support and accountability
- Paid licenses include direct support from the maintainers — the people who wrote the code answer the tickets.
- Active release cadence with a public changelog and roadmap on GitHub.
- Community support through GitHub issues and discussions for the free edition.
Reversibility
- Start with the free trial on real workflows — no credit card and no sales call.
- Cancel anytime; the Community edition keeps working.
- Leaving entirely means stopping one binary and keeping your files. There is no export project to plan for.
Approving Dagu is a small, reversible decision.
How to purchase
- Self-serve checkout by card at console.dagu.sh — the license key is issued immediately.
- Invoice or purchase-order billing is available on request.
- Legal documents — the terms of service and privacy policy — are public and linked in the appendix.
Appendix — for security and legal review
Network behavior
The product contains no telemetry. The only outbound connections that can occur are: license activation and heartbeat to console.dagu.sh (paid licenses only), a release check against GitHub when the upgrade command is run explicitly, and tracing export to your own OpenTelemetry collector if you configure one. Nothing else.
GPLv3, briefly
- Your workflow definitions and configuration are your data, not derivative works.
- Running Dagu internally carries no obligation to publish anything.
- The paid license adds features and support; it does not change your obligations under the GPL.
Documents
Page reviewed August 2026