🔍 TickerQ vs Hangfire vs Quartz.NET
This page compares TickerQ, Hangfire, and Quartz.NET based on functionality, extensibility, performance, and developer experience. While all three are widely used, TickerQ provides the most modern, performant, and developer-friendly background task scheduling experience for .NET applications.
⚙️ Feature Comparison
| Feature | TickerQ | Hangfire | Quartz.NET |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cron scheduling | ✅ Yes | ✅ Yes | ✅ Yes |
| Time-based one-time jobs | ✅ Yes (TimeTicker) | ⚠️ Simulated via delay | ✅ Yes |
| Persistent job store | ✅ With EF Core | ✅ Yes | ✅ Yes |
| In-memory mode | ✅ Built-in | ✅ Built-in | ✅ Built-in |
| Retry/cooldown logic | ✅ Advanced & configurable | ⚠️ Basic retries only | ⚠️ Manual |
| Dashboard UI | ✅ First-party + real-time | ✅ Basic | ⚠️ Third-party required |
| DI support | ✅ Native and seamless | 🟠 Partial – type-based only | ⚠️ Requires extra config |
| Reflection-free job discovery | ✅ Roslyn-based, compile-time | ❌ Uses reflection | ❌ Uses reflection |
| Multi-node/distributed support | ✅ Native with EF Core | ⚠️ Depends on storage | ✅ Yes |
| Custom tickers (plugin model) | ✅ Fully extensible | ❌ Not extensible | ⚠️ Limited |
| Parallelism & concurrency control | ✅ Built-in scheduler threadpool | ✅ Queues/ServerCount | ✅ ThreadPools |
| Performance under high load | ✅ Optimized, no overhead | ⚠️ Depends on storage/db | ⚠️ Thread blocking possible |
| Async/await support | ✅ Yes | ⚠️ Limited – wrapped sync methods | ✅ Yes |
| CancellationToken support | ✅ Propagated & honored | ❌ Not natively supported | 🟠 Optional – must check manually |
🧪 Developer Experience
| Area | TickerQ | Hangfire | Quartz.NET |
|---|---|---|---|
| Setup time | 🟢 Minimal, zero config needed | 🟠 Easy but reflection-based | 🔴 Verbose and complex |
| API design | 🟢 Modern attribute-first | 🟠 Static/Manual | 🔴 Old interface-based |
| Configuration style | 🟢 Clean C# attributes | 🟠 Requires registration | 🔴 XML or complex builders |
| Extensibility | 🟢 Open, plugin-based | 🔴 Closed architecture | 🟠 Requires extension libraries |
| Debuggability | 🟢 Compile-time verified | 🔴 Errors at runtime | 🟠 Harder to trace |
🚀 Why Choose TickerQ?
TickerQ is purpose-built for modern .NET developers who want:
- ✅ Compile-time safety with Roslyn analyzers and source generators
- ✅ Zero reflection, fully optimized for performance
- ✅ Native DI support, no need for job activators
- ✅ Flexible extensibility with a plugin-style ticker model
- ✅ Built-in scheduler and threadpool for reliable and deterministic execution
- ✅ High performance, minimal memory footprint, and no background polling
- ✅ Works in-memory or with EF Core, offering smooth scalability
- ✅ Real-time dashboard, designed with SignalR and Tailwind CSS
TickerQ keeps your background processing simple, fast, and under your control — while enabling enterprise-grade reliability when you need it.