Learn how Rundeck's runbook automation and job scheduling platform works, its free Community Edition versus paid Enterprise tier, and its PagerDuty acquisition.
Category
Automation
Pricing
Open-core: free open-source Community Edition, with a commercially licensed Enterprise/Process Automation tier priced via custom quote, from Free (Community Edition); Enterprise pricing custom, industry-reported to average around $51,000/year
Verified
Not yet
Last updated
July 19, 2026
Founded
2010
Headquarters
San Francisco, California, United States (part of PagerDuty, Inc.)
Free PlanAPIOpen SourceFreemiumSelf-Hosted
Overview
Rundeck is runbook automation and job scheduling software first released in 2010 by SimplifyOps, a company founded by Damon Edwards, Alex Honor, and Greg Schueler, and acquired by PagerDuty on October 1, 2020 for approximately $100 million in cash and stock.
The product turns manual operational runbooks into repeatable, self-service automations that let operations, DevOps, and SRE teams execute standardized tasks like deployments and remediations without granting broad production access.
Key Features
Rundeck's job scheduling supports cron-style schedules and event-driven triggers, and its workflow engine handles multi-step processes with conditional logic, error handling, retries, and parallel execution across distributed infrastructure.
Enterprise and SaaS tiers add high-availability clustering, single sign-on, certified plugins for tools like ServiceNow and Datadog, a visual workflow builder, job queuing and load balancing, and, more recently, AI-assisted runbook generation.
Pricing
The Community Edition of Rundeck is free and open source, covering core workflow execution, scheduling, community plugins, and activity logging for teams willing to self-manage reliability and support.
The self-hosted Enterprise tier and the fully managed PagerDuty Process Automation SaaS tier are both custom-priced via PagerDuty sales, with third-party sources reporting average enterprise contract values around $51,000 per year.
Key Features
Cron-style and event-driven job scheduling — Supports both traditional cron-syntax scheduled jobs and event-driven triggers for reactive automation.
Multi-step workflow engine — Handles complex operational processes with conditional logic, error handling, retry mechanisms, and parallel step execution.
Self-service access delegation — Lets administrators grant specific users or teams the ability to run predefined jobs without full underlying system access.
Certified enterprise plugins — Enterprise tier includes certified integrations with tools such as PagerDuty, ServiceNow, and Datadog for connected incident and change workflows.
High-availability clustering — Enterprise and SaaS tiers support HA clustering with auto-takeover to keep automation running during node failures.
Visual workflow builder — A GUI-based workflow visualization and configuration tool available on the Enterprise and SaaS tiers for building jobs without hand-writing definitions.
Activity logging and key storage — Built-in audit logging of job executions and secure key storage for credentials, available even in the free Community Edition.
AI-assisted runbook generation — The managed PagerDuty Process Automation SaaS tier includes AI-generated runbook suggestions and ROI metrics for automation initiatives.
Pros & Cons
Pros
Free, open-source Community Edition available for teams that want to self-host at no cost
Backed by PagerDuty's incident-response ecosystem and integrations
Mature product with a long track record dating back to 2010
Supports both self-hosted and fully managed SaaS deployment models
Used by many Fortune 500 companies, indicating enterprise-grade reliability at scale
Cons
Enterprise and SaaS pricing is not published and requires contacting sales
Community Edition lacks high availability, SSO, and certified plugins found in paid tiers
Reported average enterprise contract value (~$51,000/year) is a significant cost for smaller teams
Now fully owned by PagerDuty, so its roadmap is tied to PagerDuty's broader product strategy rather than operating independently
Pricing
Community Edition (Open Source) Free n/a
PagerDuty Process Automation Self-Hosted (Enterprise) Custom contact sales
PagerDuty Process Automation (SaaS) Custom contact sales
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Rundeck free?
Yes, Rundeck's Community Edition is free and open source, though it lacks enterprise features like high availability, SSO, and certified plugins found in the paid Enterprise and SaaS tiers.
Who owns Rundeck?
Rundeck is owned by PagerDuty, which acquired it on October 1, 2020 for approximately $100 million in cash and stock; it is now marketed as PagerDuty Process Automation.
How much does Rundeck Enterprise cost?
Enterprise and SaaS pricing is not publicly listed and requires a custom quote from PagerDuty sales; third-party sources report average enterprise contracts around $51,000 per year.
When was Rundeck founded?
Rundeck was first released in 2010 by SimplifyOps, a company founded by Damon Edwards, Alex Honor, and Greg Schueler.
What is Rundeck used for?
Rundeck is used for runbook automation and job scheduling, letting operations and DevOps teams automate and delegate routine tasks like deployments, restarts, and incident remediation.
Does Rundeck support Kubernetes and cloud infrastructure?
Yes, Rundeck is commonly used to automate tasks across distributed and cloud infrastructure, and integrates with tools such as Datadog and ServiceNow via certified plugins on the Enterprise tier.
What is the difference between Rundeck Community and Enterprise?
Community is free and open source with core scheduling and workflow features, while Enterprise adds high-availability clustering, SSO, certified plugins, a visual workflow builder, and job queuing for scale.
Is there a managed, hosted version of Rundeck?
Yes, PagerDuty offers a fully managed SaaS edition called PagerDuty Process Automation, which includes a 99.9 percent uptime SLA and AI-assisted runbook generation.