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Comparison · DevOps

Rivet vs Slurm

A side-by-side editorial comparison of Rivet and Slurm — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.

Rivet vs Slurm: at a glance

FeatureRivetSlurm
SectorDevOpsDevOps
Velocity score6.35.0
Sparks · 30d10
Top themesactors, rust, storage engine, s3hpc, job-scheduling, containers, slurmrestd
Last editorial update16h ago3d ago
Website—Visit →

What is Rivet?

Rivet's Rust SDK for Actors is generally available.

Rivet has spent two months building infrastructure for long-lived actors and AI agents: BYOC, OpenTelemetry tracing, actor-scoped JWTs and agentOS Hosted VMs. The 3.0 Preview made Rivet a single stateless binary on S3. The Rust SDK for Rivet Actors is now generally available, with SQLite, WebSockets, cron and OpenTelemetry built in.

Read the full Rivet trajectory →

What is Slurm?

Slurm 26.11 RC turns on the threadpool by default and splits containers into runtime plugins

Slurm maintains three branches (25.05, 25.11, 26.05) and shipped coordinated fixes for seven CVEs across all three on September 2; 26.05.5 in October was routine maintenance. On November 6 the first release candidate for 26.11 arrived. It enables the slurmctld threadpool by default, makes all RPC replies asynchronous, moves OCI container execution out of slurmstepd into a new runtime/oci plugin with --container-type renamed to --runtime, and hardens slurmrestd with dropped Linux capabilities and unauthenticated health endpoints.

Read the full Slurm trajectory →

Rivet vs Slurm: editorial side-by-side

R
Rivet
DEVOPS
6.3

Rivet's Rust SDK for Actors is generally available.

◆ Current state

Rivet has spent two months building infrastructure for long-lived actors and AI agents: BYOC, OpenTelemetry tracing, actor-scoped JWTs and agentOS Hosted VMs. The 3.0 Preview made Rivet a single stateless binary on S3. The Rust SDK for Rivet Actors is now generally available, with SQLite, WebSockets, cron and OpenTelemetry built in.

◆ Where it's heading

Rivet is widening who can build on its actor model while 3.0 matures: a Rust SDK GA lets performance-sensitive teams use it without a TypeScript layer. The platform direction remains S3-only infrastructure for stateful workloads.

◆ Prediction

Expect 3.0 to move toward a stable release and more SDK languages. The entries don't show a 3.0 GA date.

S
Slurm
DEVOPS
5.0

Slurm 26.11 RC turns on the threadpool by default and splits containers into runtime plugins

◆ Current state

Slurm maintains three branches (25.05, 25.11, 26.05) and shipped coordinated fixes for seven CVEs across all three on September 2; 26.05.5 in October was routine maintenance. On November 6 the first release candidate for 26.11 arrived. It enables the slurmctld threadpool by default, makes all RPC replies asynchronous, moves OCI container execution out of slurmstepd into a new runtime/oci plugin with --container-type renamed to --runtime, and hardens slurmrestd with dropped Linux capabilities and unauthenticated health endpoints.

◆ Where it's heading

26.11 is an architectural release more than a feature one: the controller's concurrency model changes by default, container support becomes a pluggable runtime layer, and slurmrestd is being prepared to run as a service behind health checks. Several options are renamed or deprecated (conmgr_threads, SLURMRESTD_JSON, become_user), so upgrades will need config review.

◆ Prediction

Expect further 26.11 release candidates fixing threadpool and async-reply regressions before a 26.11.0 GA, alongside a 26.05.6 point release on the current branch.

Alternatives to Rivet and Slurm

Other DevOps products tracked by Sparkpulse, ranked by recent ship velocity. Each card links to a full editorial trajectory and lets you pivot into a head-to-head comparison with either Rivet or Slurm.

See all Rivet alternatives → · See all Slurm alternatives →

Recent activity from Rivet and Slurm

Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.

  1. 4d agoSlurmSlurm 26.11 RC1: threadpool on by default, OCI runtime plugin
  2. 4d agoRivetRust SDK for Rivet Actors Is Now Generally Available
  3. 6d agoSlurmwickberg-test: Testsuite - Cover a --stepmgr step cancel in test_101_18
  4. 15d agoRivetIntroducing Rivet 3.0 Preview ⚡
  5. 27d agoSlurmv26.05.5
  6. 29d agoRivetIntroducing agentOS 0.4 & Hosted VMs
  7. 1mo agoRivetIntroducing Pi Durable for Rivet
  8. 1mo agoRivetReplacing Our Message Broker with... S3? ⚡
  9. 1mo agoRivetIntroducing Pi 1.0 for Rivet
  10. 2mo agoSlurmSlurm 26.05.4 fixes 7 CVEs, including privilege escalation
  11. 2mo agoSlurmSlurm 25.11.8: CVE backport security release
  12. 2mo agoSlurmSlurm 25.05.9: CVE backport security release

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between Rivet and Slurm?

They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. Rivet is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 6.3 vs 5.0), with 1 editorial sparks in the last 30 days against 0. See the at-a-glance table above for a side-by-side breakdown of velocity, recent sparks, and editorial themes.

Is Rivet better than Slurm?

Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. Rivet is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 6.3 vs 5.0), with 1 editorial sparks in the last 30 days against 0. For your specific use case, the alternatives sections above list other DevOps products to evaluate alongside.

What are the best alternatives to Rivet?

Top Rivet alternatives in DevOps are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "Rivet alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/rivet for the full list with editorial commentary on each.

What are the best alternatives to Slurm?

Top Slurm alternatives in DevOps are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "Slurm alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/slurm for the full list with editorial commentary on each.