# gotoHuman vs Restate

> Restate scores 73.3 (BB) on agent readiness against gotoHuman's 43.6 (E), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Both do hitl approve. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gotohuman-vs-restate
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gotohuman-vs-restate.md (~2,050 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gotohuman-vs-restate.min.md (~730 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gotohuman-vs-restate.json (this page as data, same URL with Accept: application/json)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (full text: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- Updated: 2026-10-08

Restate scores 73.3 (BB) on agent readiness against gotoHuman's 43.6 (E), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Both do hitl approve.

- gotoHuman: grade E, 43.6/100, rank #670 of 722. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/gotohuman.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/gotohuman.json
- Restate: grade BB, 73.3/100, rank #78 of 722. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/restate.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/restate.json

## Which one, for what

### gotoHuman (E)

Good for: A team that wants a ready reviewer inbox where people edit AI output before it ships, without building a UI.

Also in its favour:
- A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install
- Runs on your own machine

Watch for: No status page, published rate limits or documented error responses

### Restate (BB)

Good for: A team that already writes agent steps as durable handlers and wants a long, cheap wait for a human answer in TypeScript, Python, Java, Go or Rust, with the option to self-host.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 91 against 20
- Schema & documentation, 85 against 49
- Agent ergonomics, 81 against 62
- Security & auth, 61 against 44
- Payments & pricing, 40 against 30
- Maintenance & community, 92 against 64

Also in its favour:
- Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better
- Free to start without a card

Watch for: No reviewer inbox, Slack app or email. The approval request and the reply endpoint are the builder's code


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | gotoHuman | Restate | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 20 | 91 | Restate +71 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 49 | 85 | Restate +36 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 62 | 81 | Restate +19 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 44 | 61 | Restate +17 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 30 | 40 | Restate +10 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 64 | 92 | Restate +28 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 52 | 50 | gotoHuman +2 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **43.6 · E** | **73.3 · BB** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | gotoHuman | Restate |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | Model platform |
| Vendor | gotoHuman | Restate GmbH |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.gotohuman.com` | no (local only) |
| Transports | HTTP, stdio | HTTP |
| Auth | API key | API key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | MIT (SDKs and MCP server) | BSL 1.1 converting to Apache-2.0 four years after release (server), MIT (SDKs) |
| Tools exposed | 3 | none |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-09-24 | 2026-10-01 |
| Terms last updated | no date given | couldn't be read |
| Privacy policy last updated | no date given | no document linked |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | couldn't be read |
| Terms restrict automated access | yes | couldn't be read |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | yes | couldn't be read |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text | couldn't be read |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text | couldn't be read |
| Popularity | none | 4.5k stars, 329k npm/wk, 76k PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | 2/5 (2) | none |

## Verdicts

**gotoHuman.** Built for agent review, with TypeScript and Python SDKs, a 3-tool MCP server, an n8n node and a Make app. No status page, published rate limits or documented error responses.

**Restate.** An awakeable pauses a handler at no compute cost and resumes it from one HTTP request, with a durable timeout, on a free plan of 100,000 actions a month. Restate sends nothing to the approver, so the Slack message, email or inbox is the builder's code, and the published terms and privacy statement predate the paid plans.

## Before you call either

### gotoHuman

1. Call `get-form-schema` before `request-human-review-with-form`, since the field data must match the review type
2. Send `agentId` on every API request, because the API reference marks it required even though the JS SDK doesn't
3. Pass a `webhookUrl` per request when the review type has no default, or the answer has nowhere to go
4. Deduplicate webhook calls on the `Idempotency-Key` header, since delivery is at least once
5. Set your own deadline on the agent side and treat silence as a rejection

### Restate

1. Create the awakeable, send its ID inside `ctx.run`, then await the promise, so a retry doesn't send a second approval request
2. Resolve with `POST /restate/awakeables/<id>/resolve` and a JSON body, or `/reject` with a text reason, which throws a terminal error in the handler
3. On Restate Cloud send `Authorization: Bearer key_...` to `https://<env_id>.env.<region>.restate.cloud:8080`. On a self-hosted server put an authenticating proxy in front of port 8080
4. Wrap the wait in `orTimeout` and decide what a timeout means. Without it the handler waits with no limit
5. Retry ingress errors only on 408, 425, 429 or 5xx, and only when `x-restate-error-source` isn't `invocation`

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, gotoHuman or Restate?

Restate scores 73.3 (BB) on agent readiness against gotoHuman's 43.6 (E), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories.

### Can an agent call gotoHuman and Restate without installing anything?

gotoHuman has a hosted endpoint at https://api.gotohuman.com. No hosted endpoint is listed for Restate.


## For agents

- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gotohuman-vs-restate.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gotohuman-vs-restate.min.md
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "gotohuman", "b": "restate"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare gotohuman restate`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/gotohuman.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/restate.json

## Other comparisons with gotoHuman or Restate

- [gotoHuman vs Inngest](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gotohuman-vs-inngest.md)
- [gotoHuman vs Orkes Conductor Human tasks](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gotohuman-vs-orkes-conductor.md)
- [gotoHuman vs Permit MCP Gateway](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gotohuman-vs-permit-mcp-gateway.md)
- [gotoHuman vs Pushary](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gotohuman-vs-pushary.md)
- [gotoHuman vs Temporal](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gotohuman-vs-temporal.md)
- [gotoHuman vs Trigger.dev](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gotohuman-vs-trigger-dev.md)
- [gotoHuman vs withHuman](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gotohuman-vs-withhuman.md)
- [Inngest vs Restate](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/inngest-vs-restate.md)
- [Orkes Conductor Human tasks vs Restate](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/orkes-conductor-vs-restate.md)
- [Permit MCP Gateway vs Restate](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/permit-mcp-gateway-vs-restate.md)
- [Pushary vs Restate](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/pushary-vs-restate.md)
- [Restate vs Temporal](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/restate-vs-temporal.md)
- [Restate vs Trigger.dev](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/restate-vs-trigger-dev.md)
- [Restate vs withHuman](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/restate-vs-withhuman.md)