Solid Queue review

Reviewed by iTechGuides Editors · Editorial team · Updated Oct 2026

Solid Queue is an open-source, self-hosted queuing backend for Ruby on Rails Active Job. It stores jobs in SQL databases including MySQL, PostgreSQL, and SQLite, making it suited to Rails teams that want queue processing alongside their application’s database environment. Jobs can run on the same or separate servers from the web application, while the system provides workers, dispatchers, a scheduler, and a supervisor for processing.

Its strongest area is queue control. Solid Queue supports delayed job execution, recurring and scheduled tasks, queue and numeric job priorities, concurrency controls, pausing queues, and bulk job enqueuing. Failed jobs can be inspected and manually retried or discarded. Horizontal scaling across multiple machines also supports deployments that need to distribute queue processing, while custom retry policy is available through Rails Active Job. Together, these capabilities make it more than a basic background-job list, particularly for applications with scheduled work, priority handling, or concurrent processing requirements.

The trade-off is focus and operational responsibility. Installation happens as a Ruby gem inside a Rails application, and running the queue involves coordinating its worker, dispatcher, scheduler, and supervisor processes. Solid Queue itself does not publish commercial tiers; its model is open source and self-hosted. It is a strong fit for Rails applications that want database-backed Active Job queueing with scheduling, controls, inspection, and scaling. Teams seeking a queue backend outside the Rails Active Job ecosystem, or a hosted service rather than self-hosted processes, should choose another category option.

Solid Queue pros and cons

• Where it wins
  • Supports delayed, recurring, scheduled, and bulk-enqueued jobs
  • Adds priorities, concurrency controls, pausing, and horizontal scaling
  • Includes worker processes and failed-job retry or discard controls
• Where it doesn't
  • Requires a Ruby on Rails Active Job application
  • Operational setup spans workers, dispatchers, schedulers, and supervisors
  • Retry behavior comes through Rails Active Job rather than automatic retries

Solid Queue fact sheet, pricing and score →

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Last updated 7 Oct 2026 · How we research and update