Apache Airflow vs Conductor (Orkes)
On the evidence we track, Apache Airflow leads this comparison with a composite score of 69/100. Scores are only directly comparable because these tools share a category; the full breakdown and every source is below.
Features
The capabilities each product documents. These tools do not share a category taxonomy, so this aligns what each vendor states rather than a normalised feature set.
| Feature | Apache Airflow | Conductor (Orkes) |
|---|---|---|
| Connector count | 100+ | - |
| Data quality | ✓ | - |
| Dbt native | ✓ | - |
| Distributed executor | ✓ | - |
| Incremental runs | ✓ | - |
| Lineage | ✓ | - |
| Managed cloud | ✓ | - |
| Paradigm | batch | - |
| Python first | ✓ | - |
| Role | orchestrator | - |
| Self hosted oss | ✓ | - |
What each one is
The product in its own terms, so the numbers below have context.
Apache Airflow
LeaderApache Airflow is a workflow orchestration platform that enables users to define data pipelines in Python and schedule their execution across distributed workers. It provides a web interface for visualization and monitoring, plus extensive integrations with cloud platforms and services.
Conductor (Orkes)
An open-source and enterprise workflow automation platform that manages long-running, resilient execution of business processes and integrations with full observability, error handling, and state persistence. Supports LLM-powered AI tasks, native integrations, and human-in-the-loop approvals.
Pricing
List pricing as published by each vendor, with the date we read it. Always verify at the source before you buy.
Platform & deployment
Where each product runs and how it can be hosted. A dash means undocumented, not unsupported.
Integrations
What each product connects to. Counts come from the vendor's own integration directory where one exists.
- Slack
- PostgreSQL
- MySQL
- MongoDB
- Redis
- GitHub
- OpenAI
- Pinecone
- Weaviate
Apache Airflow
Leader- Amazon Web Services
- Microsoft Azure
- Google Cloud Platform
- Databricks
- Snowflake
- dbt Cloud
- Salesforce
- Tableau
- Kubernetes
- Docker
- Apache Spark
- Apache Kafka
- Apache Cassandra
- Apache Flink
- Apache Druid
- Elasticsearch
- Datadog
- Jenkins
- Anthropic
- Cohere
- Qdrant
- Oracle
- Teradata
- SQLite
- +28 more
Conductor (Orkes)
- Azure OpenAI
- Vertex AI
- Hugging Face
- GitLab
- Bitbucket
- Jira
- Stripe
- SendGrid
- HubSpot
- Notion
- Discourse
- WordPress
- Google Drive
- Google Cloud Storage
- AWS S3
- Azure Storage
- Google Sheets
- Google Docs
- Google Slides
- Google Calendar
- Google Cloud Functions
- AWS Lambda
- Azure Functions
- Supabase
- +9 more
Apache Airflow or Conductor (Orkes): which one depends on you
A composite score cannot know your constraints. Describe them and both get re-weighted against what you actually need, with the evidence behind every position.
Free to run, no account needed to start. How the evaluation works
Comparison generated from independently-sourced facts. Every value links to its source and retrieval date. See the method.