# Apache Airflow vs dlt

| Attribute | Apache Airflow | dlt |
|---|---|---|
| **vioscaleAI score** | 69 (66% (medium)) | 64.7 (46% (low)) |
| activity.commits_last_30d | 100 | 36 |
| adoption.dependent_repos | 189 | 23 |
| adoption.github_stars | 47,054 | 5,969 |
| adoption.package_downloads_weekly | 1,607,065 | - |
| content.faq | `[{"answer":"An open-source platform where you define workflows in Python, schedule their execution based on dependencies and timing, and monitor progress through a web interface. Widely used for data orchestration, ML operations, and infrastructure automation. It is indexed under Data Engineering Tools.","source":"https://airflow.apache.org","question":"What is Apache Airflow?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Apache Airflow is open source, so it can be self-hosted and used at no licence cost. It is released under the Apache-2.0 licence. Pricing changes often, so verify at source before relying on it.","source":"https://airflow.apache.org","question":"Is Apache Airflow free to use?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Apache Airflow supports the web, Linux and a command-line interface. Platforms we have not confirmed are simply not listed here rather than ruled out.","source":"https://airflow.apache.org","question":"What platforms does Apache Airflow support?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Yes. Apache Airflow can be deployed cloud / SaaS, hybrid and self-hosted, so it does not have to run on the vendor's infrastructure.","source":"https://airflow.apache.org","question":"Can Apache Airflow be self-hosted?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have confirmed 56 integrations for Apache Airflow, including Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform, Databricks, Snowflake, dbt Cloud, Slack and Salesforce, plus 48 more. This is what we could verify from public sources, so the vendor may support others we have not indexed.","source":"https://airflow.apache.org","question":"What does Apache Airflow integrate with?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Yes. Apache Airflow is published under the Apache-2.0 licence, a permissive licence that generally allows commercial use and modification. Licence terms can change between releases, so verify against the repository for the version you intend to use.","source":"https://github.com/apache/airflow","question":"Is Apache Airflow open source?","confidence":0.95}]` | `[{"answer":"A hosted service combining the open-source dlt Python library with managed infrastructure, observability, data quality testing, and team collaboration features for building and running data pipelines. It is indexed under Data Engineering Tools.","source":"https://dlthub.com/pricing","question":"What is dlt?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"dlt is open source, so it can be self-hosted and used at no licence cost. It is released under the Apache-2.0 licence. A commercial or hosted edition starts at $0.80. Prices are published openly on the vendor's own pricing page. Pricing changes often, so verify at source before relying on it.","source":"https://dlthub.com/pricing","question":"Is dlt free to use?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"dlt supports the web and a command-line interface. Platforms we have not confirmed are simply not listed here rather than ruled out.","source":"https://dlthub.com/pricing","question":"What platforms does dlt support?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Yes. dlt can be deployed cloud / SaaS, hybrid and self-hosted, so it does not have to run on the vendor's infrastructure.","source":"https://dlthub.com/pricing","question":"Can dlt be self-hosted?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have confirmed 28 integrations for dlt, including Salesforce, PostgreSQL, HubSpot, Snowflake, Databricks, BigQuery, MotherDuck and DuckDB, plus 20 more. This is what we could verify from public sources, so the vendor may support others we have not indexed.","source":"https://dlthub.com/pricing","question":"What does dlt integrate with?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have independently confirmed GDPR for dlt. Certifications we do not list are ones we have not been able to verify from public sources, which is not the same as dlt not holding them. Always confirm compliance directly before you rely on it.","source":"https://dlthub.com/privacy-policy","question":"What security certifications does dlt have?","confidence":0.7},{"answer":"Yes. dlt is published under the Apache-2.0 licence, a permissive licence that generally allows commercial use and modification. Licence terms can change between releases, so verify against the repository for the version you intend to use.","source":"https://github.com/dlt-hub/dlt","question":"Is dlt open source?","confidence":0.95},{"answer":"dlt is available worldwide. The vendor is headquartered in Germany.","source":"https://dlthub.com/pricing","question":"Where is dlt available?","confidence":0.75}]` |
| deployment.options | `{"cloud":true,"hybrid":true,"on_prem":true,"self_hosted":true}` | `{"cloud":true,"hybrid":true,"self_hosted":true}` |
| description.long | Apache 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. | A managed platform that enables teams to build, deploy, and monitor data pipelines with AI assistance, built on the open-source dlt library. It provides runtime management, observability, data quality monitoring, and team collaboration features for moving data from any source to any destination. |
| features.capabilities | `{"role":"orchestrator","lineage":true,"paradigm":"batch","dbt_native":true,"data_quality":true,"python_first":true,"managed_cloud":true,"connector_count":"100+","self_hosted_oss":true,"incremental_runs":true,"distributed_executor":true}` | `{"cdc":true,"role":"elt","lineage":true,"paradigm":"both","dbt_native":true,"data_quality":true,"elt_pushdown":true,"python_first":true,"managed_cloud":true,"connector_count":"5,000+","self_hosted_oss":true,"incremental_runs":true,"reverse_etl_addon":true,"custom_connector_sdk":true,"schema_drift_handling":true,"self_hosted_available":true,"managed_cloud_available":true,"pii_masking_at_ingestion":true}` |
| integrations.count | 54 | 5,000 |
| integrations.list | `[{"name":"Amazon Web Services"},{"name":"Microsoft Azure"},{"name":"Google Cloud Platform"},{"name":"Databricks"},{"name":"Snowflake"},{"name":"dbt Cloud"},{"name":"Slack"},{"name":"Salesforce"},{"name":"Tableau"},{"name":"PostgreSQL"},{"name":"MySQL"},{"name":"MongoDB"},{"name":"Redis"},{"name":"Kubernetes"},{"name":"Docker"},{"name":"Apache Spark"},{"name":"Apache Kafka"},{"name":"Apache Cassandra"},{"name":"Apache Flink"},{"name":"Apache Druid"},{"name":"Elasticsearch"},{"name":"Datadog"},{"name":"Jenkins"},{"name":"GitHub"},{"name":"OpenAI"},{"name":"Anthropic"},{"name":"Cohere"},{"name":"Pinecone"},{"name":"Weaviate"},{"name":"Qdrant"},{"name":"Oracle"},{"name":"Teradata"},{"name":"SQLite"},{"name":"Presto"},{"name":"Trino"},{"name":"ClickHouse"},{"name":"Neo4j"},{"name":"Airbyte"},{"name":"Informatica"},{"name":"Asana"},{"name":"Atlassian Jira"},{"name":"Discord"},{"name":"Telegram"},{"name":"Segment"},{"name":"PagerDuty"},{"name":"Opsgenie"},{"name":"Keycloak"},{"name":"Yandex"},{"name":"Zendesk"},{"name":"OpenLineage"},{"name":"New Relic","direction":"outbound"},{"name":"Starrocks","direction":"bidirectional"},{"name":"OpenSearch","direction":"outbound"},{"name":"IBM Cognos TM1","direction":"bidirectional"},{"name":"Marquez","direction":"outbound"},{"name":"Nexla","direction":"bidirectional"},{"name":"Vertica","native":true},{"name":"Microsoft SQL Server","native":true},{"name":"Influx DB","native":true},{"name":"Cloudant","native":true},{"name":"OpenFaaS","native":true}]` | `[{"name":"Salesforce"},{"name":"PostgreSQL"},{"name":"HubSpot"},{"name":"Snowflake"},{"name":"Databricks"},{"name":"BigQuery"},{"name":"MotherDuck"},{"name":"DuckDB"},{"name":"SQLite"},{"name":"MySQL"},{"name":"Amazon S3"},{"name":"Google Cloud Storage"},{"name":"Microsoft Azure"},{"name":"SFTP"},{"name":"Parquet"},{"name":"Apache Delta"},{"name":"Apache Iceberg"},{"name":"DuckLake"},{"name":"Pydantic Logfire"},{"name":"Arize"},{"name":"Langfuse"},{"name":"LangChain"},{"name":"OpenAI"},{"name":"Apache Airflow"},{"name":"Dagster"},{"name":"AWS Lambda"},{"name":"Marimo"},{"name":"Hugging Face"},{"name":"Postgres","native":true,"category":"database","direction":"outbound"},{"name":"Redshift","native":true,"category":"data_warehouse","direction":"outbound"},{"name":"Athena","native":true,"category":"query_engine","direction":"outbound"},{"name":"Azure Storage","native":true,"category":"cloud_storage","direction":"outbound"},{"name":"Delta Lake","native":true,"category":"data_format","direction":"outbound"},{"name":"Claude Code","native":true,"category":"agentic_development","direction":"bidirectional"},{"name":"Codex","native":true,"category":"agentic_development","direction":"bidirectional"},{"name":"Cursor","native":true,"category":"ide","direction":"outbound"},{"name":"Slack","native":true,"category":"communication","direction":"outbound"},{"name":"GitHub","native":true,"category":"version_control","direction":"bidirectional"},{"name":"LanceDB","native":false,"category":"vector_database","direction":"outbound"},{"name":"DataHub","native":false,"category":"metadata_platform","direction":"outbound"},{"name":"Amazon Athena","native":true,"category":"data_warehouse","direction":"bidirectional"},{"name":"Microsoft SQL Server","native":true,"category":"database","direction":"bidirectional"},{"name":"ClickHouse","native":true,"category":"database","direction":"outbound"},{"name":"Airflow","native":true,"category":"orchestration","direction":"bidirectional"},{"name":"Claude","native":true,"category":"ai_assistant","direction":"bidirectional"},{"name":"Streamlit","native":true,"category":"app_framework","direction":"outbound"}]` |
| language.primary | Python | Python |
| license.spdx | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| market.availability | - | `{"primaryMarkets":["US"],"availabilityScope":"global","availableCountries":[],"notAvailableCountries":[]}` |
| platform.support | `{"cli":true,"mac":true,"web":true,"linux":true}` | `{"cli":true,"web":true}` |
| pricing | `{"type":"open_source","sourceUrl":"https://airflow.apache.org","retrievedAt":"2026-09-07T13:08:28.227Z"}` | `{"type":"hybrid","plans":[{"free":true,"name":"dlt","summary":"Free, open-source Apache 2.0","features":["Open source ingestion library","Reliable ingestion and loading","Limited verified OSS connectors","AI help and community support"],"description":"Open-source Apache 2.0 licensed data loading library","contactSales":false},{"free":false,"name":"Hub","summary":"$12,000/month with 5,000 credits included. Tiered overage pricing: $1.00–$0.80 per credit depending on volume.","features":["Everything in dlt","AI Harness (Claude Code, Codex, Cursor)","Managed runtime for ingestion","Transformations & Data apps","Data quality metrics & checks","Observability dashboard","Collaboration workflows for teams","Unlimited pipelines and notebooks","Data freshness triggers","Automatic backfilling","dbt model generator","Data apps (marimo and Streamlit)","Declarative quality checks per dataset, table or row","Schema and data contracts","PII redaction before load","Runs, schemas and lineage in dashboard","Stream logs from CLI or web UI","Slack alerting","Organisation and workspace roles","Secrets management","Environment variable manager","Regional data plane selection","Role-based access control (RBAC)"],"commitment":"annual","components":[{"kind":"fixed","amount":12000,"period":"month","currency":"USD"},{"per":{"qty":1,"unit":"credit"},"kind":"metered","amount":1,"currency":"USD"}],"description":"Managed platform with observability and team collaboration","contactSales":false,"includedLimits":{"credits_per_month":"5000"}},{"free":false,"name":"Enterprise","summary":"Custom pricing. Contact sales.","features":["Custom credits and volume pricing","Enterprise security and governance controls","Role-based access control (RBAC) and audit logs","SLA and tailored support options","Custom onboarding and architecture guidance"],"description":"Custom pricing with enterprise governance and support","contactSales":true}],"addOns":[{"name":"Credit bundles","components":[{"kind":"one_time","amount":100,"currency":"USD"},{"kind":"one_time","amount":190,"currency":"USD"},{"kind":"one_time","amount":360,"currency":"USD"},{"kind":"one_time","amount":700,"currency":"USD"},{"kind":"one_time","amount":1360,"currency":"USD"},{"kind":"one_time","amount":2640,"currency":"USD"},{"kind":"one_time","amount":5120,"currency":"USD"},{"kind":"one_time","amount":9920,"currency":"USD"}]}],"summary":"Free open-source tier. Hub plan from $12,000/month with 5,000 included credits. Tiered overage pricing. 14-day free trial.","currency":"USD","freeTier":true,"sourceUrl":"https://dlthub.com/pricing","retrievedAt":"2026-10-15T20:27:28.149Z","freeTrialDays":14,"startingPrice":{"amount":12000,"period":"month","currency":"USD"},"billingPeriods":["month","year"]}` |
| pricing.free_tier | yes | yes |
| pricing.model | open_source | freemium |
| pricing.price_level | free | high |
| pricing.starting_price | - | `{"amount":12000,"currency":"USD"}` |
| pricing.transparent | yes | yes |
| release.cadence_days | 14 | 12 |
| release.history | `[{"url":"https://github.com/apache/airflow/releases/tag/3.3.2","date":"2026-09-17T11:10:15Z","type":"stable","version":"3.3.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/airflow/releases/tag/3.3.1","date":"2026-08-12T09:50:17Z","type":"stable","version":"3.3.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/airflow/releases/tag/java-sdk/1.0.0-beta1","date":"2026-07-13T18:14:58Z","type":"prerelease","version":"java-sdk/1.0.0-beta1"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/airflow/releases/tag/3.3.0","date":"2026-07-06T15:16:00Z","type":"stable","version":"3.3.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/airflow/releases/tag/helm-chart/1.22.0","date":"2026-06-13T23:37:21Z","type":"stable","version":"helm-chart/1.22.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/airflow/releases/tag/airflow-ctl/0.1.5","date":"2026-06-03T20:29:33Z","type":"stable","version":"airflow-ctl/0.1.5"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/airflow/releases/tag/3.2.2","date":"2026-05-29T06:27:24Z","type":"stable","version":"3.2.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/airflow/releases/tag/helm-chart/1.21.0","date":"2026-04-24T20:54:43Z","type":"stable","version":"helm-chart/1.21.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/airflow/releases/tag/3.2.1","date":"2026-04-22T09:27:57Z","type":"stable","version":"3.2.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/airflow/releases/tag/3.2.0","date":"2026-04-07T14:51:49Z","type":"stable","version":"3.2.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/airflow/releases/tag/helm-chart/1.20.0","date":"2026-03-22T22:34:36Z","type":"stable","version":"helm-chart/1.20.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/airflow/releases/tag/airflow-ctl/0.1.3","date":"2026-03-19T10:35:06Z","type":"stable","version":"airflow-ctl/0.1.3"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/airflow/releases/tag/3.1.8","date":"2026-03-11T22:16:16Z","type":"stable","version":"3.1.8"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/airflow/releases/tag/airflow-ctl/0.1.2","date":"2026-02-25T21:45:45Z","type":"stable","version":"airflow-ctl/0.1.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/airflow/releases/tag/helm-chart/1.19.0","date":"2026-02-17T19:54:34Z","type":"stable","version":"helm-chart/1.19.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/airflow/releases/tag/3.1.7","date":"2026-02-04T12:20:25Z","type":"stable","version":"3.1.7"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/airflow/releases/tag/3.1.6","date":"2026-01-13T11:08:29Z","type":"stable","version":"3.1.6"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/airflow/releases/tag/airflow-ctl/0.1.1","date":"2026-01-13T21:57:27Z","type":"stable","version":"airflow-ctl/0.1.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/airflow/releases/tag/3.1.5","date":"2025-12-10T09:11:07Z","type":"stable","version":"3.1.5"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/airflow/releases/tag/3.1.3","date":"2025-11-14T14:47:34Z","type":"stable","version":"3.1.3"}]` | `[{"url":"https://github.com/dlt-hub/dlt/releases/tag/1.31.0","date":"2026-10-07T13:21:11Z","type":"stable","version":"1.31.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/dlt-hub/dlt/releases/tag/1.30.0","date":"2026-08-11T13:23:00Z","type":"stable","version":"1.30.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/dlt-hub/dlt/releases/tag/1.29.1","date":"2026-07-24T11:32:31Z","type":"stable","version":"1.29.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/dlt-hub/dlt/releases/tag/1.29.0","date":"2026-07-13T09:31:54Z","type":"stable","version":"1.29.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/dlt-hub/dlt/releases/tag/1.28.2","date":"2026-07-10T12:29:18Z","type":"stable","version":"1.28.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/dlt-hub/dlt/releases/tag/1.28.1","date":"2026-06-19T19:48:03Z","type":"stable","version":"1.28.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/dlt-hub/dlt/releases/tag/1.28.0","date":"2026-06-15T16:14:02Z","type":"stable","version":"1.28.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/dlt-hub/dlt/releases/tag/1.27.2","date":"2026-05-29T17:13:29Z","type":"stable","version":"1.27.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/dlt-hub/dlt/releases/tag/1.27.0","date":"2026-05-19T12:55:55Z","type":"stable","version":"1.27.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/dlt-hub/dlt/releases/tag/1.26.0","date":"2026-04-28T18:49:52Z","type":"stable","version":"1.26.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/dlt-hub/dlt/releases/tag/1.25.0","date":"2026-04-15T07:41:56Z","type":"stable","version":"1.25.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/dlt-hub/dlt/releases/tag/1.24.0","date":"2026-03-19T11:59:54Z","type":"stable","version":"1.24.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/dlt-hub/dlt/releases/tag/1.23.0","date":"2026-03-06T14:47:17Z","type":"stable","version":"1.23.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/dlt-hub/dlt/releases/tag/1.22.2","date":"2026-03-01T18:44:08Z","type":"stable","version":"1.22.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/dlt-hub/dlt/releases/tag/1.22.1","date":"2026-02-23T20:59:59Z","type":"stable","version":"1.22.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/dlt-hub/dlt/releases/tag/1.22.0","date":"2026-02-17T16:55:47Z","type":"stable","version":"1.22.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/dlt-hub/dlt/releases/tag/1.21.0","date":"2026-01-20T12:11:39Z","type":"stable","version":"1.21.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/dlt-hub/dlt/releases/tag/1.20.0","date":"2025-12-09T23:13:14Z","type":"stable","version":"1.20.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/dlt-hub/dlt/releases/tag/1.19.1","date":"2025-12-02T22:02:07Z","type":"stable","version":"1.19.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/dlt-hub/dlt/releases/tag/1.19.0","date":"2025-12-01T15:52:25Z","type":"stable","version":"1.19.0"}]` |
| reliability.status_page | - | yes |
| security.disclosure_policy | - | yes |
| security.gdpr | - | yes |
| security.scorecard | 7.3 | - |
| security.vulnerabilities | `{"count":1,"source":"https://advisories.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/advisories?ecosystem=pypi&package_name=apache-airflow-providers-common-sql&per_page=100","last_12m":0,"max_severity":"HIGH"}` | `{"count":0,"source":"https://advisories.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/advisories?ecosystem=pypi&package_name=dlt&per_page=100","last_12m":0,"max_severity":null}` |

## Capabilities (Data Engineering Tools)

| Capability | Apache Airflow | dlt |
|---|:--:|:--:|
| **Core** |  |  |
| Tool role | Orchestrator | ELT / ingestion |
| Processing paradigm | Batch | Batch + streaming |
| **Connectivity** |  |  |
| Connector count | 100+ | 5,000+ |
| CDC / log-based replication | - | ✓ |
| **Transformation** |  |  |
| In-warehouse transformation (push-down) | - | ✓ |
| dbt-native orchestration | ✓ | ✓ |
| **Deployment** |  |  |
| Self-hosted / open-source available | ✓ | ✓ |
| Managed cloud available | ✓ | ✓ |
| **Governance** |  |  |
| Data lineage / asset catalog | ✓ | ✓ |
| **Authoring** |  |  |
| Python-first authoring | ✓ | ✓ |
| **Execution** |  |  |
| Incremental / partition-aware runs | ✓ | ✓ |
| **Quality** |  |  |
| Built-in data quality / tests | ✓ | ✓ |
| **Scale** |  |  |
| Horizontal scale (distributed executor) | ✓ | - |

*Source: vioscaleAI. Generated 2026-10-16T20:06:14.058Z. "-" = undocumented, not absent.*