vioscaleAI
Comparison

Apache Airflow vs Prefect

No clear leader: Prefect (70.0) and Apache Airflow (69.0) are within the 5-point margin; treat as a tie. The attribute-by-attribute breakdown below, with a source and date on every value, is the honest way to compare them.

Apache Airflow full profile →Prefect full profile →
Machine formatsMarkdownJSONGraphQLMarkdown is open. JSON and GraphQL need a free key.
Apache Airflow69
Prefect70
Score
vioscaleAI score
Apache Airflow69 / 100medium · 66%
Prefect70 / 100high · 76%
Pricing
Free tier
Apache Airflow✓
Prefect✓
Model
Apache Airflowopen_source
Prefectfreemium
Price level
Apache Airflowfree
Prefecthigh
Starting price
Apache Airflow–
Prefect$100
Transparent
Apache Airflow✓
Prefect✓
Integrations
Count
Apache Airflow54
Prefect6
Security
Certifications
Apache Airflow–
PrefectSOC 2 Type II
Disclosure policy
Apache Airflow–
Prefect✓
Gdpr
Apache Airflow–
Prefect✓
Hipaa
Apache Airflow–
Prefect✓
Scorecard
Apache Airflow7.3
Prefect6.9
Soc2
Apache Airflow–
Prefect✓
Trust center
Apache Airflow–
Prefecthttps://www.prefect.io/security
Vulnerabilities
Reliability
Sla pct
Apache Airflow–
Prefect99.9
Status page
Apache Airflow–
Prefect✓
Adoption
Dependent repos
Apache Airflow189
Prefect767
Github stars
Apache Airflow47,054
Prefect23,966
Package downloads weekly
Apache Airflow1,607,065
Prefect2,710,819
Activity
Commits last 30d
Apache Airflow100
Prefect98
Release
Cadence days
Apache Airflow14
Prefect1
History
Apache Airflow20 items
Prefect20 items
License
Spdx
Apache AirflowApache-2.0
PrefectApache-2.0
Language
Primary
Apache AirflowPython
PrefectPython
Market
Availability
Apache Airflow–
PrefectAvailable worldwide
Content
Faq
Apache Airflow6 items
Prefect7 items

Capabilities

Feature-by-feature on the axes that matter for data engineering tools. “-” means undocumented, not absent.

Core
Tool role
Apache AirflowOrchestrator
PrefectOrchestrator
Processing paradigm
Apache AirflowBatch
PrefectBatch
Connectivity
Connector count
Apache Airflow100+
PrefectNot specified
CDC / log-based replication
Apache Airflow-
Prefect-
Transformation
In-warehouse transformation (push-down)
Apache Airflow-
Prefect-
dbt-native orchestration
Apache Airflow✓
Prefect✓
Deployment
Self-hosted / open-source available
Apache Airflow✓
Prefect✓
Managed cloud available
Apache Airflow✓
Prefect✓
Governance
Data lineage / asset catalog
Apache Airflow✓
Prefect✓
Authoring
Python-first authoring
Apache Airflow✓
Prefect✓
Execution
Incremental / partition-aware runs
Apache Airflow✓
Prefect✓
Quality
Built-in data quality / tests
Apache Airflow✓
Prefect-
Scale
Horizontal scale (distributed executor)
Apache Airflow✓
Prefect✓

What each one is

The product in its own terms, so the numbers below have context.

Apache Airflow

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.

Independently observed

Prefect

A Python-native workflow automation platform that handles scheduling, retries, caching, and recovery for data pipelines and AI agent workflows, with both cloud-managed and self-hosted execution options.

Independently observed

Pricing

List pricing as published by each vendor, with the date we read it. Always verify at the source before you buy.

Apache Airflow

Open source
as of verify ↗

Prefect

from $100/moSubscriptionFree tier

Free Hobby tier. Starter from $100/month. Team per-user monthly pricing. Enterprise custom quote.

  • HobbyFree
    • Workflow scheduling
    • Up to 5 deployments
    • 500 minutes of Prefect Serverless
    • Workflow observability
    • Logging & alerting
    • +1 more
  • Starter$100/mo
    • All Hobby features
    • Up to 20 deployments
    • 75 hours of Prefect Serverless
    • Bring your own compute
    • Webhooks
    • +1 more
  • Team-
    • All Starter features
    • Up to 100 deployments
    • 225 hours of Prefect Serverless
    • Service accounts
    • 24 hour audit log
  • EnterpriseContact sales
    • All Team features
    • SSO (SAML/OIDC)
    • RBAC + ACLs
    • Multiple workspaces
    • Directory Sync (SCIM)
    • +2 more
as of verify ↗

Platform & deployment

Where each product runs and how it can be hosted. A dash means undocumented, not unsupported.

Platforms
Web
Apache Airflow✓
Prefect✓
macOS
Apache Airflow✓
Prefect✗
Linux
Apache Airflow✓
Prefect✗
CLI
Apache Airflow✓
Prefect✓
Deployment
Cloud / SaaS
Apache Airflow✓
Prefect✓
Self-hosted
Apache Airflow✓
Prefect✓
On-premise
Apache Airflow✓
Prefect✗
Hybrid
Apache Airflow✓
Prefect✓

Integrations

What each product connects to. Counts come from the vendor's own integration directory where one exists.

In common (7)
  • Snowflake
  • Slack
  • Redis
  • Kubernetes
  • Docker
  • GitHub
  • OpenAI

Apache Airflow

61 total - 54 not shared
  • Amazon Web Services
  • Microsoft Azure
  • Google Cloud Platform
  • Databricks
  • dbt Cloud
  • Salesforce
  • Tableau
  • PostgreSQL
  • MySQL
  • MongoDB
  • Apache Spark
  • Apache Kafka
  • Apache Cassandra
  • Apache Flink
  • Apache Druid
  • Elasticsearch
  • Datadog
  • Jenkins
  • Anthropic
  • Cohere
  • Pinecone
  • Weaviate
  • Qdrant
  • Oracle
  • +30 more
Independently observed

Prefect

14 total - 7 not shared
  • Pydantic AI
  • AWS Secrets Manager
  • HashiCorp Vault
  • dbt
  • Amazon ECS
  • Google Cloud Run
  • AWS
Independently observed
Still deciding?

Apache Airflow or Prefect: 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.