# Apache Airflow vs Prefect

| Attribute | Apache Airflow | Prefect |
|---|---|---|
| **vioscaleAI score** | 69 (66% (medium)) | 70 (76% (high)) |
| activity.commits_last_30d | 100 | 98 |
| adoption.dependent_repos | 189 | 767 |
| adoption.github_stars | 47,054 | 23,966 |
| adoption.package_downloads_weekly | 1,607,065 | 2,710,819 |
| 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 workflow orchestration platform where you define workflows as plain Python functions, and Prefect handles scheduling, retries, caching, and recovery automatically. You can run workflows on Prefect's managed cloud infrastructure or deploy workers to your own infrastructure. It is indexed under Data Engineering Tools.","source":"https://www.prefect.io/pricing","question":"What is Prefect?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Prefect 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 $100 per month. Prices are published openly on the vendor's own pricing page. Pricing changes often, so verify at source before relying on it.","source":"https://www.prefect.io/pricing","question":"Is Prefect free to use?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Prefect supports the web and a command-line interface. Platforms we have not confirmed are simply not listed here rather than ruled out.","source":"https://www.prefect.io/pricing","question":"What platforms does Prefect support?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Yes. Prefect can be deployed cloud / SaaS, hybrid and self-hosted, so it does not have to run on the vendor's infrastructure.","source":"https://www.prefect.io/pricing","question":"Can Prefect be self-hosted?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have confirmed 12 integrations for Prefect, including Pydantic AI, OpenAI, AWS Secrets Manager, HashiCorp Vault, dbt, Slack, Snowflake and Redis, plus 4 more. This is what we could verify from public sources, so the vendor may support others we have not indexed.","source":"https://www.prefect.io/pricing","question":"What does Prefect integrate with?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have independently confirmed SOC 2, HIPAA and GDPR for Prefect. Certifications we do not list are ones we have not been able to verify from public sources, which is not the same as Prefect not holding them. Always confirm compliance directly before you rely on it.","source":"https://www.prefect.io/security","question":"What security certifications does Prefect have?","confidence":0.7},{"answer":"Yes. Prefect 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/PrefectHQ/prefect","question":"Is Prefect open source?","confidence":0.95}]` |
| 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 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. |
| 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}` | `{"role":"orchestrator","lineage":true,"paradigm":"batch","dbt_native":true,"python_first":true,"managed_cloud":true,"connector_count":"Not specified","self_hosted_oss":true,"incremental_runs":true,"distributed_executor":true}` |
| integrations.count | 54 | 6 |
| 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":"Pydantic AI"},{"name":"OpenAI"},{"name":"AWS Secrets Manager"},{"name":"HashiCorp Vault"},{"name":"dbt"},{"name":"Slack","native":true,"category":"chat"},{"name":"Snowflake","native":true},{"name":"Redis","native":true},{"name":"Kubernetes","native":true},{"name":"Amazon ECS","native":true},{"name":"Docker","native":true},{"name":"Google Cloud Run","native":true},{"name":"GitHub","native":true},{"name":"AWS","native":true}]` |
| language.primary | Python | Python |
| license.spdx | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| market.availability | - | `{"primaryMarkets":[],"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":"subscription","plans":[{"free":true,"name":"Hobby","features":["Workflow scheduling","Up to 5 deployments","500 minutes of Prefect Serverless","Workflow observability","Logging & alerting","7 days run retention"],"minSeats":2,"description":"Deploy workflows instantly. Scale when ready.","contactSales":false},{"free":false,"name":"Starter","features":["All Hobby features","Up to 20 deployments","75 hours of Prefect Serverless","Bring your own compute","Webhooks","1,250 API requests/min"],"minSeats":3,"components":[{"kind":"fixed","amount":100,"period":"month","currency":"USD"}],"contactSales":false},{"free":false,"name":"Team","features":["All Starter features","Up to 100 deployments","225 hours of Prefect Serverless","Service accounts","24 hour audit log"],"minSeats":4,"contactSales":false},{"free":false,"name":"Enterprise","features":["All Team features","SSO (SAML/OIDC)","RBAC + ACLs","Multiple workspaces","Directory Sync (SCIM)","IP allowlisting & PrivateLink","Unlimited deployments"],"minSeats":5,"contactSales":true}],"summary":"Free Hobby tier. Starter from $100/month. Team per-user monthly pricing. Enterprise custom quote.","currency":"USD","freeTier":true,"sourceUrl":"https://www.prefect.io/pricing","retrievedAt":"2026-10-05T11:05:17.530Z","startingPrice":{"amount":100,"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":100,"currency":"USD"}` |
| pricing.transparent | yes | yes |
| release.cadence_days | 14 | 1 |
| release.history | 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| `[{"url":"https://github.com/PrefectHQ/prefect/releases/tag/3.8.8.dev3","date":"2026-10-02T08:19:49Z","type":"prerelease","version":"3.8.8.dev3"},{"url":"https://github.com/PrefectHQ/prefect/releases/tag/3.8.8.dev2","date":"2026-10-01T08:21:27Z","type":"prerelease","version":"3.8.8.dev2"},{"url":"https://github.com/PrefectHQ/prefect/releases/tag/3.8.8.dev1","date":"2026-09-30T08:20:43Z","type":"prerelease","version":"3.8.8.dev1"},{"url":"https://github.com/PrefectHQ/prefect/releases/tag/3.8.7","date":"2026-09-26T23:41:44Z","type":"stable","version":"3.8.7"},{"url":"https://github.com/PrefectHQ/prefect/releases/tag/3.8.7.dev7","date":"2026-09-26T08:18:02Z","type":"prerelease","version":"3.8.7.dev7"},{"url":"https://github.com/PrefectHQ/prefect/releases/tag/3.8.7.dev6","date":"2026-09-23T08:19:42Z","type":"prerelease","version":"3.8.7.dev6"},{"url":"https://github.com/PrefectHQ/prefect/releases/tag/3.8.7.dev5","date":"2026-09-22T08:19:45Z","type":"prerelease","version":"3.8.7.dev5"},{"url":"https://github.com/PrefectHQ/prefect/releases/tag/3.8.7.dev4","date":"2026-09-19T08:16:49Z","type":"prerelease","version":"3.8.7.dev4"},{"url":"https://github.com/PrefectHQ/prefect/releases/tag/3.8.7.dev3","date":"2026-09-18T08:18:58Z","type":"prerelease","version":"3.8.7.dev3"},{"url":"https://github.com/PrefectHQ/prefect/releases/tag/3.8.7.dev2","date":"2026-09-16T08:19:54Z","type":"prerelease","version":"3.8.7.dev2"},{"url":"https://github.com/PrefectHQ/prefect/releases/tag/3.8.7.dev1","date":"2026-09-15T08:20:02Z","type":"prerelease","version":"3.8.7.dev1"},{"url":"https://github.com/PrefectHQ/prefect/releases/tag/3.8.6","date":"2026-09-14T14:18:53Z","type":"stable","version":"3.8.6"},{"url":"https://github.com/PrefectHQ/prefect/releases/tag/3.8.6.dev5","date":"2026-09-12T08:16:39Z","type":"prerelease","version":"3.8.6.dev5"},{"url":"https://github.com/PrefectHQ/prefect/releases/tag/3.8.6.dev4","date":"2026-09-11T08:19:03Z","type":"prerelease","version":"3.8.6.dev4"},{"url":"https://github.com/PrefectHQ/prefect/releases/tag/3.8.6.dev3","date":"2026-09-10T08:19:23Z","type":"prerelease","version":"3.8.6.dev3"},{"url":"https://github.com/PrefectHQ/prefect/releases/tag/3.8.6.dev2","date":"2026-09-09T08:19:24Z","type":"prerelease","version":"3.8.6.dev2"},{"url":"https://github.com/PrefectHQ/prefect/releases/tag/3.8.6.dev1","date":"2026-09-05T08:16:23Z","type":"prerelease","version":"3.8.6.dev1"},{"url":"https://github.com/PrefectHQ/prefect/releases/tag/3.8.5","date":"2026-09-03T21:25:46Z","type":"stable","version":"3.8.5"},{"url":"https://github.com/PrefectHQ/prefect/releases/tag/3.8.5.dev6","date":"2026-09-03T08:19:56Z","type":"prerelease","version":"3.8.5.dev6"},{"url":"https://github.com/PrefectHQ/prefect/releases/tag/2.20.26","date":"2026-09-02T18:17:41Z","type":"stable","version":"2.20.26"}]` |
| reliability.sla_pct | - | 99.9 |
| reliability.status_page | - | yes |
| security.certifications | - | `[{"name":"SOC 2 Type II","status":"active"}]` |
| security.disclosure_policy | - | yes |
| security.gdpr | - | yes |
| security.hipaa | - | yes |
| security.scorecard | 7.3 | 6.9 |
| security.soc2 | - | yes |
| security.trust_center | - | https://www.prefect.io/security |
| 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":8,"source":"https://advisories.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/advisories?ecosystem=pypi&package_name=prefect&per_page=100","last_12m":6,"max_severity":"HIGH"}` |

## Capabilities (Data Engineering Tools)

| Capability | Apache Airflow | Prefect |
|---|:--:|:--:|
| **Core** |  |  |
| Tool role | Orchestrator | Orchestrator |
| Processing paradigm | Batch | Batch |
| **Connectivity** |  |  |
| Connector count | 100+ | Not specified |
| 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 2026-10-16T20:07:50.644Z. "-" = undocumented, not absent.*