# Apache Airflow vs Meltano

**Leader by Vioscale score:** Apache Airflow

| Attribute | Apache Airflow | Meltano |
|---|---|---|
| **Vioscale score** | 73 (66% (medium)) | 53.7 (41% (low)) |
| activity.commits_last_30d | 100 | 61 |
| adoption.dependent_repos | 189 | 42 |
| adoption.github_stars | 46,610 | 2,609 |
| adoption.package_downloads_weekly | 3,883,451 | - |
| deployment.options | `{"cloud":true,"hybrid":true,"on_prem":true,"self_hosted":true}` | `{"cloud":true,"self_hosted":true}` |
| description.long | A community-built orchestration system that enables users to define data pipelines and tasks in Python, execute them on distributed workers, and monitor progress through a web-based interface. It supports dynamic pipeline generation, extensive third-party integrations, and operates best for batch-oriented workflows. | Meltano provides a code-first approach to data integration, offering 600+ pre-built connectors with compute-time pricing and integrated governance. It enables teams to combine data extraction, loading, and transformation workflows with native dbt support and orchestration capabilities. |
| features.capabilities | `{"role":"orchestrator","lineage":true,"paradigm":"batch","dbt_native":true,"python_first":true,"managed_cloud":true,"connector_count":"100+","self_hosted_oss":true,"incremental_runs":true,"distributed_executor":true}` | `{"cdc":true,"role":"elt","paradigm":"both","dbt_native":true,"elt_pushdown":true,"managed_cloud":true,"connector_count":"600+","self_hosted_oss":true,"incremental_runs":true}` |
| integrations.count | 100 | 8 |
| 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":"Singer"},{"name":"dbt"},{"name":"Airflow"},{"name":"PostgreSQL"},{"name":"Snowflake"},{"name":"Great Expectations"},{"name":"Dagster"},{"name":"Superset"}]` |
| language.primary | Python | Python |
| license.spdx | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| market.availability | - | `{"primaryMarkets":[],"availabilityScope":"global","availableCountries":[],"notAvailableCountries":[]}` |
| platform.support | `{"cli":true,"web":true,"linux":true}` | `{"cli":true,"web":true,"linux":true}` |
| pricing | `{"type":"open_source","summary":"Free, open-source project. Managed cloud versions available through third parties.","freeTier":true,"sourceUrl":"https://airflow.apache.org","retrievedAt":"2026-08-14T15:28:12.780Z"}` | `{"type":"hybrid","plans":[{"free":false,"name":"Starter","features":["200 compute hours/mo","Managed infrastructure","25 workspaces","Unlimited users","600+ connectors","Reverse ETL included","AI Data engineer agent","Direct access to Meltano Engineers via Slack","Enterprise security","Best in class SLA"],"commitment":"monthly","description":"Get your first managed pipelines running in hours, not weeks","contactSales":false,"includedLimits":{"users":"unlimited","connectors":"600+","workspaces":"25","compute_hours":"200/mo"}},{"free":false,"name":"Growth","features":["2000 compute hours/mo","Everything in Starter","100 workspaces","8 hours of engineering on demand/mo","Shared account management"],"commitment":"monthly","description":"Scale pipelines with real engineering support baked in","contactSales":false,"includedLimits":{"connectors":"600+","workspaces":"100","compute_hours":"2000/mo"}},{"free":false,"name":"Scale","features":["5000 compute hours/mo","Everything in Growth","Unlimited workspaces","15 hours of engineering on demand/mo","Dedicated account management","Cost monitoring workspace included"],"commitment":"monthly","description":"Dedicated support. Full platform access. Nothing held back.","contactSales":false,"includedLimits":{"connectors":"600+","workspaces":"unlimited","compute_hours":"5000/mo"}},{"free":false,"name":"Enterprise","features":["Unlimited compute hours/mo","Everything in Scale","Custom connectors","Custom hours of engineering on demand/mo","Custom SLA"],"commitment":"monthly","description":"Truly custom. For organisations with serious data at scale.","contactSales":true,"includedLimits":{"connectors":"600+","compute_hours":"unlimited"}}],"summary":"Free open-source version. Managed cloud plans from Starter (200 compute hrs/mo) to Enterprise (unlimited). Pay for compute, not rows.","currency":"USD","freeTier":true,"sourceUrl":"https://meltano.com","retrievedAt":"2026-08-03T14:26:46.478Z","billingPeriods":["month"]}` |
| pricing.free_tier | yes | yes |
| pricing.model | open_source | commercial |
| pricing.price_level | free | low |
| pricing.transparent | yes | no |
| release.cadence_days | 13 | 3 |
| release.history | `[{"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/apache/airflow/releases/tag/3.1.2","date":"2025-11-05T16:03:57Z","type":"stable","version":"3.1.2"}]` | `[{"url":"https://github.com/meltano/meltano/releases/tag/v4.2.2","date":"2026-07-22T15:52:24Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.2.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/meltano/meltano/releases/tag/v3.9.5","date":"2026-07-22T15:23:55Z","type":"stable","version":"v3.9.5"},{"url":"https://github.com/meltano/meltano/releases/tag/v4.2.1","date":"2026-06-16T22:28:01Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.2.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/meltano/meltano/releases/tag/v3.9.4","date":"2026-06-16T22:27:42Z","type":"stable","version":"v3.9.4"},{"url":"https://github.com/meltano/meltano/releases/tag/v3.9.3","date":"2026-04-13T20:41:28Z","type":"stable","version":"v3.9.3"},{"url":"https://github.com/meltano/meltano/releases/tag/v4.2.0","date":"2026-04-10T23:16:25Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.2.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/meltano/meltano/releases/tag/v4.1.2","date":"2026-02-03T03:20:00Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.1.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/meltano/meltano/releases/tag/v3.9.2","date":"2026-02-03T13:39:09Z","type":"stable","version":"v3.9.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/meltano/meltano/releases/tag/v4.1.1","date":"2026-01-31T18:19:50Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.1.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/meltano/meltano/releases/tag/v4.1.0","date":"2026-01-30T23:39:39Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.1.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/meltano/meltano/releases/tag/v4.0.9","date":"2026-01-19T19:14:48Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.0.9"},{"url":"https://github.com/meltano/meltano/releases/tag/v4.0.8","date":"2025-12-17T19:50:30Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.0.8"},{"url":"https://github.com/meltano/meltano/releases/tag/v4.0.7","date":"2025-12-09T02:51:42Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.0.7"},{"url":"https://github.com/meltano/meltano/releases/tag/v4.0.6","date":"2025-11-20T00:02:42Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.0.6"},{"url":"https://github.com/meltano/meltano/releases/tag/v4.0.5","date":"2025-11-04T15:26:22Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.0.5"},{"url":"https://github.com/meltano/meltano/releases/tag/v4.0.4","date":"2025-10-31T17:09:54Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.0.4"},{"url":"https://github.com/meltano/meltano/releases/tag/v4.0.3","date":"2025-10-30T22:13:48Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.0.3"},{"url":"https://github.com/meltano/meltano/releases/tag/v4.0.2","date":"2025-10-29T01:52:30Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.0.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/meltano/meltano/releases/tag/v4.0.1","date":"2025-10-23T21:35:01Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.0.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/meltano/meltano/releases/tag/v4.0.0","date":"2025-10-23T18:08:27Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.0.0"}]` |
| 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=meltano&per_page=100","last_12m":0,"max_severity":null}` |

## Capabilities (Data Engineering Tools)

| Capability | Apache Airflow | Meltano |
|---|:--:|:--:|
| **Core** |  |  |
| Tool role | Orchestrator | ELT / ingestion |
| Processing paradigm | Batch | Batch + streaming |
| **Connectivity** |  |  |
| Connector count | 100+ | 600+ |
| 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: Vioscale. Generated 2026-09-01T16:32:41.257Z. "-" = undocumented, not absent.*