# Apache NiFi vs Prefect

**Leader by Vioscale score:** Prefect

| Attribute | Apache NiFi | Prefect |
|---|---|---|
| **Vioscale score** | 61.3 (39% (low)) | 69.8 (76% (high)) |
| activity.commits_last_30d | 93 | 100 |
| adoption.dependent_repos | - | 767 |
| adoption.github_stars | 6,208 | 23,691 |
| adoption.package_downloads_weekly | - | 2,710,819 |
| deployment.options | `{"cloud":true,"on_prem":true,"self_hosted":true}` | `{"cloud":true,"hybrid":true,"self_hosted":true}` |
| description.long | Apache NiFi is an open-source data orchestration platform that enables reliable, guaranteed-delivery processing and routing of data flows with complete tracking and provenance. It provides visual pipeline design, real-time configuration changes, and extensive integrations with enterprise systems, cloud services, and data platforms. | A workflow orchestration platform that enables teams to build resilient automated processes using Python, with features like automatic retries, state tracking, and run observability. Supports flexible deployment options ranging from managed cloud infrastructure to self-hosted environments on Kubernetes or user-provided compute. |
| features.capabilities | `{"cdc":true,"role":"orchestrator","lineage":true,"paradigm":"both","data_quality":true,"elt_pushdown":false,"connector_count":"200+","self_hosted_oss":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 | 200 | 5 |
| integrations.list | `[{"name":"Amazon S3"},{"name":"Amazon SQS"},{"name":"Amazon DynamoDB"},{"name":"Amazon Lambda"},{"name":"Amazon Kinesis"},{"name":"Amazon Polly"},{"name":"Amazon Transcribe"},{"name":"Amazon Translate"},{"name":"Amazon Textract"},{"name":"CloudWatch"},{"name":"Azure Blob Storage"},{"name":"Azure Data Lake Storage"},{"name":"Azure Event Hub"},{"name":"Azure Cosmos DB"},{"name":"Azure Data Explorer"},{"name":"Azure Queue Storage"},{"name":"Google Cloud Pub/Sub"},{"name":"Google BigQuery"},{"name":"Google Cloud Vision"},{"name":"Google Drive"},{"name":"Apache Kafka"},{"name":"Apache MQTT"},{"name":"Apache JMS"},{"name":"MongoDB"},{"name":"Elasticsearch"},{"name":"Redis"},{"name":"Splunk"},{"name":"Salesforce"},{"name":"Slack"},{"name":"HubSpot"},{"name":"Shopify"},{"name":"Zendesk"},{"name":"Workday"},{"name":"Box"},{"name":"Dropbox"},{"name":"SFTP"},{"name":"FTP"},{"name":"SMB"},{"name":"HTTP"},{"name":"IMAP"},{"name":"POP3"},{"name":"SMTP"},{"name":"Snowflake"},{"name":"BigQuery"},{"name":"MySQL"},{"name":"JDBC"},{"name":"Airtable"},{"name":"SNMP"},{"name":"Syslog"},{"name":"Iceberg"}]` | `[{"name":"Pydantic AI"},{"name":"OpenAI"},{"name":"AWS Secrets Manager"},{"name":"HashiCorp Vault"},{"name":"dbt"}]` |
| language.primary | Java | Python |
| license.spdx | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| market.availability | `{"primaryMarkets":[],"availabilityScope":"global","availableCountries":[],"notAvailableCountries":[]}` | `{"primaryMarkets":[],"availabilityScope":"global","availableCountries":[],"notAvailableCountries":[]}` |
| platform.support | `{"cli":true,"web":true,"linux":true,"windows":true}` | `{"cli":true,"web":true}` |
| pricing | `{"type":"open_source","freeTier":true,"sourceUrl":"https://nifi.apache.org","retrievedAt":"2026-08-13T23:04:43.895Z"}` | `{"type":"subscription","plans":[{"free":true,"name":"Hobby","summary":"Free forever","features":["workflow scheduling","workflow observability","logging & alerting"],"minSeats":2,"description":"Starter tier for individual workflows","contactSales":false,"includedLimits":{"users":"2","deployments":"5","run_retention":"7 days","serverless_compute":"500 min/mo"}},{"free":false,"name":"Starter","summary":"$100/mo","features":["bring your own compute","webhooks","API access"],"minSeats":3,"commitment":"monthly","components":[{"kind":"fixed","amount":100,"period":"month","currency":"USD"}],"description":"For teams bringing their own compute infrastructure","contactSales":false,"includedLimits":{"users":"3","deployments":"20","serverless_compute":"75 hours/mo","api_requests_per_min":"1250"}},{"free":false,"name":"Team","summary":"$100/user/mo","features":["service accounts","audit logging","team collaboration"],"minSeats":4,"commitment":"annual","components":[{"kind":"per_unit","unit":"seat","amount":100,"period":"month","currency":"USD"}],"description":"Multi-user collaboration with governance features","contactSales":false,"includedLimits":{"users":"4-8","deployments":"100","serverless_compute":"225 hours/mo","audit_log_retention_hours":"24"}},{"free":false,"name":"Enterprise","summary":"Custom pricing","features":["SSO (SAML/OIDC)","RBAC with object-level ACLs","multiple workspaces","directory sync (SCIM)","IP allowlisting","PrivateLink private networking"],"minSeats":5,"description":"Custom deployment with advanced security and compliance","contactSales":true,"includedLimits":{"deployments":"unlimited","serverless_compute":"custom"}}],"summary":"Free tier. Starter from $100/mo. Team at $100/user/mo. Enterprise custom pricing.","currency":"USD","freeTier":true,"sourceUrl":"https://www.prefect.io/pricing","retrievedAt":"2026-08-14T15:26:09.793Z","startingPrice":{"amount":100,"period":"month","currency":"USD"},"billingPeriods":["month","year"]}` |
| pricing.free_tier | yes | yes |
| pricing.model | open_source | commercial |
| pricing.price_level | free | high |
| pricing.transparent | yes | yes |
| release.cadence_days | 40 | 1 |
| release.history | `[{"url":"https://github.com/apache/nifi/releases/tag/rel/nifi-2.11.0","date":"2026-08-03T08:51:21Z","type":"stable","version":"rel/nifi-2.11.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/apache/nifi/releases/tag/rel/nifi-2.10.0","date":"2026-06-23T11:05:48Z","type":"stable","version":"rel/nifi-2.10.0"}]` | `[{"url":"https://github.com/PrefectHQ/prefect/releases/tag/3.8.4","date":"2026-08-25T17:15:13Z","type":"stable","version":"3.8.4"},{"url":"https://github.com/PrefectHQ/prefect/releases/tag/3.8.4.dev7","date":"2026-08-25T08:17:08Z","type":"prerelease","version":"3.8.4.dev7"},{"url":"https://github.com/PrefectHQ/prefect/releases/tag/3.8.4.dev6","date":"2026-08-22T08:08:27Z","type":"prerelease","version":"3.8.4.dev6"},{"url":"https://github.com/PrefectHQ/prefect/releases/tag/3.8.4.dev5","date":"2026-08-21T08:15:17Z","type":"prerelease","version":"3.8.4.dev5"},{"url":"https://github.com/PrefectHQ/prefect/releases/tag/3.8.4.dev4","date":"2026-08-20T08:14:17Z","type":"prerelease","version":"3.8.4.dev4"},{"url":"https://github.com/PrefectHQ/prefect/releases/tag/3.8.4.dev3","date":"2026-08-19T08:12:16Z","type":"prerelease","version":"3.8.4.dev3"},{"url":"https://github.com/PrefectHQ/prefect/releases/tag/3.8.4.dev2","date":"2026-08-18T08:12:04Z","type":"prerelease","version":"3.8.4.dev2"},{"url":"https://github.com/PrefectHQ/prefect/releases/tag/3.8.4.dev1","date":"2026-08-14T08:31:14Z","type":"prerelease","version":"3.8.4.dev1"},{"url":"https://github.com/PrefectHQ/prefect/releases/tag/3.8.3","date":"2026-08-13T18:53:23Z","type":"stable","version":"3.8.3"},{"url":"https://github.com/PrefectHQ/prefect/releases/tag/3.8.3.dev3","date":"2026-08-13T08:33:56Z","type":"prerelease","version":"3.8.3.dev3"},{"url":"https://github.com/PrefectHQ/prefect/releases/tag/3.8.3.dev2","date":"2026-08-12T08:32:30Z","type":"prerelease","version":"3.8.3.dev2"},{"url":"https://github.com/PrefectHQ/prefect/releases/tag/3.8.3.dev1","date":"2026-08-11T08:23:35Z","type":"prerelease","version":"3.8.3.dev1"},{"url":"https://github.com/PrefectHQ/prefect/releases/tag/3.8.2","date":"2026-08-07T21:15:48Z","type":"stable","version":"3.8.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/PrefectHQ/prefect/releases/tag/3.8.2.dev6","date":"2026-08-07T08:27:11Z","type":"prerelease","version":"3.8.2.dev6"},{"url":"https://github.com/PrefectHQ/prefect/releases/tag/3.8.2.dev5","date":"2026-08-06T08:59:18Z","type":"prerelease","version":"3.8.2.dev5"},{"url":"https://github.com/PrefectHQ/prefect/releases/tag/3.8.2.dev4","date":"2026-08-05T08:58:55Z","type":"prerelease","version":"3.8.2.dev4"},{"url":"https://github.com/PrefectHQ/prefect/releases/tag/3.8.2.dev3","date":"2026-08-04T09:00:27Z","type":"prerelease","version":"3.8.2.dev3"},{"url":"https://github.com/PrefectHQ/prefect/releases/tag/3.8.2.dev2","date":"2026-08-03T09:13:20Z","type":"prerelease","version":"3.8.2.dev2"},{"url":"https://github.com/PrefectHQ/prefect/releases/tag/3.8.2.dev1","date":"2026-08-01T08:49:58Z","type":"prerelease","version":"3.8.2.dev1"},{"url":"https://github.com/PrefectHQ/prefect/releases/tag/3.8.1","date":"2026-07-30T21:15:25Z","type":"stable","version":"3.8.1"}]` |
| reliability.sla_pct | - | 99.99 |
| reliability.status_page | - | yes |
| security.gdpr | - | yes |
| security.hipaa | - | yes |
| security.scorecard | 7 | 6.9 |
| security.soc2 | - | yes |
| security.vulnerabilities | - | `{"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 NiFi | Prefect |
|---|:--:|:--:|
| **Core** |  |  |
| Tool role | Orchestrator | Orchestrator |
| Processing paradigm | Batch + streaming | Batch |
| **Connectivity** |  |  |
| Connector count | 200+ | 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: Vioscale. Generated 2026-09-01T17:43:10.478Z. "-" = undocumented, not absent.*