Apache Airflow
An open-source platform for programmatically authoring, scheduling, and monitoring data workflows
- Also known as
- apache-airflow
What is 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.
Apache Airflow pricing
We don't have Apache Airflow's full plan breakdown yet (its pricing page resisted automated reading). Here's what we could confirm. Always check live pricing for exact numbers.
What Apache Airflow does
The capabilities that matter for data engineering tools, normalised so it lines up with every alternative. “-” means we haven't confirmed it, not that it's missing.
- Tool role
- Orchestrator
- Processing paradigm
- Batch
- Connector count
- 100+
- CDC / log-based replication
- -
- In-warehouse transformation (push-down)
- -
- dbt-native orchestration
- ✓
- Self-hosted / open-source available
- ✓
- Managed cloud available
- ✓
- Data lineage / asset catalog
- ✓
- Python-first authoring
- ✓
- Incremental / partition-aware runs
- ✓
- Built-in data quality / tests
- ✓
- Horizontal scale (distributed executor)
- ✓
Platform & deployment
Independently observed- CLI
- macOS
- Web
- Linux
- Cloud / SaaS
- Hybrid
- On-premise
- Self-hosted
Integrations (61)
Independently observed- Amazon Web Services
- Microsoft Azure
- Google Cloud Platform
- Databricks
- Snowflake
- dbt Cloud
- Slack
- Salesforce
- Tableau
- PostgreSQL
- MySQL
- MongoDB
- Redis
- Kubernetes
- Docker
- Apache Spark
- Apache Kafka
- Apache Cassandra
- Apache Flink
- Apache Druid
- Elasticsearch
- Datadog
- Jenkins
- GitHub
- OpenAI
- Anthropic
- Cohere
- Pinecone
- Weaviate
- Qdrant
- Oracle
- Teradata
- SQLite
- Presto
- Trino
- ClickHouse
- Neo4j
- Airbyte
- Informatica
- Asana
- Atlassian Jira
- Discord
- Telegram
- Segment
- PagerDuty
- Opsgenie
- Keycloak
- Yandex
- Zendesk
- OpenLineage
- New Relic→
- Starrocks⇄
- OpenSearch→
- IBM Cognos TM1⇄
- Marquez→
- Nexla⇄
- Vertica•
- Microsoft SQL Server•
- Influx DB•
- Cloudant•
- OpenFaaS•
Security & compliance
Known vulnerabilities: 1 (0 in the last 12 months), max severity HIGH sourcea count reflects scale & disclosure, not quality
Apache Airflow FAQ
Common questions about Apache Airflow, answered from independent, dated evidence.
What is Apache Airflow?
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
Is Apache Airflow free to use?
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
What platforms does Apache Airflow support?
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
Can Apache Airflow be self-hosted?
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
What does Apache Airflow integrate with?
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
Is Apache Airflow open source?
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.
Apache Airflow alternatives
Other data engineering tools we track, ranked by the same independent score.
- CensusAutomated data integration platform that moves and transforms data from diverse sources into analytics and AI-ready destinationsmedium · 74%
- Estuary FlowA managed platform for moving data between systems with support for real-time streaming, batch processing, and in-flight transformation.medium · 72%
- RiveryA cloud-based platform for building and automating data pipelines with extract, load, and transform capabilitiesmedium · 74%
- HightouchActivate your data warehouse to keep business tools updated with current customer informationmedium · 71%
- Prefecthigh · 76%
- DagsterA data orchestration platform that manages asset dependencies and provides unified visibility across the data stackmedium · 68%
Compare Apache Airflow
Side by side against other data engineering tools, attribute by attribute, with a source on every value.
The vioscaleAI score: one lens on the evidence
Not user reviews and not a paid placement: a confidence-weighted blend of the independent signals below (adoption, activity, security posture, and more), which you can sort and re-weight yourself. Vendors can correct their listing but can never move their rank, and stars are weighted low as a vanity metric. It is one way to read the evidence for Apache Airflow, not the verdict.
| Signal | Score | Weight | Contribution | Evidence |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Package downloads | 81 | 0.14 | 11.0 | ✓ |
| Capabilities | 92 | 0.08 | 7.2 | ✓ |
| Development activity | 63 | 0.09 | 5.9 | ✓ |
| Release cadence | 92 | 0.05 | 4.8 | ✓ |
| Integrations | 50 | 0.07 | 3.5 | ✓ |
| Security score | 73 | 0.04 | 3.1 | ✓ |
| Dependent projects | 38 | 0.06 | 2.4 | ✓ |
| Stars | 88 | 0.03 | 2.3 | ✓ |
| Security posture | 0 | 0.07 | 0.0 | - |
| Developer Q&A activity | 0 | 0.06 | 0.0 | - |
Computed . Re-weight it by intent, or see the full method.
All data & sourcesshow ↓
Every value we hold, with its source, retrieval date, and confidence. This is the evidence behind the score: don't trust it, verify it.
Activity
| Attribute | Value | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Commits last 30d | 100 | mediumsource · 2026-10-05 · 65% |
Adoption
Content
| Attribute | Value | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Faq | 6 items | mediumsource · 2026-09-10 · 66% |
Features
| Attribute | Value | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Capabilities | Role: orchestrator · Lineage: Yes · Paradigm: batch · Dbt native: Yes · Data quality: Yes · Python first: Yes | mediumsource · 2026-10-05 · 60% |
Integrations
| Attribute | Value | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Count | 54 | mediumsource · 2026-10-05 · 60% |
Language
| Attribute | Value | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Primary | Python | highsource · 2026-10-05 · 98% |
License
| Attribute | Value | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Spdx | Apache-2.0 | highsource · 2026-10-05 · 95% |
Pricing
Release
Security
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