What is Apache Airflow?
Apache Airflow is an open-source platform for programmatically authoring, scheduling, and monitoring workflows using Python.
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
- -
- 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
- Web
- Cloud / SaaS
- Self-hosted
Integrations (50)
Independently observed- Airbyte
- Alibaba
- Amazon Web Services
- Anthropic
- Apache Beam
- Apache Cassandra
- Apache Druid
- Apache Flink
- Apache Hive
- Apache Kafka
- Apache Spark
- ArangoDB
- Asana
- Atlassian Jira
- ClickHouse
- Cohere
- Databricks
- Datadog
- dbt Cloud
- Discord
- Docker
- Elasticsearch
- Exasol
- GitHub
- Google Cloud Platform
- Hashicorp
- IBM
- Influx DB
- Informatica
- Jenkins
- Keycloak
- Microsoft Azure
- Microsoft SQL Server
- MongoDB
- MySQL
- Neo4j
- OpenAI
- OpenLineage
- OpenSearch
- Opsgenie
- Oracle
- Pagerduty
- Papermill
- PgVector
- Pinecone
- PostgreSQL
- Presto
- Qdrant
- Redis
Apache Airflow alternatives
Other data engineering tools we track, ranked by the same independent score.
The Vioscale 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 | 87 | 0.15 | 13.2 | ✓ |
| Integrations | 52 | 0.17 | 9.1 | ✓ |
| Github Activity | 63 | 0.10 | 6.6 | ✓ |
| Capabilities | 67 | 0.09 | 6.3 | ✓ |
| Release Cadence | 94 | 0.06 | 5.5 | ✓ |
| Github Stars | 88 | 0.03 | 2.6 | ✓ |
| Security Posture | 0 | 0.08 | 0.0 | - |
| Stackoverflow Activity | 0 | 0.07 | 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 · 2026-08-01 · 65% |
Adoption
Features
| Attribute | Value | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Capabilities | {"role":"orchestrator","lineage":true,"paradigm":"batch","python_first":true,"self_hosted_oss":true,"distributed_executor":true} | mediumsource · 2026-08-05 · 60% |
Integrations
| Attribute | Value | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Count | 64 | mediumsource · 2026-08-05 · 60% |
Language
| Attribute | Value | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Primary | Python | highsource · 2026-08-01 · 98% |
License
| Attribute | Value | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Spdx | Apache-2.0 | highsource · 2026-08-01 · 95% |
Pricing
Release
| Attribute | Value | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Cadence days | 10 | mediumsource · 2026-08-01 · 70% |