head to head · open source
Airbyte vs seatunnel
Airbyte has 22,303 GitHub stars, 5,431 forks, 2,395 open issues and last shipped yesterday. seatunnel has 9,782 stars, 2,453 forks, 705 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Airbyte leads on adoption by 128% (22,303 vs 9,782 stars). Airbyte is written in Python under a custom or non-standard licence; seatunnel is written in Java under Apache-2.0. Airbyte has attracted 24% as many forks as stars, seatunnel 25%. Airbyte was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 3 topic tags (change-data-capture, data-integration, elt), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| Airbyte | seatunnel | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 22K | ★ 9.8K |
| License | Custom / other | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Python | Java |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.4K | ⑂ 2.5K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Airbyte if
- You weight community size — 22K stars and counting
- You want the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick seatunnel if
- You want the seatunnel feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Java
- You evaluated both and seatunnel fits your workflow better
About Airbyte
Open source data movement for ELT pipelines and AI agents — from APIs, databases & files to warehouses, lakes, and AI applications We believe that only an open source solution to data movement can cover the long tail of data sources while empowering data engineers to customize existing connectors. Our ultimate vision is to help you move data from any source to any destination — whether that destination is a data warehouse, a data lake, or an AI agent. Airbyte provides a catalog of 600+ connectors for APIs, databases, data warehouses, data lakes, and AI applications. Screenshot taken from Airbyte Cloud . Pick the…
read the full Airbyte overview →
About seatunnel
Apache SeaTunnel Overview SeaTunnel is a multimodal, high performance, distributed data integration tool, capable of synchronizing vast amounts of data daily. It's trusted by numerous companies for its efficiency and stability. Why Choose SeaTunnel SeaTunnel addresses common data integration challenges: Diverse Data Sources : Seamlessly integrates with hundreds of evolving data sources. Multimodal Data Integration : Supports the integration of video, images, binary files, structured and unstructured text data. Complex Synchronization Scenarios : Supports various synchronization methods, including real time, CDC…
read the full seatunnel overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Airbyte or seatunnel more popular?
Airbyte has 22,303 GitHub stars and seatunnel has 9,782. Airbyte has the larger community by that measure.
Are Airbyte and seatunnel free?
Both are open source. Airbyte has no licence declared in this registry, and seatunnel is licensed under Apache-2.0. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Airbyte and seatunnel?
Airbyte is written in Python and seatunnel in Java. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Airbyte or seatunnel?
Choose Airbyte if you want the larger community (22,303 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose seatunnel if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.