head to head · open source
airflow vs API
airflow has 47,350 GitHub stars, 18,299 forks, 1,831 open issues and last shipped yesterday. API has 2,504 stars, 621 forks, 15 open issues and last shipped 9 months ago. airflow leads on adoption by 1,791% (47,350 vs 2,504 stars). airflow is written in Python under Apache-2.0; API is written in JavaScript under GPL-3.0. airflow has attracted 39% as many forks as stars, API 25%. airflow was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
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
| airflow | API | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 47K | ★ 2.5K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Python | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-02-14 |
| Forks | ⑂ 18K | ⑂ 621 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick airflow if
- You weight community size — 47K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick API if
- You want the API feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and API fits your workflow better
About airflow
Apache Airflow Apache Airflow (or simply Airflow) is a platform to programmatically author, schedule, and monitor workflows. When workflows are defined as code, they become more maintainable, versionable, testable, and collaborative. Use Airflow to author workflows (Dags) that orchestrate tasks. The Airflow scheduler executes your tasks on an array of workers while following the specified dependencies. Rich command line utilities make performing complex surgeries on Dags a snap. The rich user interface makes it easy to visualize pipelines running in production, monitor progress, and troubleshoot issues when…
read the full airflow overview →
About API
Welcome to disease.sh An open API for disease related statistics Check out our homepage and sign up for our newsletter here Recommended by Postman Disease.sh is recommended by Postman here Run through databar.ai If you don't know how to use APIs, you can use disease.sh without code through the databar.ai platform. Documentation Disease.sh Documentation can be found here Installation Without Docker Redis 1. Download redis from 2. Start redis server using redis server Project 1. Fork and clone the git repository 2. In the new folder you will find a example.env file, duplicate it and rename it to .env only. 3. in…
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Frequently asked questions
Is airflow or API more popular?
airflow has 47,350 GitHub stars and API has 2,504. airflow has the larger community by that measure.
Are airflow and API free?
Both are open source. airflow is licensed under Apache-2.0 and API under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between airflow and API?
airflow is written in Python and API in JavaScript. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, airflow or API?
Choose airflow if you want the larger community (47,350 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose API if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.