head to head · open source
airflow vs devlake
airflow has 47,350 GitHub stars, 18,299 forks, 1,831 open issues and last shipped yesterday. devlake has 3,184 stars, 834 forks, 54 open issues and last shipped yesterday. airflow leads on adoption by 1,387% (47,350 vs 3,184 stars). airflow is written in Python under Apache-2.0; devlake is written in Go under Apache-2.0. airflow has attracted 39% as many forks as stars, devlake 26%. airflow was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 3 topic tags (data-engineering, data-integration, etl), 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.
← all 20902 open source comparisons
Side by side
| airflow | devlake | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 47K | ★ 3.2K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Python | Go |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 18K | ⑂ 834 |
| 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 devlake if
- You want the devlake feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and devlake 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 devlake
Apache DevLake 🤔 What is Apache DevLake? Apache DevLake is an open source dev data platform that ingests, analyzes, and visualizes the fragmented data from DevOps tools to extract insights for engineering excellence, developer experience, and community growth. Apache DevLake is used by Engineering Leads, Open Source Software Maintainers and development teams looking to make better sense of their development process and to bring a more data driven approach to their own practices. You can ask Apache DevLake many questions regarding your development process. Just connect and query. 🎯 What can be accomplished with…
read the full devlake overview →
More in Data & Analytics
Related comparisons
More Data Engineering & Integration projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the Data Engineering & Integration field.
Frequently asked questions
Is airflow or devlake more popular?
airflow has 47,350 GitHub stars and devlake has 3,184. airflow has the larger community by that measure.
Are airflow and devlake free?
Both are open source. airflow is licensed under Apache-2.0 and devlake under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between airflow and devlake?
airflow is written in Python and devlake in Go. 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 devlake?
Choose airflow if you want the larger community (47,350 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose devlake if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.