head to head · open source
airflow vs Lightdash
airflow has 47,147 GitHub stars, 18,000 forks, 1,831 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Lightdash has 6,183 stars, 790 forks, 1,018 open issues and last shipped yesterday. airflow leads on adoption by 663% (47,147 vs 6,183 stars). airflow is written in Python under Apache-2.0; Lightdash is written in TypeScript under a custom or non-standard licence. airflow has attracted 38% as many forks as stars, Lightdash 13%. 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 | Lightdash | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 47K | ★ 6.2K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Custom / other |
| Written in | Python | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-10-11 | 2026-10-11 |
| Forks | ⑂ 18K | ⑂ 790 |
| 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 Lightdash if
- You want the Lightdash feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and Lightdash fits your workflow better
About airflow
Apache Airflow is an open source Python platform for programmatically authoring, scheduling, and monitoring data workflows, aimed at data engineers, data scientists, and MLOps teams who need to orchestrate pipelines as code.
read the full airflow overview →
About Lightdash
Lightdash is an open source, agentic business intelligence platform for modern data teams, written in TypeScript and distributed under a NOASSERTION license. It lives in the data and analytics ecosystem, specifically the data engineering and integration space, and it is built around dbt and warehouse native workflows. The project describes itself as agentic BI, meaning analytics is intended to move at the speed of code rather than through point and click configuration alone.
read the full Lightdash overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is airflow or Lightdash more popular?
airflow has 47,147 GitHub stars and Lightdash has 6,183. airflow has the larger community by that measure.
Are airflow and Lightdash free?
Both are open source. airflow is licensed under Apache-2.0, and Lightdash has no licence declared in this registry. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between airflow and Lightdash?
airflow is written in Python and Lightdash in TypeScript. 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 Lightdash?
Choose airflow if you want the larger community (47,147 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose Lightdash if its feature set, stack or Custom / other licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.