head to head · open source
airflow vs OpenContracts
airflow has 47,361 GitHub stars, 18,310 forks, 1,831 open issues and last shipped yesterday. OpenContracts has 1,533 stars, 199 forks, 11 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. airflow leads on adoption by 2,989% (47,361 vs 1,533 stars). airflow is written in Python under Apache-2.0; OpenContracts is written in Python under MIT. airflow has attracted 39% as many forks as stars, OpenContracts 13%. airflow was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (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.
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Side by side
| airflow | OpenContracts | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 47K | ★ 1.5K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Python | Python |
| Last push | 2026-11-05 | 2026-11-04 |
| Forks | ⑂ 18K | ⑂ 199 |
| 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 OpenContracts if
- You want the OpenContracts feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and OpenContracts 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 OpenContracts
OpenContracts (Demo) Open source document intelligence you can build on. Point OpenContracts at a repository of documents and get a programmable citation graph — human annotation, structured extraction, AI agents, and a built in MCP server, all behind one API. Self hosted, MIT licensed, and built for teams working at scale. Same graph, three surfaces: a GraphQL + REST API for your apps, a Model Context Protocol server for your agents, and a React UI for your team. From documents to a citation graph — in about a minute Create a corpus, drop in your documents, and click Set up . That one click installs the…
read the full OpenContracts overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is airflow or OpenContracts more popular?
airflow has 47,361 GitHub stars and OpenContracts has 1,533. airflow has the larger community by that measure.
Are airflow and OpenContracts free?
Both are open source. airflow is licensed under Apache-2.0 and OpenContracts under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between airflow and OpenContracts?
airflow is written in Python and OpenContracts in Python. 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 OpenContracts?
Choose airflow if you want the larger community (47,361 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose OpenContracts if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.