head to head · open source

airflow vs seatunnel-web

airflow has 47,350 GitHub stars, 18,299 forks, 1,831 open issues and last shipped yesterday. seatunnel-web has 888 stars, 371 forks, 27 open issues and last shipped 10 months ago. airflow leads on adoption by 5,232% (47,350 vs 888 stars). airflow is written in Python under Apache-2.0; seatunnel-web is written in Java under Apache-2.0. airflow has attracted 39% as many forks as stars, seatunnel-web 42%. airflow was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (apache, data-integration), 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.

airflow ★ 47K seatunnel-web ★ 888 category Data & Analytics

← all 20902 open source comparisons

Side by side

airflow seatunnel-web
GitHub stars ★ 47K ★ 888
License Apache-2.0 Apache-2.0
Written in Python Java
Last push 2026-11-02 2026-01-22
Forks ⑂ 18K ⑂ 371
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

full airflow profile →

pick seatunnel-web if

  • You want the seatunnel-web 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-web fits your workflow better

full seatunnel-web profile →

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 seatunnel-web

Apache SeaTunnel SeaTunnel was formerly named Waterdrop , and renamed SeaTunnel since October 12, 2021. So, What we are? An open source web console to manage your seatunnel script, and would push them to any scheduling system easily. Click it if your want to know more about our design. 👉🏻Design Compatibility How to start Notice: Some details please refer to the docs/QuickStart.md 1 Preparing the Apache SeaTunnel environment Because SeaTunnel Web uses the SeaTunnel Java Client to submit jobs, running SeaTunnel Web requires preparing a SeaTunnel Zeta Engine service first. Based on the usage requirements of…

read the full seatunnel-web 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 seatunnel-web more popular?

airflow has 47,350 GitHub stars and seatunnel-web has 888. airflow has the larger community by that measure.

Are airflow and seatunnel-web free?

Both are open source. airflow is licensed under Apache-2.0 and seatunnel-web under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.

What is the difference between airflow and seatunnel-web?

airflow is written in Python and seatunnel-web 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, airflow or seatunnel-web?

Choose airflow if you want the larger community (47,350 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose seatunnel-web if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.