head to head · open source
airflow vs squid-sdk
airflow has 47,350 GitHub stars, 18,299 forks, 1,831 open issues and last shipped yesterday. squid-sdk has 1,345 stars, 206 forks, 57 open issues and last shipped yesterday. airflow leads on adoption by 3,420% (47,350 vs 1,345 stars). airflow is written in Python under Apache-2.0; squid-sdk is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0. airflow has attracted 39% as many forks as stars, squid-sdk 15%. 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 | squid-sdk | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 47K | ★ 1.3K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Python | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 18K | ⑂ 206 |
| 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 squid-sdk if
- You want the squid-sdk feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and squid-sdk 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 squid-sdk
Squid SDK an ETL framework for Web3 data Squid SDK is a TypeScript ETL toolkit for blockchain data, that currently supports Ethereum and everything Ethereum like Substrate based chains Solana. Squid SDK is distinguished by Being a toolkit (rather than an indexing app like TheGraph or Ponder) Fast binary data codecs and type safe access to decoded data Native support for sourcing the data from SQD Network. The latter is a key point, as SQD Network is a decentralized data lake and query engine, that allows to granularly select and stream subset of block data to lightweight clients while providing high performance…
read the full squid-sdk overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is airflow or squid-sdk more popular?
airflow has 47,350 GitHub stars and squid-sdk has 1,345. airflow has the larger community by that measure.
Are airflow and squid-sdk free?
Both are open source. airflow is licensed under Apache-2.0 and squid-sdk under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between airflow and squid-sdk?
airflow is written in Python and squid-sdk 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 squid-sdk?
Choose airflow if you want the larger community (47,350 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose squid-sdk if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.