head to head · open source
Prefect vs cloudstack
Prefect has 24,110 GitHub stars, 2,630 forks, 858 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. cloudstack has 3,126 stars, 1,418 forks, 1,048 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. Prefect leads on adoption by 671% (24,110 vs 3,126 stars). Prefect is written in Python under Apache-2.0; cloudstack is written in Java under Apache-2.0. Prefect has attracted 11% as many forks as stars, cloudstack 45%. Prefect was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 3 topic tags (infrastructure, orchestration, python), 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
| Prefect | cloudstack | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 24K | ★ 3.1K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Python | Java |
| Last push | 2026-11-03 | 2026-11-03 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.6K | ⑂ 1.4K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Prefect if
- You weight community size — 24K 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 cloudstack if
- You want the cloudstack 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 cloudstack fits your workflow better
About Prefect
Installation · Quickstart · Build workflows · Deploy workflows · Prefect Cloud Prefect Prefect is a workflow orchestration framework for building data pipelines in Python. It's the simplest way to elevate a script into a production workflow. With Prefect, you can build resilient, dynamic data pipelines that react to the world around them and recover from unexpected changes. With just a few lines of code, data teams can confidently automate any data process with features such as scheduling, caching, retries, and event based automations. Workflow activity is tracked and can be monitored with a self hosted Prefect…
read the full Prefect overview →
About cloudstack
Apache CloudStack Who Uses CloudStack? Demo Getting Started Getting Source Repository Documentation News and Events Getting Involved and Contributing Reporting Security Vulnerabilities License Notice of Cryptographic Software Star History Contributors Apache CloudStack is open source software designed to deploy and manage large networks of virtual machines, as a highly available, highly scalable Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) cloud computing platform. CloudStack is used by a number of service providers to offer public cloud services, and by many companies to provide an on premises (private) cloud offering…
read the full cloudstack overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Prefect or cloudstack more popular?
Prefect has 24,110 GitHub stars and cloudstack has 3,126. Prefect has the larger community by that measure.
Are Prefect and cloudstack free?
Both are open source. Prefect is licensed under Apache-2.0 and cloudstack under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Prefect and cloudstack?
Prefect is written in Python and cloudstack 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, Prefect or cloudstack?
Choose Prefect if you want the larger community (24,110 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose cloudstack if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.