head to head · open source
airflow vs Cube
airflow has 47,301 GitHub stars, 18,202 forks, 1,831 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Cube has 21,125 stars, 2,178 forks, 1,185 open issues and last shipped yesterday. airflow leads on adoption by 124% (47,301 vs 21,125 stars). airflow is written in Python under Apache-2.0; Cube is written in Rust under a custom or non-standard licence. airflow has attracted 38% as many forks as stars, Cube 10%. 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 | Cube | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 47K | ★ 21K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Custom / other |
| Written in | Python | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-10-28 | 2026-10-28 |
| Forks | ⑂ 18K | ⑂ 2.2K |
| 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 Cube if
- You want the Cube feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You evaluated both and Cube 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 Cube
Website • Docs • Examples • Blog • Slack • X Cube Core is the open source semantic layer. Define metrics, dimensions, joins, and access rules once in code, then expose them through SQL, REST, and GraphQL APIs to anything downstream — BI tools, custom applications, or AI agents. Cube Core is headless: it doesn't ship a UI, so you can build the analytics experience that fits your product. Cube Core works with all SQL data sources, including cloud data warehouses like Snowflake, Databricks, and BigQuery; query engines like Presto and Amazon Athena; and application databases like Postgres. It has a built in…
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Frequently asked questions
Is airflow or Cube more popular?
airflow has 47,301 GitHub stars and Cube has 21,125. airflow has the larger community by that measure.
Are airflow and Cube free?
Both are open source. airflow is licensed under Apache-2.0, and Cube has no licence declared in this registry. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between airflow and Cube?
airflow is written in Python and Cube in Rust. 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 Cube?
Choose airflow if you want the larger community (47,301 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose Cube if its feature set, stack or Custom / other licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.