head to head · open source
conductor vs Prefect
conductor has 32,207 GitHub stars, 1,010 forks, 253 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Prefect has 23,857 stars, 2,528 forks, 858 open issues and last shipped yesterday. conductor leads on adoption by 35% (32,207 vs 23,857 stars). conductor is written in Java under Apache-2.0; Prefect is written in Python under Apache-2.0. conductor has attracted 3% as many forks as stars, Prefect 11%. conductor 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
| conductor | Prefect | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 32K | ★ 24K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Java | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.0K | ⑂ 2.5K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick conductor if
- You weight community size — 32K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Java
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Prefect if
- You want the Prefect feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and Prefect fits your workflow better
About conductor
Conductor is an Apache 2.0 licensed, event driven agentic workflow engine written in Java that provides durable and highly resilient execution for applications and AI agents, aimed at teams running microservices, AI agents, and adaptive workflow graphs that need orchestration they can version, inspect, and recover.
read the full conductor overview →
About Prefect
Prefect is an open source, Python native workflow orchestration framework that lets data and machine learning teams turn ordinary Python scripts into scheduled, resilient, observable production pipelines.
read the full Prefect overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is conductor or Prefect more popular?
conductor has 32,207 GitHub stars and Prefect has 23,857. conductor has the larger community by that measure.
Are conductor and Prefect free?
Both are open source. conductor is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Prefect under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between conductor and Prefect?
conductor is written in Java and Prefect 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, conductor or Prefect?
Choose conductor if you want the larger community (32,207 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose Prefect if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.