head to head · open source
airflow vs realtime
airflow has 47,301 GitHub stars, 18,202 forks, 1,831 open issues and last shipped yesterday. realtime has 7,670 stars, 480 forks, 78 open issues and last shipped yesterday. airflow leads on adoption by 517% (47,301 vs 7,670 stars). airflow is written in Python under Apache-2.0; realtime is written in Elixir under Apache-2.0. airflow has attracted 38% as many forks as stars, realtime 6%. 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 | realtime | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 47K | ★ 7.7K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Python | Elixir |
| Last push | 2026-10-28 | 2026-10-28 |
| Forks | ⑂ 18K | ⑂ 480 |
| 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 realtime if
- You want the realtime feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Elixir
- You evaluated both and realtime 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 realtime
Supabase Realtime Send ephemeral messages, track and synchronize shared state, and listen to Postgres changes all over WebSockets. Examples · Request Features · Report Bugs Status This repository focuses on version 2 but you can still access the previous version's code and Docker image. For the latest Docker images go to The codebase is under heavy development and the documentation is constantly evolving. Give it a try and let us know what you think by creating an issue. Watch releases of this repo to get notified of updates. And give us a star if you like it! Overview What is this? This is a server built with…
read the full realtime overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is airflow or realtime more popular?
airflow has 47,301 GitHub stars and realtime has 7,670. airflow has the larger community by that measure.
Are airflow and realtime free?
Both are open source. airflow is licensed under Apache-2.0 and realtime under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between airflow and realtime?
airflow is written in Python and realtime in Elixir. 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 realtime?
Choose airflow if you want the larger community (47,301 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose realtime if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.