head to head · open source
Prefect vs sidequest
Prefect has 23,882 GitHub stars, 2,527 forks, 858 open issues and last shipped today. sidequest has 1,015 stars, 25 forks, 14 open issues and last shipped 12 days ago. Prefect leads on adoption by 2,253% (23,882 vs 1,015 stars). Prefect is written in Python under Apache-2.0; sidequest is written in TypeScript under LGPL-3.0. Prefect has attracted 11% as many forks as stars, sidequest 2%. Prefect 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
| Prefect | sidequest | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 24K | ★ 1.0K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | LGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Python | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-20 | 2026-09-08 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.5K | ⑂ 25 |
| 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 sidequest if
- You want the sidequest feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the LGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and sidequest fits your workflow better
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 →
About sidequest
Sidequest is a Redis free background job processor for Node.js that persists jobs in the PostgreSQL, MySQL, SQLite, or MongoDB database an application already runs, aimed at teams that need durable, distributed queue processing without operating Redis.
read the full sidequest overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Prefect or sidequest more popular?
Prefect has 23,882 GitHub stars and sidequest has 1,015. Prefect has the larger community by that measure.
Are Prefect and sidequest free?
Both are open source. Prefect is licensed under Apache-2.0 and sidequest under LGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Prefect and sidequest?
Prefect is written in Python and sidequest 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, Prefect or sidequest?
Choose Prefect if you want the larger community (23,882 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose sidequest if its feature set, stack or LGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.