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Apache Airflow vs Temporal

A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted automation & workflows options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.

Not the right match-up?
AP Apache Airflow Programmatically author, schedule and monitor workflows VS TE Temporal Durable execution platform for reliable distributed workflows
FeatureApache AirflowTemporal
Deploy effortUnder-an-hour setupUnder-an-hour setup
Health score100 · Excellent97 · Excellent
CategoryAutomation & WorkflowsAutomation & Workflows
LicenseApache-2.0MIT
LanguagePythonGo
Setup difficultyHardHard
Min. RAM4,096 MB2,048 MB
Deploymentdocker, kubernetes, helmdocker, kubernetes, helm
GitHub stars★ 46,957★ 23,263
First released20152019
ReplacesAWS Step Functions, Azure Data FactoryAWS Step Functions, Azure Logic Apps

What are Apache Airflow and Temporal?

Apache Airflow

Apache Airflow is a platform to author, schedule and monitor workflows as directed acyclic graphs of tasks. It is widely used for data engineering pipelines and complex job orchestration.

  • Workflows defined as Python code
  • Rich scheduling and dependency management
  • Extensive operator and provider ecosystem
  • Web UI for monitoring DAGs

Read the full Apache Airflow guide →

Temporal

Temporal is an open-source platform for building durable, reliable workflows in code. It guarantees that long-running business processes survive failures, restarts and infrastructure changes.

  • Durable execution guarantees
  • Workflows written in general-purpose code
  • Automatic retries and state persistence
  • SDKs for many languages

Read the full Temporal guide →

Apache Airflow vs Temporal: key differences

Apache Airflow is written in Python, while Temporal is built with Go. Licensing differs — Apache-2.0 for Apache Airflow versus MIT for Temporal. Temporal is the lighter option, starting around 2,048 MB of RAM against 4,096 MB for Apache Airflow. Apache Airflow is the more established project (first released 2015), while Temporal arrived in 2019. Apache Airflow has the considerably larger community, at 46,957 GitHub stars versus 23,263.

Why pick each one

Choose Apache Airflow if…

  • Industry standard for data pipelines
  • Huge ecosystem

Watch out for

  • Heavy to operate
  • Steep learning curve
Apache Airflow details

Choose Temporal if…

  • Extremely reliable for long workflows
  • Strong multi-language support

Watch out for

  • Operationally complex to self-host
Temporal details

Frequently asked questions

Is Apache Airflow or Temporal better?

Neither is universally better. Apache Airflow has the larger community; both share a hard setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.

Are Apache Airflow and Temporal free and open-source?

Yes. Apache Airflow is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Temporal under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run Apache Airflow and Temporal with Docker?

Apache Airflow: yes. Temporal: yes.

Which is lighter on resources, Apache Airflow or Temporal?

Temporal has the smaller minimum footprint at 2,048 MB of RAM, compared to about 4,096 MB for Apache Airflow. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.

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