Conductor OSS vs Dagster
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted automation & workflows options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Dagster
Data orchestrator for the full development lifecycle
| Feature | Conductor OSS | Dagster |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 98 · Excellent | 95 · Excellent |
| Category | Automation & Workflows | Automation & Workflows |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Language | Java | Python |
| Setup difficulty | Hard | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 2,048 MB | 2,048 MB |
| Deployment | docker, kubernetes, bare-metal | docker, kubernetes, helm |
| GitHub stars | ★ 32,227 | ★ 16,199 |
| First released | 2016 | 2019 |
| Replaces | AWS Step Functions, Camunda | AWS Step Functions, Azure Data Factory |
What are Conductor OSS and Dagster?
Conductor OSS
Conductor is a platform created to orchestrate microservices and business processes at scale. It lets teams define workflows as JSON and run them across distributed task workers.
- JSON-defined workflows
- Distributed task workers
- Visual workflow editor
- Built for microservice orchestration
Dagster
Dagster is an orchestration platform for data assets that emphasizes testability and observability. It models pipelines around the assets they produce and can be fully self-hosted.
- Asset-oriented orchestration
- Built-in testing and typing
- Integrated data lineage
- Web-based control plane
Conductor OSS vs Dagster: key differences
Conductor OSS is written in Java, while Dagster is built with Python. Conductor OSS is the more established project (first released 2016), while Dagster arrived in 2019.
Why pick each one
Choose Conductor OSS if…
- Battle-tested at scale
- Language-agnostic workers
Watch out for
- Java stack is resource heavy
Choose Dagster if…
- Strong developer tooling
- Great for data-centric teams
Watch out for
- Conceptual model takes time to learn
Frequently asked questions
Is Conductor OSS or Dagster better?
Neither is universally better. Conductor OSS has the larger community, while Dagster is simpler to set up (medium difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Conductor OSS and Dagster free and open-source?
Yes. Conductor OSS is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Dagster under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Conductor OSS and Dagster with Docker?
Conductor OSS: yes. Dagster: yes.