Detailed comparison across 10 dimensions
Winner: Apache Airflow
Apache Airflow clearly comes out ahead of AWS Step Functions on Staquest's weighted six-dimension score. Both offer a free tier.
| Overview |  AWS Step FunctionsServerless orchestration for coordinating AWS services and business logic. | |
|---|---|---|
| Type | saas tool | saas tool |
| Company | - | Amazon Web Services |
| Free Tier | ||
| Has API | ||
| Open Source | ||
| Learning Curve | steep | - |
| Integration | high | - |
| Trending | Stable | Stable |
| Industries | Data & AnalyticsSaaS & Cloud | Data & AnalyticsDevelopmentSaaS & Cloud |
| Categories | devopsdata-engineering | data-engineering |
| Website | Visit | Visit |
Apache Airflow
open source
| Feature | apache-airflow | aws-step-functions |
|---|---|---|
| Dynamic Pipeline Generation | ||
| $0.000025 Per State Transition | ||
| Extensible Framework With 1000+ Providers | ||
| 4,000 State Transitions Per Month | ||
| Rich Web-Based Monitoring Ui | ||
| Pay Per Duration | ||
| Robust Scheduling And Execution Semantics | ||
| Pay Per Memory Consumption | ||
| Scalable Distributed Architecture | ||
| Pay Per Request | ||
| Workflows As Code (Python) |
Showing 11 of 11 features
Dashes mean the feature isn't listed in our data. The tool may still support it.
On Staquest's weighted six-dimension scoring, Apache Airflow comes out ahead overall, though AWS Step Functions can be the better fit depending on your priorities — see the dimension-by-dimension breakdown above.
Both Apache Airflow and AWS Step Functions offer a free tier.
Apache Airflow is open source. The feature comparison and dimension scores above cover the full breakdown.
