Make vs Apache Airflow

Visual automation meets the dag king for data pipelines, but good luck escaping yaml hell. Here's our take.

Make

Nice Pick

Visual automation. More flexible than Zapier, less nerdy than n8n.

Pros

• Visual builder
• Complex logic
• Good pricing
• Many integrations

Cons

• Learning curve
• Can get messy
• Support varies

Apache Airflow

The DAG king for data pipelines, but good luck escaping YAML hell.

Pros

• Powerful DAG-based workflow orchestration with clear task dependencies
• Rich web UI for monitoring, logging, and managing workflows
• Extensible with a wide range of operators and plugins for various integrations

Cons

• Steep learning curve with complex YAML configurations and Python scripting
• Can be resource-intensive and tricky to scale in production environments

The Verdict

These tools serve different purposes. Make is a automation while Apache Airflow is a ai coding tools. We picked Make based on overall popularity, but your choice depends on what you're building.

The Bottom Line

Make wins

Based on overall popularity. Make is more widely used, but Apache Airflow excels in its own space.