n8n vs Apache Airflow

Self-hostable Zapier meets the dag king for data pipelines, but good luck escaping yaml hell. Here's our take.

n8n

Nice Pick

Self-hostable Zapier. More powerful, more technical.

Pros

• Self-hostable
• Fair pricing
• Powerful workflows
• Code nodes

Cons

• Steeper learning curve
• Less polished
• Fewer integrations

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. n8n is a automation while Apache Airflow is a ai coding tools. We picked n8n based on overall popularity, but your choice depends on what you're building.

The Bottom Line

n8n wins

Based on overall popularity. n8n is more widely used, but Apache Airflow excels in its own space.