Updated August 2026
    Actively maintained
    Real momentum
    47k

    Apache Airflow: Maintenance, Licence and Alternatives

    Platform to programmatically author, schedule, and monitor workflows.

    TL;DR • Apache Airflow • as of August 2026

    Apache Airflow is an open-source automation project, with 47k GitHub stars and a health score of 100/100. It committed 7846 times in the last twelve months across 12 of those months, and its status is actively maintained. Licence: Apache-2.0. It has real momentum, so treat it as a live competitor rather than a stale repository.

    47k
    GitHub stars
    100/100
    Health score
    7846
    Commits (12 mo)
    12/12
    Active months

    Maintenance health

    Status Actively maintained — Committed within the last 45 days.
    Last commit 2026-08-15
    Days since last commit 2
    Commits, last 3 months 1854
    Commits, last 12 months 7846
    Months with activity 12 of 12
    Last release 2026-08-12
    Archived No
    Licence Apache-2.0
    Category Automation

    Health score combines commit recency, twelve-month commit volume, months with activity, release recency and archive state. Metadata refreshed August 2026.

    What the licence lets you do

    Apache-2.0

    Permissive (MIT, Apache, BSD): you can fork it, close the source and sell it. Lowest legal friction for a commercial product.

    This matters most when you plan to sell a hosted version. A permissive licence means anyone — including a competitor with more capital — can do the same, so your defensibility has to come from distribution, support or data, not from the code.

    What Apache Airflow means for your idea

    Crowded · 64/100
    Automation category →

    Apache Airflow is shipping code consistently, so a buyer comparing your product will find a maintained free option. Price and position against the total cost of self-hosting it, not against the paid incumbent's list price.

    Assume every prospect can find a free version in five minutes. Your wedge has to be something open source structurally cannot deliver: compliance, support SLAs, managed hosting at scale, or a workflow the maintainers refuse to build.

    Apache Airflow: common questions

    Is Apache Airflow still maintained in 2026?

    Actively maintained. Apache Airflow recorded 7846 commits over the last twelve months, with activity in 12 of those months and 1854 commits in the last quarter. Last commit: 2026-08-15. Last release: 2026-08-12. Committed within the last 45 days.

    Can I use Apache Airflow commercially?

    Apache Airflow is published under Apache-2.0. Permissive (MIT, Apache, BSD): you can fork it, close the source and sell it. Lowest legal friction for a commercial product.

    How crowded is the Automation category?

    34 open-source implementations, 15 of them actively maintained, led by n8n at 201k stars. Saturation score 64/100 — Crowded. Free, maintained alternatives already dominate this category.

    Apache Airflow alternatives in Automation

    n8n

    Alternative to Zapier

    201k

    Free node based Workflow Automation Tool. Easily automate tasks across different services.

    Actively maintained
    Real momentum
    Apache-2.0, Commons-Clause

    Kestra

    Alternative to Fivetran

    28k

    Event-driven, language-agnostic platform to create, schedule, and monitor workflows. In code. Coordinate data pipelines and tasks such as ETL and ELT.

    Actively maintained
    Real momentum
    Apache-2.0

    Activepieces

    Alternative to Zapier, Tray, Workflow automation

    24k

    No-code business automation tool like Zapier or Tray. For example, you can send a Slack notification for each new Trello card.

    Actively maintained
    Real momentum
    MIT

    Leon

    Alternative to Artificial intelligence chatbot/ LLM

    17k

    Personal assistant who can live on your server.

    Actively maintained
    Real momentum
    MIT

    Competing with free? Check the market first.

    IdeaProof scores your idea against live competitors, market size and 1,000+ documented startup failures in about two minutes.