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Dagster vs Apache Airflow: catalog facts
Dagster	Apache Airflow
Freemium The open-source core is free; Dagster+ is a paid hosted service.	Free Free and open source, developed as an Apache Software Foundation project.
Web, Self-hosted	Web, Self-hosted
Asset-based model with lineage and freshness tracking Self-hostable open-source core	Workflows are plain Python, so tasks can be generated dynamically Web UI with status and logs for every task run
Aimed at data engineering teams, not general automation Announced merger with Prefect makes the roadmap uncertain	Requires Python knowledge to define workflows You run and maintain the scheduler, workers and web server yourself
Self-hosted, Hosted service	Self-hosted
Open source	Open source
License not stated	License: Apache-2.0
Not stated if an account is needed	Not stated if an account is needed
Not stated if it works offline	Not stated if it works offline
Official website Full listing and sources Checked September 23, 2026	Official website Full listing and sources Checked September 23, 2026

Catalog facts only. Anything “not stated” is unconfirmed. Check full listings for details.