Apache Airflow vs Mage

Apache Airflow is a platform for authoring, scheduling, and monitoring workflows written in Python. It is designed for batch workflows with a defined beginning and end that run on a schedule. Its web application lets users manage and schedule workflows, trigger DAGs manually, inspect task status and logs, backfill runs, and rerun failed tasks. A modular architecture uses a message queue to coordinate workers and can orchestrate an arbitrary number of them. Built-in operators connect workflows to Google Cloud Platform, Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and other services. The community maintains more than 80 separately installable provider packages, which can be upgraded or downgraded independently of Airflow core. Airflow can read connections, variables, and configuration from secret backends, but those integrations do not support writes. JWT authentication is used for its public REST API and internal Execution API. From Airflow 3 onward, sensitive credentials are masked in logs, the interface, and API output. Airflow is free to download and use under the Apache License.

Mage is a web platform for building and operating data workflows. Its listed functions include workflow scheduling, pipeline monitoring, data quality checks, and version control. Integrations cover Stripe, Salesforce, BigQuery, HubSpot, databases, SaaS APIs, cloud storage, files, and streams. Hybrid deployment is available. Mage has a free plan, while Starter costs $29 a month, billed monthly, plus $0.50 per CPU-hour. Starter includes one developer seat, one development environment, and 50 AI credits per month. Team costs $100 a month, billed monthly, plus $0.50 per CPU-hour; it supports up to 10 developer seats, includes one environment, and provides 250 shared AI credits per month. Mage is headquartered in Santa Clara, California, United States.