Apache Atlas vs OpenMetadata
Apache Atlas
atlas.apache.org
OpenMetadata
open-metadata.orgSide by side
| Figure | Apache Atlas | OpenMetadata |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | Yes | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | — |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 1 | 1 |
| Spec score · Data Lineage Tools | 8.9 (#3) | 7.4 (#22) |
| Spec score · Data Catalog Software | 9.0 (#1) | 7.6 (#3) |
| Spec score · Metadata Management Software | 8.8 (#2) | 7.3 (#12) |
| Authentication | Supported authentication methods include file credentials, Kerberos, LDAP or Active Directory, Keycloak OpenID Connect/OAuth2 and PAM. | The deployment security guide lists Google, Okta, custom OIDC, Auth0, Azure, Amazon Cognito, and OneLogin identity providers, and says simultaneous use of multiple authentication mechanisms is unsupported. |
| Deployment | The repository provides Docker build instructions and produces server, source and multiple hook distribution archives. | Users can deploy OpenMetadata in their own environment, try a live sandbox with demo data, or sign up for a free cloud service with their own data. |
| Integrations | Documented metadata sources include Hive, Sqoop, Falcon, Storm and HBase. | Its ingestion framework supports connectors for 130+ data services, including Airflow, BigQuery, Databricks, dbt, Kafka, MySQL, Snowflake, and Tableau. |
| Purpose | Apache Atlas provides open metadata management and governance capabilities to catalog, classify, govern, and support collaboration around data assets. | OpenMetadata unifies technical context, business semantics, and organizational memory in a knowledge graph for people and AI agents. |
| Security | Atlas supports fine-grained access controls for metadata entities and classification operations. | The documentation describes Fernet encryption for stored passwords and connection secrets, SSL/TLS connections, and external secrets manager support. |
Plans
In their own words
Apache Atlas
Apache Atlas is open-source software for managing metadata and governance around data assets. It supports cataloging, classification, governance, and collaboration, with predefined metadata types and tools for defining custom types, entities, and relationships. Teams can create classifications, associate them with multiple entities, and propagate them through data lineage. The interface displays lineage, and REST APIs can access and update it. Metadata search works by type, classification, attribute value, or free text, including through a SQL-like language. Fine-grained access controls apply to metadata entities and classification operations. Integration with Apache Ranger can use classifications for authorization and data masking. Atlas exposes REST endpoints for metadata types, entities, lineage, and discovery; documented integrations include Hive, HBase, Sqoop, Storm, and Kafka. Atlas is server software for self-hosted deployment, built and packaged for an environment with HBase and Solr. It is listed for Linux, web, API, and self-hosted use, at free.
OpenMetadata
OpenMetadata is an open-source platform for cataloging and governing data, bringing technical context, business meaning and organizational memory into a knowledge graph. Its capabilities include discovery, data quality, observability, lineage, semantics and memory. The graph connects schemas, tables, columns, dashboards, pipelines, ML models, owners and classifications. Glossary terms, metric definitions and relationships using RDF, OWL, DCAT and Schema.org help represent shared business meaning. For AI workflows, OpenMetadata provides an MCP server, an AI SDK and a Context Center for articles, documents and memories. Its ingestion framework has connectors for 130+ data services, including Airflow, BigQuery, Databricks, dbt, Kafka, MySQL, Snowflake and Tableau. The schema-first architecture includes 700+ open specifications in JSON Schema and RDF/JSON-LD. It can be deployed in an organization's own environment, explored in a live sandbox with demo data, or used through a free cloud service with the organization's data. The self-hosted plan is listed at free, with no usage limits stated. Security documentation describes stored-secret encryption, SSL/TLS connections and external secrets manager support.