Kestra vs Prefect
Kestra
kestra.ioPrefect
prefect.ioSide by side
| Figure | Kestra | Prefect |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | $100/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | Yes | — |
| Open source | Yes | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| Windows | Yes | — |
| macOS | Yes | — |
| Linux | Yes | — |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 4 | 4 |
| Spec score · Workload Automation Software | 8.6 (#6) | 8.0 (#12) |
| Spec score · Workflow Orchestration Software | 8.6 (#10) | 7.9 (#22) |
| Spec score · DataOps Platforms | 8.6 (#6) | 7.9 (#10) |
| Integrations | The plugin catalog covers databases, warehouses, queues, cloud services, CI/CD and security tools, with more than 2,200 plugins advertised on the features page. | The integrations directory lists AWS, Azure, Bitbucket, Dask, Databricks, dbt, Docker, GCP, GitHub, Kubernetes, Slack, Snowflake, and other integrations. |
| Security | Kestra Cloud advertises SOC 2 Type 1 and Type 2 and GDPR status through its linked Trust Center. | Prefect states that it is SOC 2 Type II certified and GDPR compliant, and describes itself as HIPAA ready. |
| Support | Enterprise Edition includes a customer success program and enterprise support with an SLA. | The pricing comparison lists Community as Hobby's support channel, and the homepage says every enterprise plan has a 30-minute response SLA. |
Plans
Kestra
- Open SourceFree
- Enterprise EditionPriced on request
- Kestra CloudPriced on request
- Kestra CloudPriced on request
In their own words
Kestra
Kestra is a declarative orchestration platform for building, running, and governing workflows across an organization. Workflows, called flows, are defined in YAML and can combine tasks, dependencies, conditions, triggers, and runtime parameters. Execution controls include retries, failure policies, timeouts, concurrency limits, worker assignment, and log capture. Kestra advertises more than 2,000 plugins for connecting to external tools, with examples including Airbyte, AWS, Azure, BigQuery, dbt, Docker, GitHub, Kafka, Kubernetes, Slack, Snowflake, and Terraform. A flow can orchestrate SQL, Python, shell, APIs, Terraform, dbt, Spark, and custom tools. The platform includes an MCP server for AI agents and supports exposing flows as callable tools. Teams can self-host with Docker or Kubernetes; Enterprise Edition also supports cloud, on-premises, and air-gapped environments. Setup instructions cover macOS, Windows, and Linux, alongside web and API platforms. Kestra Cloud advertises up to two months free during team setup. The Open Source and Enterprise Edition plans have no price listed.
Prefect
Prefect is a workflow orchestration platform for data, machine learning and agent workflows written in Python. Its open-source framework lets users add decorators to existing Python code to create workflows, without a rigid DAG structure or custom DSL. Execution features include state tracking, automatic retries, caching and recovery from failures. For observability, Prefect provides run timelines, logs and alerts for failures, missed SLAs and late runs. Workflows can run on cron or event-driven schedules, support backfills, and be triggered by webhooks, cloud events or state changes. Deployment choices include managed serverless execution, hybrid execution in a customer’s infrastructure, and self-hosted orchestration. In hybrid mode, workers connect through outbound-only connections while code and data stay in the customer’s infrastructure; Prefect Cloud hosts the control plane and metadata. The free Hobby plan is limited to two users, five deployments, 500 minutes of monthly serverless credits and seven days of run retention. Paid plans start at $100/mo.