Open-source workflow orchestration engines in 2026
30 open-source projects, ranked by GitHub stars and how recently each was worked on. Airflow leads with 47k stars, ahead of Conductor. 30 had code pushed in the last three months. Most common licenses: Apache-2.0 (19), MIT (8) and AGPL-3.0 (2). Commercial workflow orchestration engines are listed separately.
All open-source workflow orchestration engines, ranked
Complete systems you can adopt 6
-
1
Kestra kestra-io
Orchestrate everything, everywhere. The open-source control plane for workflows across data, infrastructure, business processes and AI agents. Declarative YAML, event-driven, any language, Git-versioned, scalable to millions of executions.
Complete system Production-ready You need Airflow-class orchestration but want YAML flows, any language, and a UI non-Python people can use.
★ 30k Apache-2.0 Java Active, pushed today -
2
DolphinScheduler apache
Apache DolphinScheduler is the modern data orchestration platform. Agile to create high performance workflow with low-code
Complete system Production-ready A data platform team wants visual, low-code pipeline scheduling at scale, a common choice in China instead of Airflow.
★ 15k Apache-2.0 Java Active, pushed today -
3
Devtron devtron-labs
The only Kubernetes dashboard you need
Complete system Production-ready A team wants one UI to deploy and manage apps across Kubernetes clusters without stitching tools together.
★ 5.6k Apache-2.0 Go Active, pushed today -
4
Dagu dagucloud
Self-hostable workflow orchestrator for teams whose main work isn't orchestration. Declarative YAML over your scripts, SSH commands, containers, etc; keep workflows separate from business logic. One binary, no database, runs on limited H/W resources. Alternative to Airflow / Cron / Job Scheduler.
Complete system Usable You have cron jobs and scripts that need dependencies, retries and visibility, and Airflow would be overkill.
★ 4.5k GPL-3.0 Go Active, pushed today -
5
Maestro Netflix
Maestro: Netflix’s Workflow Orchestrator
Complete system Usable A JVM-heavy data platform team needs to schedule very large numbers of workflows and can run Netflix-style infrastructure.
★ 3.9k Apache-2.0 Java Active, pushed 3 days ago -
6
Loonflow blackholll
A Intelligent and Visual Process Automation System, ticket, workflow, MCP
Complete system Usable You need self-hosted approval and ticket workflows for internal processes and can work with Chinese-first documentation.
★ 2.1k AGPL-3.0 TypeScript Active, pushed 43 days ago
Frameworks and platforms to build on 10
-
1
Airflow apache
Apache Airflow - A platform to programmatically author, schedule, and monitor workflows
Framework or platform Production-ready A data team needs a standard batch scheduler with broad integrations and hiring familiarity.
★ 47k Apache-2.0 Python Active, pushed today -
2
Dapr dapr
Dapr is a portable runtime for building distributed applications across cloud and edge, combining event-driven architecture with workflow orchestration.
Framework or platform Production-ready You build microservices in several languages on Kubernetes and want portable building blocks instead of vendor SDKs.
★ 26k Apache-2.0 Go Active, pushed today -
3
Prefect PrefectHQ
Prefect is a workflow orchestration framework for building resilient data pipelines in Python.
Framework or platform Production-ready Your data team writes Python and wants something lighter and more Pythonic than Airflow.
★ 24k Apache-2.0 Python Active, pushed today -
4
Trigger.dev triggerdotdev
Trigger.dev – build and deploy durable AI agents and workflows
Framework or platform Production-ready Your TypeScript app needs long-running or retried background work and you want it in code rather than a visual builder.
★ 17k Apache-2.0 TypeScript Active, pushed 2 days ago -
5
Dagster dagster-io
An orchestration platform for the development, production, and observation of data assets.
Framework or platform Production-ready A data engineering team wants asset-centric pipeline orchestration as an alternative to Airflow.
★ 16k Apache-2.0 Python Active, pushed today -
6
Astron Agent iflytek
Enterprise-grade, commercial-friendly agentic workflow platform for building next-generation SuperAgents.
Framework or platform Usable An enterprise team wants a self-hosted, Apache-licensed agent workflow builder and can work with iFLYTEK's models and RPA suite.
★ 9k Apache-2.0 Java Active, pushed 6 days ago -
7
Ergo ergo-services
An actor-based Framework with network transparency for creating event-driven architecture in Golang. Inspired by Erlang. Zero dependencies.
Framework or platform Usable You want OTP-style fault-tolerant actor systems but need to stay in Go.
★ 4.7k MIT Go Active, pushed 7 days ago -
8
Nextflow nextflow-io
A workflow language for data-driven computational pipelines
Framework or platform Production-ready You run bioinformatics or scientific pipelines, especially if you want to reuse nf-core community pipelines.
★ 3.5k Apache-2.0 Groovy Active, pushed today -
9
Workflow vercel
Workflow SDK: Build durable, reliable, and observable apps and AI Agents in TypeScript
Framework or platform Usable You build on Next.js or Vercel and want durable background workflows without running a separate engine.
★ 2.5k Apache-2.0 TypeScript Active, pushed today -
10
Chidori ThousandBirdsInc
The agent framework where every run is durable, replayable, and resumable by default.
Framework or platform Experimental You build LLM agents and need deterministic replay and resume for debugging and reliability.
★ 1.4k Apache-2.0 Rust Active, pushed 5 days ago
Building blocks for your own system 13
-
1
Conductor conductor-oss
Conductor is an event driven agentic workflow engine providing durable and highly resilient execution engine for applications and AI Agents
Building block Production-ready You orchestrate many services across languages and prefer workflows defined as data with a UI over workflows written as code.
★ 32k Apache-2.0 Java Active, pushed today -
2
Temporal temporalio
Temporal service
Building block Production-ready Your system has long-running or multi-step processes like payments, provisioning or agents that must not lose progress.
★ 24k MIT Go Active, pushed today -
3
Argo Workflows argoproj
Workflow Engine for Kubernetes
Building block Production-ready Your platform already runs on Kubernetes and you want container-based batch workflows managed as Kubernetes resources.
★ 17k Apache-2.0 Go Active, pushed today -
4
Flowable-engine flowable
A compact and highly efficient workflow and Business Process Management (BPM) platform for developers, system admins and business users.
Building block Production-ready A Java team needs standards-based process automation with human tasks inside its own application.
★ 9.6k Apache-2.0 Java Active, pushed 16 days ago -
5
Cadence cadence-workflow
Cadence is a distributed, scalable, durable, and highly available orchestration engine to execute asynchronous long-running business logic in a scalable and resilient way.
Building block Production-ready You already run Cadence or need Uber-style durable execution and are prepared to operate Cassandra or SQL storage yourself.
★ 9.5k Apache-2.0 Go Active, pushed today -
6
Hatchet hatchet-dev
🪓 An orchestration engine for background tasks, AI agents, and durable workflows
Building block Usable You have outgrown Celery or BullMQ and want durable workflows without operating Temporal.
★ 8.2k MIT Go Active, pushed today -
7
Workflow Core danielgerlag
Lightweight workflow engine for .NET Standard
Building block Usable You need long-running workflows inside a .NET app without adopting an external orchestrator.
★ 5.9k MIT C# Active, pushed 4 days ago -
8
Viewflow viewflow
Reusable workflow library for Django
Building block Production-ready You build a Django app with approval flows or multi-step human processes.
★ 2.9k AGPL-3.0 Python Active, pushed 5 days ago -
9
Dbos-transact-py dbos-inc
Database-Backed Durable Python Workflows
Building block Usable You want durable, resumable workflows in a Python app without running a separate orchestration server.
★ 1.7k MIT Python Active, pushed today -
10
RuleGo rulego
⛓️RuleGo is a lightweight, high-performance, embedded, next-generation component orchestration rule engine framework for Go.
Building block Usable You need a lightweight rule or flow engine inside a Go service or edge device.
★ 1.6k Apache-2.0 Go Active, pushed 4 days ago -
11
Dbos-transact-ts dbos-inc
Database-Backed Durable TypeScript Workflows
Building block Usable Your Node.js app needs reliable multi-step processes and you would rather lean on Postgres than run Temporal.
★ 1.4k MIT TypeScript Active, pushed today -
12
Openworkflow openworkflowdev
Open-source TypeScript framework for building durable, resumable workflows. Supports Node.js and Bun.
Building block Experimental You want a small open-source durable-workflow library for TypeScript and are comfortable on a young project.
★ 1.3k Apache-2.0 TypeScript Active, pushed today -
13
Workflow durable-workflow
Core package for defining and running durable workflows and activities. Supports long-running persistent workflows, retries, queues, parallel execution, workflow monitoring, dedicated storage connections, and orchestration for microservices, data pipelines, sagas, agentic workflows, and other complex business processes.
Building block Usable Your Laravel app has long-running multi-step business processes that must survive failures.
★ 1.3k MIT PHP Active, pushed today
Developer tools 1
-
1
Osmedeus j3ssie
A Modern Orchestration Engine for Security
Developer tool Usable A security team or authorised tester wants to automate repeated recon and scanning against its own or in-scope assets.
★ 6.6k MIT Go Active, pushed 29 days ago
Compared head to head
Also under workflow automation tools
Open-source licenses
- Permissive: 27. Use it anywhere, including in closed products. You keep the copyright notice; Apache-2.0 also grants patent rights.
- Network copyleft: 2. Like GPL, and running a changed version as a web service counts as distributing it, so its users get the source too.
- Strong copyleft: 1. If you distribute the program or anything built on it, you must release the whole source under the same license.
Languages
Go 10, Java 6, Python 5, TypeScript 5, C# 1, Groovy 1, Rust 1 and PHP 1.
Made software that belongs here? Add it. Listing is free.