DolphinScheduler vs Kestra
DolphinScheduler and Kestra are both workflow engine software. DolphinScheduler is open source under Apache-2.0, with 15k GitHub stars. Kestra is open source under Apache-2.0, with 30k GitHub stars.
Which to pick
- Pick DolphinScheduler when
- A data platform team wants visual, low-code pipeline scheduling at scale, a common choice in China instead of Airflow.
- Pick Kestra when
- You need Airflow-class orchestration but want YAML flows, any language, and a UI non-Python people can use.
Side by side
A distributed data workflow scheduler with a visual DAG editor, multi-tenant support and many task types for Spark, Hive, SQL and shell jobs.
An orchestration platform where workflows for data, infrastructure and business processes are declared in YAML and run on schedules or events, with a web UI.
A multi-component Java cluster with ZooKeeper or a database registry to operate.
Features such as SSO and multi-tenancy are in the paid enterprise edition.
Production-ready (both)
Self-hosted server
Self-hosted server and cloud service
Java, TypeScript, ZooKeeper, PostgreSQL and MySQL
Java, Vue, TypeScript and PostgreSQL
Open source, Apache-2.0 (permissive) (both)
You can build it into a product you sell, as long as you keep its copyright notice. (both)
15k GitHub stars
30k GitHub stars
Established: started 7 years ago, latest release 3.4.3.
Established: started 7 years ago, latest release v2.0.7.
Other comparisons
More workflow orchestration engines
Both sides were judged on 2026-11-03 from each project's README and GitHub data. License, age and popularity lines are worked out directly.