# Apache Airflow alternatives: what AI models name instead, October 2026

IT AI Recommendation Index, October 2026 Edition. 392 of the 504 answers in the 2 categories where Apache Airflow holds a standing named it neither first nor as an alternative; these are the first choices those answers made. Page: https://it-ai-index.com/vendors/apache-airflow/alternatives/

## Named instead, most often (every category and segment added)

- Fivetran: 58
- Airbyte: 39
- Hevo Data: 27
- Make: 22
- Prefect: 19
- Zapier: 16

## Workflow orchestration

**Small business**: 64 of 84 answers did not name Apache Airflow (Apache Airflow is #6 of 12 at 5%).

- Make: first choice in 16 of those 64
- Zapier: first choice in 16 of those 64
- Prefect: first choice in 12 of those 64
- n8n: first choice in 6 of those 64
- Activepieces: first choice in 2 of those 64
- Dagster: first choice in 2 of those 64
- Hevo Data: first choice in 2 of those 64
- Dagu: first choice in 1 of those 64

**Mid-market**: 46 of 84 answers did not name Apache Airflow (Apache Airflow is #2 of 14 at 17%).

- Make: first choice in 6 of those 46
- Dagster: first choice in 5 of those 46
- Prefect: first choice in 4 of those 46
- Workato: first choice in 3 of those 46
- Temporal: first choice in 2 of those 46
- n8n: first choice in 2 of those 46
- Hevo Data: first choice in 1 of those 46
- HubSpot Marketing Hub: first choice in 1 of those 46

**Enterprise**: 46 of 84 answers did not name Apache Airflow (Apache Airflow is #1 of 16 at 26%).

- BMC Control-M: first choice in 3 of those 46
- Prefect: first choice in 3 of those 46
- Dagster: first choice in 2 of those 46
- Temporal: first choice in 2 of those 46
- AWS Step Functions: first choice in 1 of those 46
- ActiveBatch: first choice in 1 of those 46
- Astronomer Astro: first choice in 1 of those 46
- Azure Logic Apps: first choice in 1 of those 46

## ETL and ELT

**Small business**: 83 of 84 answers did not name Apache Airflow (Apache Airflow is #10 of 11 at 0%).

- Airbyte: first choice in 29 of those 83
- Fivetran: first choice in 17 of those 83
- Hevo Data: first choice in 16 of those 83
- Skyvia: first choice in 10 of those 83
- Stitch: first choice in 6 of those 83
- Coupler.io: first choice in 1 of those 83
- Estuary Flow: first choice in 1 of those 83
- Integrate.io: first choice in 1 of those 83

**Mid-market**: 75 of 84 answers did not name Apache Airflow (Apache Airflow is #14 of 18 at 0%).

- Fivetran: first choice in 22 of those 75
- Airbyte: first choice in 10 of those 75
- Hevo Data: first choice in 8 of those 75
- Stitch: first choice in 2 of those 75
- Talend: first choice in 2 of those 75
- dbt: first choice in 2 of those 75
- Apache NiFi: first choice in 1 of those 75
- Informatica PowerCenter: first choice in 1 of those 75

**Enterprise**: 78 of 84 answers did not name Apache Airflow.

- Fivetran: first choice in 19 of those 78
- Integrate.io: first choice in 11 of those 78
- Informatica Intelligent Data Management Cloud: first choice in 6 of those 78
- Informatica PowerCenter: first choice in 4 of those 78
- IBM DataStage: first choice in 2 of those 78
- Matillion: first choice in 2 of those 78
- Talend: first choice in 2 of those 78
- Cleo Integration Cloud: first choice in 1 of those 78

Published under CC BY 4.0. The output is the models' output; nothing here is a recommendation by the index.