Pick Astronomer if
data platform teams who will stay on Developer at $0.35 / hour (scale-to-zero) while they open a first DAGs list, then buy Team at $0.42 / hour when they want dedicated clusters and 24×5 support.
Read the Astronomer pageAstronomer vs Prefect
Our take
Pick Astronomer if data platform teams who will stay on Developer at $0.35 / hour (scale-to-zero) while they open a first DAGs list, then buy Team at $0.42 / hour when they want dedicated clusters and 24×5 support. Pick Prefect if data / ML teams who will self-host OSS at $0, or stay on Cloud Hobby at $0 (2 users, 5 deployments, 500 min Serverless, 7-day retention) until they need Starter at $100/month or Team at
Best for
Astronomer Airflow you do not operate yourself
Prefect Runs you start at $0
Free plan
Astronomer No free plan
Prefect $0 · apache 2.0. Schema.org Offer on the open-source page: price 0 USD. Run a Prefect server on your infra (self-host)
Lowest paid
Astronomer Not published by the vendor
Prefect Starter (Cloud) $100/mo
Runs where
Astronomer Hosted
Prefect Local; you host it
Watch out
Astronomer $0.35 / hour is a running (or hibernating) deployment, not unlimited
Prefect Hobby is 5 deployments, 2 users, and 7-day run retention
Last checked
Astronomer 2026-10-23 · astronomer.io/pricing
Prefect 2026-10-22 · prefect.io/pricing
Which one, then?
Pick Prefect if
data / ML teams who will self-host OSS at $0, or stay on Cloud Hobby at $0 (2 users, 5 deployments, 500 min Serverless, 7-day retention) until they need Starter at $100/month or Team at $100/user/month for more deployments, service accounts, and a 24-hour audit log.
Read the Prefect page