Our take
Pick Kestra if data / platform teams who will stay on Open Source at $0 (unlimited flows and executions, Postgres/MySQL queue) while they ship a first Webhook Flow, then talk to sales for Enterprise when they need SSO, RBAC, and a support SLA — Cloud is request-access with no public dollar on the page. Pick Prefect if data / ML teams who will self-host OSS at $0, or stay on Cloud Hobby at $0 (2 users, 5 deployments,
open-source orchestration desk
Best for
Kestra Flows you start at $0
Prefect Runs you start at $0
Free plan
Kestra $0 · unlimited flows and executions. 2,300+ plugins. Code and no-code editors. Event-driven scheduling. MCP server. Queue on PostgreSQL or MySQL. Confirmed by the Offer named “Kestra Open Source” (price 0, priceCurrency USD)
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
Kestra Not published by the vendor
Prefect Starter (Cloud) $100/mo
Runs where
Kestra
Prefect Local; you host it
Watch out
Kestra Cloud and Enterprise have no public $
Prefect Hobby is 5 deployments, 2 users, and 7-day run retention
Last checked
Kestra 2026-10-23 · kestra.io/pricing
Prefect 2026-10-22 · prefect.io/pricing
data / platform teams who will stay on Open Source at $0 (unlimited flows and executions, Postgres/MySQL queue) while they ship a first Webhook Flow, then talk to sales for Enterprise when they need SSO, RBAC, and a support SLA — Cloud is request-access with no public dollar on the page.
Read the Kestra pagedata / 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