Airflow vs. Prefect: Cron Schedules vs Event-Driven Flows

Two answers to the same two questions - who decides the shape, what starts the run

• Left column - Airflow, static and config-driven:
• Scheduler parses DAG files into a static graph
• Structure is declared before anything runs
• Triggers are time-based, plain cron lines
• Fits known, fixed batch pipelines
• DAG: a static graph of tasks

• Right column - Prefect, dynamic and code-first:
• Python code registers flows with an API server
• Agents schedule and run the flows
• Workflow is built at runtime, not ahead
• Reacts to events: new data, API calls
• Flow: a code-defined dynamic workflow

• One axis, not a hard limit:
• Default philosophies, not hard walls
• An Airflow DAG can be generated in code
• A Prefect flow can run on a plain schedule

• The honest test:
• Build the same 3-step ETL in both tools
• Change one branch mid-deploy, time the fix
• Airflow re-parses files; Prefect re-registers code
• Fire both from a file-arrival and a cron line
• Drop one event message and watch each fail

Sticky note - the one line:

Static before the run, dynamic at the run.