Apache Airflow vs n8n
Zero of fourteen models named Apache Airflow first on the direct prompt; one named n8n. Apache Airflow was named by fourteen of the fourteen models and n8n by thirteen and Apache Airflow carries 69 labels and n8n 32, so the shares are not directly comparable.
Named in two categories this edition.
Named in three categories this edition.
Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts over all fourteen models, for a mid-market B2B company; rank is within the category; every quote names the model and the prompt it came from. Both figures come from the workflow orchestration page.
By framing
Apache AirflowFirst choices, of fourteen modelsn8n
Across every category in the November 2026 Edition, Apache Airflow and n8n were named in the same answer seventy-four times, of the 244 answers naming Apache Airflow and the 123 naming n8n. In those answers n8n took the first choice fifteen times and Apache Airflow eight.
Every model, every framing
| Model | Direct | Paraphrase | Comparative | Budget-constrained | Scale-constrained | Negative |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Claude Haiku 4.5 | | | | | | |
| GPT-5.4 mini | | | | | | |
| Gemini 3.5 Flash | | | | | | |
| Perplexity Sonar | | | | | | |
| Grok 4.20 | | | | | | |
| Mistral Small | | | | | | |
| DeepSeek V4 Flash | | | | | | |
| Llama 4 Maverick | | | | | ||
| Qwen 3.7 Flash | | | | | | |
| Kimi K2 | | | | | | |
| GLM 4.7 FlashX | | | | | | |
| MiniMax M2.5 | | | | | ||
| GPT-6 Luna | | | | | ||
| Muse Glimmer 30B | | | | |
Apache Airflow n8n first choice named as an alternative argued againstblank: not namedEach cell is one answer, Apache Airflow on the left and n8n on the right.The direct prompt
n8n first, Apache Airflow not the choice
1 of 14 modelsApache Airflow was named in the answer but not as the choice, or not at all.Neither was the first choice, one was named
11 of 14 modelsThe answer put something else first and named one of the two as an alternative.Neither was named
2 of 14 modelsThe answer made no first choice from these two in this category.Bold names in an answer are the products the judge labeled a first choice; a model naming several gives each of them that label. The full answer text for every row is in the record.
By buyer segment
Apache Airflow13%#3 of 16n8n13%#4 of 16Apache Airflow29%#1 of 20n8n0%#17 of 20What the models said about Apache Airflow
Every negative label with a quote, up to three, then the highest-weighted positives, up to three. Six of seven in this category shown.
“running Airflow in production requires managing the scheduler, workers, metadata database, and web server, and it's not suited for business process automation or teams without Python expertise” Claude Haiku 4.5 · budget prompt · soft negative
“Unlike open-source Airflow, which often requires a dedicated data platform engineer to maintain Kubernetes clusters” Gemini 3.5 Flash · direct prompt · soft negative
“Apache Airflow is widely used but is frequently cited as a caution for teams without dedicated platform engineering” Muse Glimmer 30B · negative prompt · soft negative
“Airflow is the pioneer of modern code-as-configuration workflows... Choose Apache Airflow if you operate in a traditional enterprise data setting” Gemini 3.5 Flash · comparative prompt · first choice
“The industry standard and most widely adopted open-source orchestrator... Choose Airflow if you need the largest ecosystem” DeepSeek V4 Flash · comparative prompt · first choice
“The industry-standard, open-source data pipeline scheduler ... Largest ecosystem of operators and integrations” GLM 4.7 FlashX · comparative prompt · first choice
What the models said about n8n
Every negative label with a quote, up to three, then the highest-weighted positives, up to three. Four of five in this category shown.
“Self-hosting avoids some vendor costs but transfers responsibility for security patches, backups, upgrades, availability, and monitoring to your team” Perplexity Sonar · negative prompt · soft negative
“For most budget-conscious companies with some technical capability, n8n offers the best balance of features, flexibility, and cost.” GLM 4.7 FlashX · budget prompt · first choice
“For most small teams, n8n (open-source, self-hosted) or Zapier (no-code, free tier) are the best starting points” Mistral Small · budget prompt · first choice
“For a company with a limited budget, n8n (self-hosted) is almost always the best choice.” DeepSeek V4 Flash · budget prompt · first choice
Comparisons are drawn for the top eight products in each category, each against each. The output is the models' output; nothing here is a recommendation by the index.