Head-to-head
Prefect vs Dagster: which one in 2026?
Prefect is a Python workflow orchestrator for data pipelines and AI agents, and Dagster is an orchestrator that models pipelines as data assets. Prefect says it acquired Dagster Labs in July 2026, and both keep their names and open source licenses, so the choice is now about design style, not vendor.
Verdict
Prefect ranks above Dagster here because it lets a team start free, publishes more limits and regions, and covers agent workflows directly. Dagster is the stronger fit when the data asset is the thing you manage and lineage matters daily. The July 2026 acquisition did not merge the products, but check the roadmap with the vendor before a multi-year commitment to either.
Prefect and Dagster side by side
| Prefect | Dagster | |
|---|---|---|
| Price entry | Free (Hobby) | $10 per month (Solo) plus usage |
| Core idea | A Python function becomes a workflow through a decorator, and retries are a parameter. The unit of work is the run. | Orchestration is organized around the data assets that jobs produce, not only whether a job finished. |
| Free access | Hobby is free forever: 2 users, up to 5 deployments, 500 minutes of serverless compute per month. | No free plan. Solo and Starter come with a 30-day free trial, and no trial is stated for Pro. |
| Paid tiers as of November 2026 | Starter at $100 per month, Team at $100 per user per month for 4 to 8 users, Enterprise on custom terms. | Solo at $10 per month, Starter at $100 per month for up to 3 users, Pro through sales. |
| What the meter counts | Plans cap deployments, automations, API requests per minute and serverless hours, such as 75 hours on Starter. | Credits, where one credit is one materialized asset or executed op, priced at $0.035 to $0.040 each. |
| Where code runs | Managed serverless compute, or hybrid workers inside your own environment, which Prefect says keeps code and data there. | Serverless compute at $0.010 per minute, or hybrid compute in your cloud with no compute charge. |
| Lineage and data health | No lineage view is named on the pages read. Automations and audit logs cover run events instead. | Observe shows lineage, dependencies and asset health dashboards, plus failure context for each run that breaks. |
| AI features | Agentic workflows that pause a run for human review, plus the FastMCP Gateway for authorizing agent tool calls. | Dagster AI diagnoses issues from runs and lineage, and Compass helps build governed data agents. |
| Security statements | SOC 2 Type II, GDPR and HIPAA ready. Regions listed are GCP us-east1 and AWS us-east-1. | SOC 2 Type II and HIPAA stated, hosted on AWS with no region named. GDPR is not mentioned. |
Where each one wins
Prefect wins on
- A real free tier exists, with 5 deployments and 500 serverless minutes, so a pipeline can run before anyone buys anything.
- Python decorators and retry parameters keep a first workflow short, and agent pause-for-review is built in.
- The security page names GDPR and lists hosting regions, which Dagster's page does not.
Dagster wins on
- Lineage, asset health and failure context come with Observe, which suits teams that care about the tables, not the jobs.
- The $10 Solo tier is cheaper than any paid Prefect plan for a single developer.
- dbt, Snowflake and Fivetran are named as native integrations, and hybrid compute carries no compute charge.
Which to pick
Pick Prefect if
Pick Prefect if you want a free starting tier, plain Python functions as workflows, and agent steps with human review in the same tool.
Pick Dagster if
Pick Dagster if your team thinks in tables and models, uses dbt or Snowflake, and wants lineage and asset health in the orchestrator.
Each tool in context: Prefect profile, Dagster profile, and the full Best AI Data Orchestration Tools in 2026.
Frequently asked questions
Did Prefect buy Dagster, and will Dagster be shut down?
Prefect's site states it acquired Dagster Labs in July 2026, and dagster.io says Dagster is now part of Prefect. Prefect says Dagster keeps its name and Apache 2.0 license. No sunset is announced on the pages read, but no merged roadmap is published either.
Which is cheaper for a solo developer, Prefect or Dagster?
Prefect's Hobby plan is free forever with 2 users and 5 deployments. Dagster has no free plan, but Solo costs $10 per month for 1 user plus credits at $0.040 each, after a 30-day trial. Free wins for a side project; Solo suits one person running steady production assets.
What does a Dagster credit cost compared with Prefect's usage limits?
Dagster charges per credit, one per materialized asset or executed op, at $0.035 on Starter and $0.040 on Solo, and publishes no included allotment. Prefect instead caps deployments, serverless hours and API requests per minute by plan, so its bill is more predictable.
Can Prefect or Dagster run inside my own cloud?
Yes for both. Prefect's hybrid model runs lightweight workers in your environment, and its page says code and data never leave it. Dagster's hybrid deployment keeps compute in your cloud while Dagster manages the control plane, with no compute charge.