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Kestra

★ 18k

Declarative YAML workflow orchestration with hundreds of plugins — event-driven automations that live in git.

Kestra does the job of Zapier and Airflow, self-hosted. It is Apache-2.0-licensed, so you can do essentially what you like with it, and setting it up is an afternoon, not a weekend. Zapier bills $49/mo for it. 18k stars on GitHub.

Open-source replacement for Zapier, Airflow.

Licence
Apache-2.0
Self-hosting
Medium
The paid one costs
$49/mo
GitHub stars
18k
view the code →official site →

Is it actually a replacement?

We have written a verdict on what it replaces — what you lose, and why people still pay:

How Kestra runs

Where it runs

Kestra runs on your machine or their cloud.

Installing it

Kestra Cloud signup or Docker Compose with PostgreSQL for self-hosting.

Where your data lives

Workflow definitions and execution state in PostgreSQL; task outputs and artifacts in Kestra internal storage on a Docker volume, filesystem, or configured object store.

What setup takes

Self-hosting needs Docker, PostgreSQL and persistent storage; production webhooks also require a public URL, TLS, secrets, backups, and plugin/runtime configuration.

The catch compared with Pipedream

It is a heavier orchestration platform with more infrastructure concepts and fewer instant consumer-SaaS actions than Pipedream's quick hosted trigger-plus-code workflow.

Kestra questions

Is Kestra open source?

Yes — it is released under Apache-2.0.

Can Kestra replace Zapier?

Our verdict on Zapier is YES. n8n (130k stars), MCP Servers (89k stars), Activepieces Community Edition (24k stars) are mature open-source replacements for Zapier — self-host in one command and stop paying $29.99/mo.

Can I self-host Kestra?

Yes — we rate it medium to self-host, and it runs on your machine or their cloud. Kestra Cloud signup or Docker Compose with PostgreSQL for self-hosting.

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