Apache Airflow vs Oracle BPM comparison

Apache and Oracle are both solutions in the Business Process Management (BPM) category. Apache is ranked #2 with an average rating of 8.2, while Oracle is ranked #15 with an average rating of 8.0. Apache holds a 6.9% mindshare in BPM, compared to Oracle’s 1.9% mindshare. Additionally, 97% of Apache users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 80% of Oracle users who would recommend it.

Apache Airflow

Read 38 Apache Airflow reviews

7,757 Views
5,927 Comparison Views

97% willing to recommend

Oracle BPM

Read 25 Oracle BPM reviews

1,498 Views
1,218 Comparison Views

80% willing to recommend

Apache Airflow

Oracle BPM

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 18, 2024

Oracle BPM and Apache Airflow compete in process management and automation. Oracle BPM appears stronger for complex business processes, whereas Apache Airflow's flexibility makes it ideal for data workflows.

Features: Oracle BPM offers business process modeling with BPMN 2.0, integration with Oracle's SOA platform, and comprehensive analytics through advanced reporting tools. Apache Airflow, as a Python-based open-source platform, provides flexibility, a wide range of connectors, and excels in orchestrating ETL processes.

Room for Improvement: Oracle BPM has a steep learning curve, lacks native microservices support, and has costly pricing. Apache Airflow's dependency on DAGs limits workflow cyclicity, its UI needs updating, and it could improve on stateful step management.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Oracle BPM requires complex deployment, often on-premises, and has notable customer service delays. Apache Airflow offers cloud deployment versatility and community support, though it lacks formal technical support.

Pricing and ROI: Oracle BPM is expensive but can deliver high ROI for large enterprises, with a focus on cloud migration incentives. Apache Airflow is open-source and cost-effective, appealing to budget-conscious entities, although operational costs may arise from infrastructure needs.

To learn more, read our detailed Apache Airflow vs. Oracle BPM Report (Updated: March 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Apache Airflow vs. Oracle BPM

March 2025

Download the complete report

Helped 842,296 peers since 2012

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

Apache Airflow

Ranking in Business Process Management (BPM)

2nd

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Oracle BPM

Ranking in Business Process Management (BPM)

15th

Average Rating

7.4

Reviews Sentiment

6.4

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2025, in the Business Process Management (BPM) category, the mindshare of Apache Airflow is 6.9%, down from 9.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Oracle BPM is 1.9%, up from 1.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Business Process Management (BPM)

Featured Reviews

Kemal Duman

Team Lead, Data Engineering at Nesine.com

Enables efficient orchestration of batch processes with very good reliability

I am using Apache Airflow to orchestrate my jobs, projects, and batch ETL jobs. It manages tasks, orchestrates jobs, and helps in handling batch processes effectively, incorporating integrations like DBT and Great Expectations Apache Airflow is easy to scale and its UI improves with each release.…

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Neilsen Seixas

Owner at NSTEC

Enables robust integration capabilities, facilitating seamless connection with various systems and applications

We utilized Oracle BPM to automate various administrative processes within our organization, specifically focusing on eliminating paper-based workflows related to licensing procedures in our environment. Oracle BPM enabled collaboration between our IT and business teams for effective process management. Utilizing the Oracle VPN, we experienced significant improvements in process efficiency. For instance, a process that previously took forty days before implementation was reduced to just twenty minutes after implementing Oracle BPM. This remarkable reduction in time demonstrates the substantial benefits brought about by the solution. The solution is comprehensive, encompassing modeling, implementation, and runtime capabilities. Additionally, by leveraging this platform, we seamlessly integrated Oracle Portal and Oracle Document Management, providing a complete solution within the Oracle ecosystem. The integration capabilities of Oracle BPM with other systems significantly influenced our workflow. Our workflow was impacted positively by these integrations. Initially, we utilized Oracle BPM alongside other Oracle products such as Oracle Context Manager, Oracle Portal, and Oracle Document Management. Despite using multiple products, they are seamlessly integrated, providing a comprehensive solution for our clients. This solution encompassed document management, workflow control, process execution, and automation, effectively streamlining processes and eliminating bureaucratic hurdles. The transparency and efficiency achieved through this integrated approach were highly beneficial for our clients.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"One of its most valuable features is the graphical user interface, providing a visual representation of the pipeline status, successes, failures, and informative developer messages."

"The user interface for monitoring and managing workflows has been excellent, particularly in the latest version. c"

"The initial setup was straightforward and it does not take long to complete."

"Airflow integrates well with Cloudera and effectively supports complex operations."

"We're running it on a virtual server, which we can easily upgrade if needed."

"Apache Airflow's best feature is its flexibility."

"The best part of Airflow is its direct support for Python, especially because Python is so important for data science, engineering, and design. This makes the programmatic aspect of our work easy for us, and it means we can automate a lot."

"Apache Airflow is in Python language, making it easy to use and learn."

More Apache Airflow pros

"It is easy to use in a business processing suite."

"The initial setup is straightforward."

"It has developmental accelerators, which allow for virtually any customization needs which you may require."

"The most valuable feature is the complete workflow through the BPM, from making it available as a generated code based on the backend, deploying it in the test environment, and then going to production."

"It is quite scalable and can be applied to enterprise-level organizations effectively."

"I find the data lineage features most valuable."

"The Workspace is a full, rich application where most users can find what they want. It shows them a list of their work."

"The default Workspace does not meet all our needs and sometimes you need to create your own custom Workspace."

More Oracle BPM pros

Cons

"I would like to see workflow integration across the servers."

"I have some issues with the solution's communication."

"There is a minor issue with the manual work in Airflow, as everyday activities are managed manually. There is no dashboard for us to check all the Directed Acyclic Graphs (DAGs); a dashboard would help us analyze the work better."

"Adding more automated components in Apache Airflow for basic things like exporting the data would be helpful."

"We cannot run real-time jobs in the solution."

"Programmatically, it's very good, and it doesn't have any competitors, but you cannot develop anything in Airflow UI. You need to develop everything within the program. In the market, other tools have come up recently as competitors to Airflow, and they also give graphical programming options, whereas Airflow doesn't provide that feature currently. All the DAGs you want to build need to be coded in Python."

"Airflow should support the dynamic drag creation."

"I want to see Apache Airflow have more integrations with more production-based databases since it is an area where the product lacks currently."

More Apache Airflow cons

"The product must reduce its cost."

"Oracle BPM should allow integration with external, common APIs."

"The solution's licensing cost is very high."

"Every time we roll out a new version of processes, we have to migrate to a new process. The process of this migration was not very smooth. We later decided that it would be easier for us to stop all processes, deploy a new version and then restart."

"Though Oracle BPM is a stable solution, it's very heavy, so this is one area for improvement. If Oracle can make the components of Oracle BPM lighter, and if the deployment for the solution could be easier, that would make Oracle BPM better."

"There are delays in offering the latest technology, so there is a need to be more responsive to technological changes."

"It could have easier administration. It takes time to configure and deploy."

"We have had some issues with version migration, from one version of processes to another. We would have to call Oracle Services but on a day to day, we didn't have any issues."

More Oracle BPM cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Apache Airflow is a product that is free of licenses, meaning there is no need to buy a license."

"It is an open-source solution."

"For the time being, it doesn't cost anything."

"It is an open-source tool. There are no additional fees or charges associated with the product."

"It's open-source."

"The solution is cheap."

"Apache Airflow is open-source and free. Hyperscalers like Google (with Composer), Azure, and AWS offer managed Airflow services."

"The solution is free if you use Amazon AWS."

More Apache Airflow pricing and cost advice

"The pricing is significantly high, particularly for Brazil where fluctuations in the exchange rate between the dollar and the real can further increase the cost of Oracle licenses."

"As with all Oracle products, the licensing over VMware is an issue."

"This solution is very expensive. You are charged per license and an additional 20% for support."

"We received the product packaged into the Oracle database solution."

"The licensing model is good."

"Oracle is good, but they're still expensive compared to other vendors."

"The licensing for this product is very costly. We pay for a yearly license to use Oracle BPM."

"It's pried high, this solution is expensive."

More Oracle BPM pricing and cost advice

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Business Process Management (BPM) solutions are best for your needs.

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

25%

Computer Software Company

14%

Manufacturing Company

Retailer

Computer Software Company

18%

Financial Services Firm

16%

Government

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

Which would you choose - Camunda Platform or Apache Airflow?

Camunda Platform allows for visual demonstration and presentation of business process flows. The flexible Java-based option was a big win for us and allows for the integration of microservices very...

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What do you like most about Apache Airflow?

Apache Airflow is easy to use and can monitor task execution easily. For instance, when performing setup tasks, you can conveniently view the logs without delving into the job details.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Apache Airflow?

I prefer using the open-source version rather than the enterprise version, which helps manage costs.

See all answers

What do you like most about Oracle BPM?

The solution provides extensive functionalities.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Oracle BPM?

The licensing is expensive. It needs to be more affordable, especially in the Kenyan market.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Oracle BPM?

Oracle BPM should ensure its product is aligned with current technology by keeping up with advancements like AI. There are delays in offering the latest technology, so there is a need to be more re...

See all answers

Comparisons

Camunda vs Apache Airflow

Compared 62% of the time

IBM BPM vs Apache Airflow

Compared 8% of the time

Informatica Intelligent Data Management Cloud (IDMC) vs Apache Airflow

Compared 7% of the time

IBM Business Automation Workflow vs Apache Airflow

Compared 4% of the time

Boomi AtomSphere Flow vs Apache Airflow

Compared 1% of the time

More Apache Airflow Competitors

Camunda vs Oracle BPM

Compared 29% of the time

SAP Signavio Process Manager vs Oracle BPM

Compared 27% of the time

IBM BPM vs Oracle BPM

Compared 14% of the time

AWS Step Functions vs Oracle BPM

Compared 11% of the time

Pega Platform vs Oracle BPM

Compared 5% of the time

More Oracle BPM Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Apache Airflow

March 2025

Download Apache Airflow product report

Buyer's Guide

Oracle BPM

March 2025

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Also Known As

Airflow

Oracle Business Process Management

Overview

Apache Airflow is an open-source workflow management system (WMS) that is primarily used to programmatically author, orchestrate, schedule, and monitor data pipelines as well as workflows. The solution makes it possible for you to manage your data pipelines by authoring workflows as directed acyclic graphs (DAGs) of tasks. By using Apache Airflow, you can orchestrate data pipelines over object stores and data warehouses, run workflows that are not data-related, and can also create and manage scripted data pipelines as code (Python).

Apache Airflow Features

Apache Airflow has many valuable key features. Some of the most useful ones include:

Smart sensor: In Apache Airflow, tasks are executed sequentially. The smart sensors are executed in bundles, and therefore consume fewer resources.

Dockerfile: By using Apache Airflow’s dockerfile feature, you can run your business’s Airflow code without having to document and automate the process of running Airflow on a server.

Scalability: Because Apache Airflow has a modular architecture and uses a message queue to orchestrate an arbitrary number of workers, you can easily scale it.

Plug-and-play operators: With Apache Airflow, you can choose from several plug-and-play operators that are ready to execute your tasks on many third-party services.

Apache Airflow Benefits

There are many benefits to implementing Apache Airflow. Some of the biggest advantages the solution offers include:

User friendly: Using Apache Airflow requires minimal python knowledge to get started.

Intuitive user interface: The Apache Airflow user interface enables you to visualize pipelines running in production, monitor progress, and also troubleshoot issues when needed.

Easy integration: Apache Airflow can easily be integrated with cloud platforms (Google, AWS, Azure, etc).

Visual DAGs: Apache Airflow’s visual DAGs provide data lineage, which facilitates debugging of data flows and also aids in auditing and data governance.

Flexibility: Apache Airflow provides you with several ways to make DAG objects more flexible. At runtime, a context variable is passed to each workflow execution, which is quickly incorporated into an SQL statement that includes the run ID, execution date, and last and next run times.

Multiple deployment options: With Apache Airflow, you have several options for deployment, including self-service, open source, or a managed service.

Several data source connections: Apache Airflow can connect to a variety of data sources, including APIs, databases, data warehouses, and more.

Reviews from Real Users

Below are some reviews and helpful feedback written by PeerSpot users currently using the Apache Airflow solution.

A Senior Solutions Architect/Software Architect says, “The product integrates well with other pipelines and solutions. The ease of building different processes is very valuable to us. The difference between Kafka and Airflow, is that it's better for dealing with the specific flows that we want to do some transformation. It's very easy to create flows.”

An Assistant Manager at a comms service provider mentions, “The best part of Airflow is its direct support for Python, especially because Python is so important for data science, engineering, and design. This makes the programmatic aspect of our work easy for us, and it means we can automate a lot.”

A Senior Software Engineer at a pharma/biotech company comments that he likes Apache Airflow because it is “Feature rich, open-source, and good for building data pipelines.”

Apache

The Industry's Most Complete and Unified BPM Solution A complete solution for all types of processes that provides a unified process foundation, user-centric design, and social BPM interaction. Reduces complexity and risk and increases business efficiency, visibility, and agility.

Oracle

Sample Customers

Agari, WePay, Astronomer

State Revenue Office Victoria, New South Wales Health, REDISA, Panduit, Total E&P Indonesie

Buyer's Guide

Apache Airflow vs. Oracle BPM

March 2025

Free Report: Apache Airflow vs. Oracle BPM

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