Flowise
Kestra
| Feature | Flowise | Kestra |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free / from $19/mo | Free / from $100/mo |
| Free Plan | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes |
| Rating | 4.2 / 5 | 4.4 / 5 |
| Best For | developers, startups, non-technical-users, ai-teams | data-engineers, devops-teams, backend-developers, workflow-automation |
| Founded | 2023 | 2020 |
| Visual Builder | ✓ | ✗ |
| Llm Chains | ✓ | ✗ |
| Ai Agents | ✓ | ✗ |
| Rag | ✓ | ✗ |
| Self Hosted | ✓ | ✗ |
| Open Source | ✓ | ✗ |
| Multi Agent | ✓ | ✗ |
| Workflow Orchestration | ✗ | ✓ |
| Scheduling | ✗ | ✓ |
| Event Triggers | ✗ | ✓ |
| Plugins | ✗ | ✓ |
| Monitoring | ✗ | ✓ |
| Secret Management | ✗ | ✓ |
| Multi Tenant | ✗ | ✓ |
✓ Flowise Pros
- Visual drag-and-drop for rapid prototyping
- Flexible model choice across LLM providers
- Self-hosting for full data control
- 100+ built-in nodes and connectors
✗ Flowise Cons
- Complex flows hard to debug at scale
- Enterprise features locked behind paid tiers
- Documentation quality inconsistent
✓ Kestra Pros
- Open-source with full orchestration capabilities
- Declarative YAML workflows (GitOps friendly)
- 500+ plugins for data, cloud, and messaging services
- Real-time triggers, schedules, and event listeners
✗ Kestra Cons
- Less visual builder than no-code tools
- Learning curve for YAML workflow syntax
- Newer platform with smaller community than Airflow
The Verdict
Flowise is built for developers and startups, with a focus on visual-builder and llm-chains. Kestra targets data engineers and devops teams and leads with workflow-orchestration and scheduling.
On pricing, Flowise is the clear winner for budget-conscious users — starting at $19/mo compared to $100/mo for Kestra. That $81/mo difference adds up quickly for growing teams.
Both offer free plans, so you can test each with your real workflow before committing to a subscription.
This is a genuinely close comparison. If you can, sign up for both free trials (where available) and run a one-week test with your actual team tasks before deciding.