Prefect

Founded by Jeremiah Lowin in 2018

Orchestrate data pipelines, machine learning workflows, and background jobs using plain Python code

Pricing model

Free Tier, Paid

Rating

★ People love it

Time to value

Quick Setup (< 1 hour)

You can use Prefect to build, schedule, and monitor data pipelines and machine learning workflows without writing custom infrastructure code. By adding simple decorators to standard Python functions, you turn ordinary scripts into durable workflows with automated retries, caching, and state tracking. You can run tasks on managed infrastructure or deploy workers into your own private cloud. A centralized dashboard gives full observability across every run, alerting you immediately to failures, late tasks, or missing dependencies.

What Prefect does

Turn standard Python functions into managed flows with decoratorsConfigure automated retry parameters and failure handling rulesSchedule recurring batch tasks using cron syntax or intervalsDeploy background workers into Kubernetes or cloud environmentsMonitor active job logs and system run states in real timeTrigger workflow runs from external system events or webhooksSet up alerts for pipeline failures and SLA breachesNative Python function decorators to define flows and tasks without complex DSLsAutomatic retries, state recovery, and error handling for broken runsHybrid execution model allowing compute to stay in your private cloudServerless managed execution options to run code without provisioning infrastructureCentralized web dashboard tracking execution status, logs, and latenciesFlexible scheduling supporting cron expressions, event triggers, and automated backfillsFastMCP framework integration for connecting AI agents to external systems