Union.ai vs Astronomer

A comparison of the orchestration platforms based on their ability to deliver AI orchestration at scale.

Who should use each tool?

Union.ai

Engineers building AI, ML, or agentic workflows looking to accelerate speed from experiment to production.

Astronomer

Professionals seeking static data orchestration and ETL assistance.

Feature Comparison

Union.ai
Astronomer
Task fanout
1M tasks
Limited to DAG size and executor
Concurrency
5k tasks
Executor- and infra-dependent
Multi-cloud, multi-cluster
Built-in
Possible, but complex
Run throughput
1k runs/sec
Limited by Airflow’s scheduler
Reusable containers
Built in
Cost allocation dashboard
Built in
Infra maintenance
Built in
Built in
Local Development
Write locally, execute remotely
Astro CLI for local testing
Data Lineage
Full lineage tracking with Artifacts
Basic lineage via external tools
Debugging & Error Handling
Advanced debugging, automatic retries
Basic Airflow logging and retries
Workflow Caching
Full workflow and task-level caching
No built-in caching
Real-time Inference
SSO
Role-based Access Control
Managed Secrets
Built-in secrets management
K8s secrets or external integrations

Union.ai

Next-generation AI orchestration platform built on Flyte. Durable, scalable, and developer-friendly with native Kubernetes support.

🏆
Winner

Astronomer

Traditional Airflow hosting service with limited modern features. Legacy architecture that struggles with scale and complexity.

Why Union.ai outperforms Astronomer

Union.ai wins because its AI orchestration is more performant and cost-efficient. It’s purpose-built for complex, dynamic AI and ML workflows. Unlike Astronomer, Union.ai delivers faster experimentation, reproducibility, and integration with modern AI stacks.

Performance & Scale

10x faster workflow execution
Seamless systems scaling
Ultra-low latency
Reusable containers to eliminate cold starts
Petabyte-scale data processing

Cost Efficiency

Cost allocation dashboard
Lower infra maintenance costs
No idle resource waste
Automatic cost optimization
Transparent pricing model

Developer Experience

Debugging experience
Automatic retries and failure recovery
Easy deployment
Easy integration with other tools
Run locally

Future-Proof

Built for modern AI, ML, and agentic workloads
Kubernetes-native architecture
Continuous innovation and updates
Strong community and enterprise support
Seamless integration with modern tools

Ready to learn more about Union.ai?

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