How much does Kestra cost in 2026?

Kestra's core platform is free and open-source (Apache 2.0) with unlimited flows and executions when self-hosted. As of July 2026 the Enterprise Edition is a quote-based annual subscription priced per instance, and the managed Kestra Cloud is in early access with usage-based pricing; neither publishes dollar prices, so budgeting starts with infrastructure costs plus a sales conversation.

Kestra Pricing 2026: Free Open Source, Quoted Enterprise

Kestra Editions (as of July 2026)

Edition	Price	What it is
Open Source	Free (Apache 2.0)	Full engine, unlimited flows, tasks, and executions; 1,800+ plugins; self-hosted
Enterprise Edition	Quote-based, annual, per instance	Separate closed-source build adding RBAC, SSO/SCIM, audit logs, worker groups, high concurrency, tenant isolation, enterprise plugins, and an AI copilot
Kestra Cloud	Usage-based, early access	Fully managed hosting on a pay-as-you-scale model; access by request

What "free" actually covers

The open-source edition is not a limited trial: the Apache 2.0 core runs unlimited executions with the full plugin catalogue, the YAML editor, topology view, triggers (including realtime event triggers), and backfills. Unlike some open-core tools, the public repository contains no enterprise carve-out; Enterprise Edition ships as separate closed-source software pulled from a private registry with a license key. Teams that only need orchestration, scheduling, and plugins can run the free edition in production indefinitely.

What you pay for in practice

Self-hosting is free in license terms but not in infrastructure: a production deployment needs a database backend, compute for the server and workers, and monitoring, whether on Docker, Kubernetes (official Helm charts), or VMs, including air-gapped setups. The Enterprise Edition subscription is priced per instance rather than per user or per execution, which favours high-volume teams; the vendor publishes no dollar figures anywhere on its pricing page (verified July 2026), so real budgeting requires a sales quote. Support contracts come in three unpriced tiers (Standard, Premium, Platinum, the latter with 24/7 coverage and a 1-hour P0 SLA). Kestra Cloud, the managed offering, remains in early access with usage-based pricing and no published rates.

How it compares

Apache Airflow is also free and open-source, with paid managed options (Astronomer, AWS MWAA, Google Cloud Composer) that do publish prices; Prefect and Temporal both pair open-source cores with priced cloud tiers. Kestra is currently the only one of the four whose commercial editions are entirely quote-based, which makes third-party cost comparisons impossible to verify and is worth factoring into procurement timelines.

Editor's Note: We have not yet deployed Kestra for a client, so unlike most of our pricing pages there is no first-hand cost data here; every figure above was compiled from primary sources (pricing page, docs, GitHub API, the March 2026 Series A release) and cross-checked by two independent verification passes on 31 July 2026. One honesty flag from that check: Kestra's own pages still disagree on plugin count (1,200+, 1,400+, and 1,800+ appear simultaneously across kestra.io); we cite the 1,800+ figure the vendor uses most prominently, marked as vendor-claimed.