Conductor (Netflix) vs Temporal
| Tagline | Microservice workflow orchestration engine open-sourced by Netflix | Durable execution engine for resilient long-running business workflows |
| Category | Automation & iPaaS | Automation & iPaaS |
| Replaces | Zapier, Workato | Zapier, Workato |
| GitHub stars | 32k | 23k |
| Language | Java | Go |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Self-host difficulty | 4/5 Involved | 4/5 Involved |
| Deploy options | Docker Docker Compose Kubernetes Manual | Docker Compose Kubernetes Manual |
| Managed hosting | ||
| Last updated | yesterday | yesterday |
| View repo | View repo |
Where each falls short
The honest trade-offs — what you give up with each, versus the proprietary tools they replace.
Conductor (Netflix)
- Workflow logic defined in JSON/YAML; no drag-and-drop canvas for non-technical users
- Requires Elasticsearch and a relational DB for production — non-trivial infrastructure
- Community edition lacks built-in RBAC available in the commercial Orkes Cloud offering
Temporal
- No visual no-code editor; all workflows must be written by developers in a supported SDK language
- Production deployment requires Cassandra or PostgreSQL plus Elasticsearch — significant infrastructure
- Self-hosted Web UI has limited analytics compared to Temporal Cloud
Bottom line
Both are a similar lift to self-host; choose Conductor (Netflix) for the larger community and ecosystem. Open each guide below for deploy steps and the full feature gap.
Conductor (Netflix)
Microservice workflow orchestration engine open-sourced by Netflix