Dagu is a self-contained, single-binary workflow engine for defining DAGs in YAML. Free and open source, with optional paid enterprise licenses.
Category
DevOps
Pricing
Free / Open Source with paid self-hosted licenses, from Free
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Last updated
July 18, 2026
Free PlanWeb AppAPIOpen SourceAISelf-Hosted
Overview
Dagu is a lightweight, self-contained workflow orchestration engine, written in Go, that runs as a single binary with no external database requirement, positioned explicitly as an alternative to Apache Airflow and cron for teams that don't want to run an SRE-heavy orchestration platform.
Workflows are defined as YAML-based DAGs supporting shell, Docker, Kubernetes, SSH, HTTP, and SQL steps, with a built-in web UI, scheduling, retries, and — increasingly — a Model Context Protocol server so AI coding agents can author and run workflows directly.
Key Features
Dagu supports three deployment modes — standalone, headless, and distributed with a coordinator and labeled workers — letting it scale from a single laptop to a small fleet without switching products.
It is used in production for ETL, legacy script orchestration, media conversion, infrastructure automation, containerized batch jobs, and AI-agent-driven task execution.
Pricing
The community edition is GPLv3-licensed and free forever, supporting unlimited self-hosted servers and workers with core scheduling and execution features.
Paid self-hosted licenses add enterprise controls: Minimum is $50/month (up to 3 servers), Pro is $150/month (up to 15 servers), and Enterprise is custom-priced; a managed GKE-hosted cloud option is also available.
Key Features
Single-binary, zero-dependency architecture — Runs the scheduler, web UI, and execution engine from one Go binary with no required external database.
Declarative YAML DAGs — Workflows are defined in simple YAML, wrapping existing shell scripts, SQL, and tools without rewriting them.
Multiple executors — Native support for shell commands, Docker containers, Kubernetes jobs, SSH, HTTP requests, and SQL queries.
Built-in web UI — Visualizes DAG dependencies, execution status, logs, and allows manual workflow triggering.
MCP server for AI agents — Lets AI coding agents like Claude Code, Codex, and Gemini CLI author and run Dagu workflows directly.
Distributed execution — Coordinator/worker architecture with label-based routing scales Dagu across multiple machines.
Operational controls — Parameters, human approval steps, retries, cron scheduling, and artifact passing between steps.
Enterprise add-ons — Paid licenses add SSO, RBAC, audit logging, and dedicated support on top of the free core.
Pros & Cons
Pros
Extremely lightweight; installs and runs as one binary with no database to manage.
Free, GPLv3-licensed community edition with unlimited self-hosted servers and workers.
Simple YAML workflow definitions with a built-in web UI for visibility.
Built-in MCP server makes it a natural fit for AI-agent-driven automation.
Cons
Smaller ecosystem and community than established orchestrators like Airflow or Prefect.
Enterprise features (SSO, RBAC, audit logging) require a paid license.
Public information on the company's founding date, size, and funding is limited.
Best suited to small-to-mid scale workloads; very large-scale orchestration may still favor heavier platforms.
Pricing
Community (Open Source) Free N/A
Minimum $50/month monthly
Pro $150/month monthly
Enterprise Custom Contact sales
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Dagu free?
Yes, Dagu's community edition is GPLv3-licensed and free forever, with unlimited self-hosted servers and workers and core scheduling/execution features included.
Does Dagu require a database?
No. Dagu stores execution state in local files by default and runs as a single binary with no required external database or message broker.
Can Dagu run Docker or Kubernetes jobs?
Yes, Dagu has native executors for Docker containers, Kubernetes jobs, SSH commands, HTTP requests, and SQL queries in addition to shell commands.
What are Dagu's paid plans for?
Paid self-hosted licenses (Minimum at $50/month and Pro at $150/month) add enterprise features like SSO, RBAC, and audit logging on top of the free core engine.
Can AI agents use Dagu?
Yes, Dagu includes a built-in Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that lets AI coding agents such as Claude Code and Gemini CLI author and run workflows directly.
How is Dagu different from Airflow?
Dagu is designed to avoid Airflow's operational complexity, running as a single dependency-free binary instead of requiring a database, broker, and multiple long-running services.