Softwr

APIs · head to head

Asyncapi vs Meltano

Asyncapi logo

Asyncapi

APIs

Specification and tools for defining asynchronous APIs

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Meltano logo

Meltano

Automation Integration

Open source ELT built on the Singer tap and target ecosystem, configured as code

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: Asyncapi complex to implement and debug asynchronous operations due to their non-linear and concurrent nature; Meltano the company behind Meltano wound down in December 2025 and the project was transferred to Matatika, a much smaller organisation, so roadmap velocity and the size of the maintenance team are now materially lower than the tool's reputation suggests.
  • They diverge on capability: Asyncapi covers API Specification, Meltano covers Singer plugin management.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Asyncapi and Meltano actually diverge.

Attributes where Asyncapi and Meltano differ
AttributeAsyncapiMeltano
Pricing modelopen-sourceOpen source, no licence fee
PlatformsWeb, CLI, IDE ExtensionsLinux, macOS, Docker, Windows (via WSL)
CategoryAPIsAutomation Integration
Founded2019Unknown

Identical on both: starting price (Free), free tier (Yes), user rating (Not yet rated).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in Asyncapi

  • API Specification
  • Code generation
  • Documentation
  • Multiple messaging protocols
  • Code generators
  • Specification support
  • Tools support
  • CLI support

Only in Meltano

  • Singer plugin management
  • Project as code
  • Environments
  • Incremental state
  • dbt integration
  • Custom taps
  • Orchestrator hooks
  • Container deployment

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Asyncapi

  • API Developmentnot Meltano
  • API Gatewaynot Meltano
  • API Testingnot Meltano
  • API Documentationnot Meltano
  • Microservicesnot Meltano

Meltano

  • A data team that wants to stop paying per-row connector fees on high-volume sources they can extract themselvesnot Asyncapi
  • Loading from an API that no commercial ELT vendor supports, by writing a tap with the Meltano SDKnot Asyncapi
  • Keeping pipeline configuration in the same Git repository and review process as the rest of the platform codenot Asyncapi
  • A regulated environment where extraction must run inside your own network with no data passing through a vendornot Asyncapi

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Asyncapi

  • Complex to implement and debug asynchronous operations due to their non-linear and concurrent nature
  • Keeping AsyncAPI documents up to date is challenging as systems evolve
  • Tracing and debugging asynchronous operations is more difficult than synchronous request-response patterns

Meltano

  • The company behind Meltano wound down in December 2025 and the project was transferred to Matatika, a much smaller organisation, so roadmap velocity and the size of the maintenance team are now materially lower than the tool's reputation suggests.
  • Singer connector quality varies enormously; a tap may be maintained, abandoned, or maintained only for the subset of endpoints its original author needed, and you will not know which until a schema change breaks a load at 3am.
  • There is no managed hosting from the project itself, so someone on your team owns scheduling, secrets, retries, alerting and upgrades, which is real headcount that a per-row SaaS bill was buying for you.
  • It is command-line and YAML first with no meaningful web interface, so analysts who are not comfortable in Git and a terminal cannot maintain pipelines themselves.
  • Debugging spans three layers, the tap, Meltano itself and the target, and each has its own logging conventions, so failures often require reading Python source in a third-party connector.

Pricing, plan by plan

Asyncapi

Free
  • Open SourceFree
    • AsyncAPI specification
    • Tools
    • Community support

Meltano

Free
  • MeltanoFree
    • MIT licensed, self-hosted
    • No paid Meltano Cloud tier; it was retired before the company wound down
    • Community support via Slack and GitHub

Which should you pick?

Choose Asyncapi if

  • You need api specification.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Web, CLI, IDE Extensions.
  • You also want code generation.
Asyncapi review

Choose Meltano if

  • You need singer plugin management.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Linux, macOS, Docker, Windows (via WSL).
  • You also want project as code.
Meltano review

Questions people ask

Is Asyncapi or Meltano better?
Neither clearly leads. Asyncapi starts at Free and Meltano at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Asyncapi or Meltano?
Asyncapi starts at Free and Meltano at Free.
Does Asyncapi or Meltano run on more platforms?
Asyncapi runs on Web, CLI, IDE Extensions. Meltano runs on Linux, macOS, Docker, Windows (via WSL).
Can I use Asyncapi for free?
Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
What is Asyncapi best used for?
Asyncapi is most often used for api development, api gateway, api testing, api documentation. Of those, api development and api gateway are not what Meltano is typically brought in for.
What can Asyncapi do that Meltano cannot?
Asyncapi covers API Specification, Code generation, Documentation, Multiple messaging protocols. Meltano covers Singer plugin management, Project as code, Environments, Incremental state.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Asyncapi: What is AsyncAPI used for?

AsyncAPI is an open-source specification for defining and documenting asynchronous APIs, message-driven systems, and event-driven architectures. It serves the same purpose for async APIs as OpenAPI does for REST APIs, providing standardized documentation, code generation, and tooling.

Source
Meltano: Is Meltano still maintained after the company shut down?

Yes. Arch, formerly Meltano, was acquired by Matatika in December 2025 and the open source project continues under their stewardship, with releases through 2026.

Asyncapi: Is AsyncAPI free to use?

Yes, AsyncAPI is completely free and open-source. It is hosted by the Linux Foundation and supported by community contributions and sponsorships from companies like Postman, IBM, IQVIA Technology, and Solace.

Source
Meltano: Is there a hosted Meltano?

Not from the project. Meltano Cloud was retired, and hosting now comes from Matatika or from running the container yourself.

Asyncapi: What protocols and technologies does AsyncAPI support?

AsyncAPI supports multiple protocols and technologies including Kafka, RabbitMQ, MQTT, Socket.IO, AWS EventBridge, and others. It provides language support for JavaScript/TypeScript, Python, Java, Go, C#/.NET, Kotlin, and PHP.

Source
Meltano: How does it compare on cost with Fivetran?

Meltano has no licence fee, so the comparison is your engineering time versus Fivetran's per-monthly-active-row billing. High-volume, low-complexity sources favour Meltano; long tails of fiddly SaaS APIs favour Fivetran.

Asyncapi: Does AsyncAPI have IDE support?

Yes, AsyncAPI has IDE extensions available for VSCode and IntelliJ, along with CLI utilities and GitHub Actions integration for developers.

Source
Meltano: Can I use Airbyte connectors with it?

Yes, Meltano can run Airbyte source connectors through a bridge, which widens the connector pool beyond Singer taps.

Share

Related pages

More on Asyncapi

More on Meltano

Keep looking

Other head to heads