What is the difference between airflow vs step functions?

In the context of AWS, here is the difference given between apache airflow and AWS step functions in the context of orchestrating a data pipeline for a large e-commerce platform:-

Apache airflow

The apache airflow is an open-source platform that is used in the task of automation and orchestrating. It would allow you to define, schedule, and monitor the complex workflows as directed acyclic graphs by using Python programming language:-

From datetime import datetime
From airflow import DAG
From airflow.operators.bash_operator import BashOperator
From airflow.operators.python_operator import PythonOperator
Default_args = {
    ‘owner’: ‘airflow’,
    ‘depends_on_past’: False,
    ‘start_date’: datetime(2024, 3, 24),
    ‘email_on_failure’: False,
    ‘email_on_retry’: False,
    ‘retries’: 1,
}
Dag = DAG(‘ecommerce_pipeline’, default_args=default_args, schedule_interval=’@daily’)
Def process_orders():
    # Code to process orders
    Pass
Def update_inventory():
    # Code to update inventory
    Pass
Def send_notifications():
    # Code to send notifications
    Pass
Process_orders_task = PythonOperator(
    Task_id=’process_orders’,
    Python_callable=process_orders,
    Dag=dag,
)
Update_inventory_task = PythonOperator(
    Task_id=’update_inventory’,
    Python_callable=update_inventory,
    Dag=dag,
)
Send_notifications_task = PythonOperator(
    Task_id=’send_notifications’,
    Python_callable=send_notifications,
    Dag=dag,
)
Process_orders_task >> update_inventory_task >> send_notifications_task
AWS step functions
AWS step functions is a tool that is used in the management of services provided by AWS for coordinating and managing workflow. It would allow you to build a service workflow by using a visual interface or JSON-based state machine definition:-
{
  “Comment”: “E-commerce Pipeline”,
  “StartAt”: “ProcessOrders”,
  “States”: {
    “ProcessOrders”: {
      “Type”: “Task”,
      “Resource”: “arn:aws:lambda:region:account-id:function:process-orders”,
      “Next”: “UpdateInventory”
    },
    “UpdateInventory”: {
      “Type”: “Task”,
      “Resource”: “arn:aws:lambda:region:account-id:function:update-inventory”,
      “Next”: “SendNotifications”
    },
    “SendNotifications”: {
      “Type”: “Task”,
      “Resource”: “arn:aws:lambda:region:account-id:function:send-notifications”,
      “End”: true
    }
  }

You can choose between two according to your needs and requirements.