Amazon Managed Workflows for Apache Airflow vs Tidal by Redwood comparison

Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Tidal Software by Redwood are both solutions in the Workload Automation category. Amazon Web Services (AWS) is ranked #20 with an average rating of 6.0, while Tidal Software by Redwood is ranked #11 with an average rating of 9.2. Amazon Web Services (AWS) holds a 1.3% mindshare in WA, compared to Tidal Software by Redwood’s 4.6% mindshare. Additionally, 50% of Amazon Web Services (AWS) users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 97% of Tidal Software by Redwood users who would recommend it.

Amazon Managed Workflows fo...

Read 2 Amazon Managed Workflows for Apache Airflow reviews

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337 Comparison Views

50% willing to recommend

Tidal by Redwood

Read 37 Tidal by Redwood reviews

2,380 Views
2,356 Comparison Views

97% willing to recommend

Amazon Managed Workflows fo...

Tidal by Redwood

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jun 15, 2025

Tidal by Redwood and Amazon Managed Workflows for Apache Airflow are competing in the orchestration space, each with distinct benefits. Tidal by Redwood holds an advantage in customer support and pricing, while Amazon Managed Workflows for Apache Airflow offers more features and integrations.

Features: Tidal offers ease of integration, customizable workflows, and robust customer support. Amazon Managed Workflows for Apache Airflow provides compatibility with AWS services, a comprehensive feature set, and an extensive ecosystem.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Tidal features an intuitive deployment model ideal for non-technical staff with dedicated support. Amazon requires more experienced personnel for deployment but benefits from AWS's strong infrastructure.

Pricing and ROI: Tidal is cost-effective with competitive initial pricing and low ongoing costs. Amazon demands a higher initial investment but offers ROI through integration with AWS services and automation.

To learn more, read our detailed Workload Automation Report (Updated: August 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Workload Automation

August 2025

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Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

Amazon Managed Workflows fo...

Ranking in Workload Automation

20th

Average Rating

6.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.3

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Tidal by Redwood

Ranking in Workload Automation

11th

Average Rating

9.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the Workload Automation category, the mindshare of Amazon Managed Workflows for Apache Airflow is 1.3%, up from 0.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Tidal by Redwood is 4.6%, up from 3.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Workload Automation

Featured Reviews

IsmailPeer

Business and Technology Strategy Lead at Cognix Inc

Operational workflows improve as we address needs but technical support costs affect resources

Amazon Managed Workflows for Apache Airflow is easy to use and offers great scalability. The more we include and extend our capabilities, we can easily scale up according to our needs. When we compare it to other tools in the market, such as Control-M and other technologies, Airflow offers a lot of flexibility. Using this tool minimizes costs and maximizes efficiency.

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Steve Mikula

IT Scheduling Manager at Paychex, Inc.

Very reliable processing engine, and scheduling is flawless—crucial elements in our financial transaction processing

Because we've been on it for 20 years, it's pretty easy for us to automate jobs with Tidal at this point. It has become second nature. It's pretty simplistic to set up and get going, although there are different levels of complexity you can have within the product. It depends on how simple you want to keep it. If you just keep it: Job A, Job B, Job C, Job D, that becomes pretty simple. But when you start integrating some complex calendars that use sub-calendars—and you can go three, four, or five deep to set up schedules—it becomes more complicated. The beauty of it is you can go as deep as you need to. We can get really complex or we can keep it simple. We have some use cases for both scenarios. The thing that I like the most is the reliability of the engine. The actual scheduling part of the product is pretty much flawless, but the stability of the product is what I find to be reassuring. We are a financial company, we move billions of dollars a day, and if we don't have our transactions processed in a timely manner we can be penalized and our clients can be penalized. It can have a serious financial impact.

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Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"Amazon Managed Workflows for Apache Airflow is easy to use and offers great scalability; the more we include and extend our capabilities, we can easily scale up according to our needs."

"One of the product's main strengths is that it is well-suited for a DevOps pattern, allowing us to automate our CI/CD pipeline."

"The most valuable feature is the job scheduler, where you can schedule thousands of jobs to execute at specific times."

"It has been super stable. There are no complaints on stability. We would not be using it if Tidal wasn't stable."

"The feature that I find to be valuable, as I'm working with other folks, is the ability to cross-schedule across platforms, and the flexibility that comes with that."

"By leveraging machine learning algorithms, Tidal Automation can use this data to optimize turbine settings and improve overall efficiency and performance."

"With other tools, you do not have the ability to schedule jobs on their own. You need to create a group and then assign everything to that group. Only then will the job be able to execute. In Tidal, you can schedule a single job and there is no need to create a group. That's what I like the most."

"We had a number of different schedulers in this organization and we've been porting everything that was running out of these other, unrelated schedulers into this scheduler. That has afforded us the ability to set up direct dependencies between processes that couldn't talk to one another before. Over the 15 years, we've definitely gained a lot from that. What had been manual controls have become automated controls..."

"It's easy to use and easy to administer, and it's very flexible."

"Thinking of all the people involved in checking jobs on a daily basis, manually running jobs or auditing them through standalone tools, and trying to connect them. We have saved hundreds of hours weekly, which is substantial."

More Tidal by Redwood pros

Cons

"To be very honest, technical support from AWS is extremely expensive."

"The documentation provided is good."

"Tidal Automation could be further integrated with other systems used in the operation of tidal energy systems, such as weather forecasting tools, energy management systems, or asset management software."

"My complaint about their pricing model is that every year or every time technology changes or somebody has a new requirement, it usually means that I can schedule that with Tidal, but I would need another adapter. So, every time there is a change, I need a different adapter that I don't have. That's why it is harder to plan for Tidal growth because you have to buy a new adapter every time."

"The software's performance and scalability could be improved, particularly when dealing with large-scale workloads or complex business processes."

"The GUI, the graphical user interface, gets a little bit busy."

"One of the weaknesses of the product is, when something happens, it's difficult to find out the root cause. There are a lot of logs you can take a look at in Tidal. Sometimes, they are useful, but other times, they're not. That is mostly relegated to the administrative team. Users for the most part don't see that and don't know anything about that. They just know they have a problem, then it's up to the administrative team to see what happened and figure out the problem."

"Their software installation and update process could use some improvements. I'm pretty sure they're working on that, but that's definitely an area where it could be streamlined a lot. There's still a lot of manual work that you have to do with the schedule when you deploy masters or do the agents."

"Tidal Software interface could be more intuitive and user-friendly."

"The current user interface of Tidal Software is functional. However, it can be improved to make it more intuitive and user-friendly."

More Tidal by Redwood cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It is not an inexpensive solution but it is less expensive than other options."

"Their pricing seems very fair. It is more than the other solutions, but the functionality and the support are very much there. You pay for the job scheduler, and then they have certain things that are built into it, such as the FTP processes. If you then want to do JD Edwards jobs, you need an adapter. If you want to do SQL jobs, there is another adapter. Similarly, if you want to do Oracle jobs, there is an adapter. It is like there is the base and then there are the adapters for the jobs that you want to do, but it seems that's also how they pay for each of those adapters and keep them up to date."

"...it is a pretty affordable scheduler tool that lets us do a lot. You get a lot of bang for the buck... The licensing model is hugely flexible."

"I have had no issues with the licensing."

"Our licensing model for Tidal is on an annual basis. It is very good and works well for us. Tidal's licensing is very transparent and simple. It lets you know, for the amount you use, that's the price that you pay. So, we buy X number of licenses, and we know that this is where we are. I'm very happy with that. I saw the licensing modules on other platforms, and I didn't like them. Other companies and solutions would calculate the connections, adapters, and instances. I think that's the reason that BMC was pretty expensive: They just didn't understand what our needs are."

"There have been pricing increases, but with the reduction that our company obtained from Tidal this year, the pricing has become very acceptable for this type of product."

"The solution’s licensing model in terms of its flexibility and transparency regarding costs is pretty good. A person can buy the license, and if you decide to stop support, you can do that but still have the product. So, it's not like you're paying constantly to keep that license alive. Certainly, you want to keep support going too. Once you buy it, you own it. It's not like I have to keep paying somebody to keep using it."

"Right now, we are in a good position with the licensing model that we have with the Tidal vendor. So, we won't have any issues. even if we double in our current production. Initially, Tidal provided us some specs where if you have these number of jobs, then you come under this category. They usually provide a range of jobs from 2,000 to 10,000. You can use these specs for your infrastructure. Whether you have 2,000 or 8,000 jobs, Tidal should support it."

"The pricing is pretty reasonable. That seems to help a lot versus other companies. There are no other fees aside from the standard licensing fees. There are other products out there where you pay based on how many jobs you run and so on, and I know that's very frustrating for users."

More Tidal by Redwood pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

25%

Transportation Company

Computer Software Company

Outsourcing Company

Financial Services Firm

18%

Computer Software Company

10%

Manufacturing Company

Insurance Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Amazon Managed Workflows for Apache Airflow?

I rate the product pricing a five. It is not an inexpensive solution but it is less expensive than other options like Control M.

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What needs improvement with Amazon Managed Workflows for Apache Airflow?

We encounter challenges transitioning from a graphical user interface like Control M to a code-based approach. It does not have a user interface for building or configuring schedules, which makes i...

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What advice do you have for others considering Amazon Managed Workflows for Apache Airflow?

One of the product's main strengths is that it is well-suited for a DevOps pattern, allowing us to automate our CI/CD pipeline. The scheduling as code feature works efficiently to promote changes t...

See all answers

What do you like most about Tidal Automation?

Tidal Automation by Redwood is a user-friendly solution.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Tidal Automation?

The price is reasonable in terms of the product’s functionality.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Tidal Automation?

Initially, it is complicated to understand the functionalities as there is limited product documentation. The setup and configuration of the software is a bit complicated. Providing the training vi...

See all answers

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Compared 20% of the time

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Compared 9% of the time

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Compared 9% of the time

AutoSys Workload Automation vs Tidal by Redwood

Compared 8% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Workload Automation

August 2025

Amazon Managed Workflows for Apache Airflow report

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Tidal by Redwood

July 2025

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Also Known As

No data available

Tidal Workload Automation, Cisco Workload Automation, Tidal Enterprise Scheduler

Overview

Amazon Managed Workflows for Apache Airflow helps businesses orchestrate complex data processing tasks, automate workflows, and manage data pipelines with seamless integration into AWS services.

This service is designed to streamline data engineering operations, supporting scheduling and management of data pipelines. Its ease of setup, flexibility, and scalability make it a favored choice among firms. Clients value its ability to automate workflows, handle ETL tasks, and facilitate seamless data movement across multiple environments. Integration with other AWS services and features like automatic updates, ease of migration, and strong security contribute to its appeal. Despite some feedback regarding initial setup complexities, stability during high-demand operations, and documentation improvements, the overall user experience remains positive.

What are the key features?

Seamless AWS Integration: Easily connects with existing AWS services for smooth operations.
Scalability: Capable of handling complex workflows, ensuring robust performance.
Automatic Updates: Keeps the service up-to-date without manual intervention.
Ease of Use: Reduces maintenance overhead with user-friendly features.
Security Features: Provides comprehensive security options for data protection.
Detailed Documentation: Offers extensive resources for quick adoption and minimal learning curves.

What are the benefits and ROI?

Efficiency Improvement: Streamlines data engineering operations, saving time and effort.
Flexibility: Adapts to changing needs with its versatile configuration options.
Reduced Maintenance: Lowers operational burden with managed services and automatic updates.
Enhanced Productivity: Facilitates seamless automation, allowing focus on higher-value tasks.
Cost Savings: Offers scalable solutions, optimizing cost based on workload demands.

In industries like finance, healthcare, and e-commerce, Amazon Managed Workflows for Apache Airflow plays a crucial role in enhancing data processing efficiencies. Financial institutions use it for real-time data analytics and reporting, healthcare providers for managing clinical data workflows, and e-commerce platforms for optimizing data pipelines and inventory management.

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Tidal Software is a leading provider of enterprise workload automation solutions that orchestrate the execution of complex workflows across systems, applications and IT environments. With a comprehensive portfolio of products and services, Tidal optimizes mission-critical business processes, increases IT cost efficiencies and satisfies legal and regulatory compliance requirements. Hundreds of customers around the world count on Tidal for modernizing their workload automation and driving their digital transformation. Tidal Software is headquartered in Chicago with offices in Houston, London, Minsk, Belarus and Chennai, India. For more information, visit tidalsoftware.com.

Tidal Software by Redwood

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