Why migrate from Airbyte to Mage Pro?
Airbyte is popular for ELT pipelines, but it wasn’t designed for:- Native orchestration of transformations
- Visual, modular pipeline building
- AI-powered debugging and code generation
- Git-native CI/CD and multi-environment deployments
- Streaming pipelines and event triggers
✨ Mage Pro vs Airbyte: Benefits Overview
Mage Pro combines data integration and data orchestration in a single, developer-friendly platform.| Capability | Airbyte | Mage Pro |
|---|---|---|
| Data integration | ✅ Pre-built connectors | ✅ Native connectors for APIs, databases, files |
| Orchestration | ⚠️ Basic scheduling only | ✅ Full DAG-level orchestration |
| Visual pipeline UI | ⚠️ Connector-based only | ✅ Drag-and-drop pipeline builder |
| Custom transformations | ⚠️ Limited (requires dbt or custom code) | ✅ Python, SQL, or AI-generated transformations |
| AI assistance | ❌ | ✅ Generate, debug, and optimize pipelines with AI Sidekick |
| Incremental loads | ✅ Supported via config | ✅ Supported natively in pipeline settings |
| Schema discovery & testing | ⚠️ Limited | ✅ Data previews, schema validation, tests |
| Streaming & CDC | ⚠️ Limited | ✅ Native support for Kafka, CDC, and real-time ingestion |
| Git integration | ⚠️ Manual export/import only | ✅ Git-backed pipelines and CI/CD |
| Secrets management | ⚠️ Env-only | ✅ Built-in secrets & workspace isolation |
| Multi-environment support | ❌ Manual, not native | ✅ Dev, staging, and production workspaces |
| Observability | ⚠️ Basic logs | ✅ Detailed logs, lineage, and monitoring |
| Scalability | ⚠️ Self-managed in OSS, limited control in Cloud | ✅ Auto-scaled executors on Kubernetes or ECS |
🛠️ Step-by-Step Migration Instructions
-
Inventory your Airbyte connectors
- List all sources and destinations in your Airbyte setup
- Note incremental or full-load settings
- Export transformation logic (e.g., dbt, SQL scripts)
-
Create a Mage Pro workspace
- Sign up at Mage Pro
- (Optional) Connect your Git repository for version control
-
Recreate connectors as Mage data integration blocks
- Each Airbyte source → Extract block in Mage
- Each Airbyte destination → Load block in Mage
- Any dbt or SQL logic → SQL block (dbt-like features built-in)
- Use Python blocks for custom transformations
-
Configure pipelines
- Combine extract → transform → load in a single pipeline
- Use the visual editor or YAML pipeline config
-
Set up scheduling and triggers
- Replace Airbyte sync schedules with Mage cron or event-based triggers
- Optionally add webhooks or file-based triggers
-
Run and validate pipelines
- Preview data outputs at every step
- Compare final tables and schema to ensure parity
- Validate incremental load and deduplication logic
-
Monitor and optimize
- Use Mage’s built-in logs and data lineage
- Configure alerts and retry rules
- Leverage auto-scaling for parallel extracts and loads
🤖 Convert Airbyte Configs with AI Sidekick
Mage Pro’s AI Sidekick can automatically help convert Airbyte connector configurations and dbt logic into Mage pipelines.🔧 How to Use It
- Open your Mage Pro workspace and click “Ask AI”
- Paste your Airbyte connector settings or dbt SQL models
- Ask: “Convert this Airbyte source-destination flow into a Mage pipeline.”
- Sidekick will:
- Generate Extract/Load blocks for your sources and targets
- Translate transformation steps into SQL or Python blocks
- Create a complete pipeline with triggers and dependencies
- Insert the generated pipeline directly into your workspace.
🧠 Tips for Migrating Complex Airbyte Flows
- Merge multiple Airbyte connectors into a single end-to-end pipeline
- Use pipeline variables for shared config (e.g., table names, batch sizes)
- Replace dbt transformations with SQL blocks (supports
ref(), tests, and incremental models) - For large tables, enable batching and streaming modes
✅ After Migration: What You Gain
- Unified integration + transformation + orchestration
- Visual pipelines and instant debugging
- AI-powered pipeline creation and troubleshooting
- Git-based CI/CD and environment isolation
- Real-time streaming support (Kafka, CDC, webhooks)
- Enterprise-grade RBAC, audit logs, and observability
No more juggling Airbyte, Airflow, and dbt. With Mage Pro, you get a single platform for all data workflows.👉 Start Migrating to Mage Pro