Dagster is preferable when you need a system that emphasizes data quality and type checking, ensuring that data flows between your tasks are correctly managed and documented. It is particularly useful in data-centric applications where understanding the data transformations is critical. **Scenario:** If you have a data engineering project that requires strict data validation and real-time monitoring, such as an ETL process that ingests data from various sources, transforms it, and loads it into a data warehouse, Dagster would provide the necessary tools and clear depiction of data dependencies to ensure each step is executed with the correct data types and transformations.
Luigi is ideal for simpler or smaller workflows where you want minimal complexity and quick setup. If you're dealing with straightforward batch jobs, such as data ingestion tasks that do not require complex orchestration or dynamic generation of tasks, Luigi can be a better fit. For example, if you're processing daily logs into a database with a few simple steps, Luigi's simplicity will let you get started faster than setting up more complex tooling like Dagster.