I'm working on backend/data infra stuff at my current company and started to peek over the fence at how the ML team works and what tools they use. I'm quite a noob when it comes to ML and it seems MLFlow is quite liked by the community. However, it seems really rough around the edges, particularly when it comes to stuff like auth.

I've seen people suggest online that this has to do with Databricks' influence on MLFlow, keeping some of these enterprise features out of it to force people to a paid offering.

But it's got me wondering, are there any good open source alternatives to MLFlow?

Also, are people just using MLFlow tracking servers inside of e.g. SageMaker or the Databricks stack?

And then what is it that MLFLow is so good at?