Clay vs dbt
Clay and dbt are both data integration & ETL tools. Clay is aimed at small businesses and enterprise, while dbt is aimed at developers. dbt costs less, from $100/mo versus $185/mo for Clay. Both have a free plan.
| Pricing | Freemium · $185 | Freemium · $100 |
| Starting price | $185/mo | $100/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | 14 days | 14 days |
| Built for | Small businesses, Enterprise | Developers |
| Platforms | web | web |
| Country | US · 2017 | US · 2016 |
| Rating | — | — |
Choose Clay if
GTM operations and outbound teams with volume and a willingness to learn.
- Dramatically better enrichment coverage via waterfalls
- AI research personalization at scale
- Flexible, spreadsheet mental model
Look elsewhere if: Solo founders who need a simple list (Apollo) or teams without ops capacity.
Choose dbt if
Data teams with a warehouse who want tested, documented, version-controlled transformations.
- Industry standard with huge community
- Brings software engineering practices to analytics
- Free open-source core
Look elsewhere if: Organizations without a warehouse or with only spreadsheet-scale data.
Clay vs dbt pricing
Clay
- Free$0500 actions and 100 data credits per month
- Launch$185/mo$167/mo billed annually; 15K actions, 2.5K data credits
- Growth$495/mo$446/mo billed annually; 40K actions, 6K data credits
- EnterpriseCustom100K+ data credits, 200K+ actions, annual contract
dbt
- Developer$01 seat, 3,000 models built/mo, 1 project
- Starter$100/user/mo5 seats, 15,000 models built/mo, 1 project
- EnterpriseCustomBilled annually; 100,000 models built/mo, 30 projects
- Enterprise+CustomUnlimited projects
Clay · Key features
- Waterfall enrichment across 100+ data providers
- Claygent AI agents for custom web research
- Formulas, conditional logic and scoring
- CRM and sequencer integrations with two-way sync
- Signals: job changes, hiring, funding, tech installs
- Templates and shared workspaces
Cons
- Credit costs add up quickly
- Steep learning curve
- Easy to build fragile tables
dbt · Key features
- SQL models with ref() dependencies and DAG
- Tests, documentation and lineage graphs
- Incremental models, snapshots and seeds
- dbt Cloud IDE, scheduler and CI/CD
- Semantic Layer for consistent metrics
- dbt Mesh for cross-team projects
Cons
- Cloud pricing per developer seat adds up
- Jinja templating can get complex
- Long-running DAGs need orchestration tuning
Clay vs dbt: FAQ
Which is cheaper, Clay or dbt?
dbt starts at $100/mo and Clay at $185/mo. Both prices are checked on the vendors' own pricing pages.
Do Clay and dbt have a free plan?
Yes, both Clay and dbt have a free plan; paid plans add more usage and features.
Which is better for small businesses, Clay or dbt?
Clay lists small businesses as a core audience, while dbt is aimed more at developers.