dbt is a data integration & ETL tool for Developers, offered as freemium ($100/mo). Founded in United States in 2016. Popular alternatives include Matillion.
About dbt
dbt (data build tool) is the de facto standard for transforming data inside a cloud warehouse. It is developed by dbt Labs, a company founded in Philadelphia as Fishtown Analytics, which announced a merger with Fivetran in October 2025 and completed it in June 2026. Analysts write SELECT statements as models, and dbt compiles them, works out dependencies, materializes tables and views, runs tests and generates documentation and lineage, with everything stored in git.
dbt Core is open source and runs anywhere with a command line and a scheduler. dbt Cloud, the commercial product renamed the dbt platform in 2025, adds a browser IDE, a job scheduler, CI checks on pull requests, the Semantic Layer for consistent metric definitions, dbt Mesh for governing many projects across teams, and AI assistance for writing and documenting code. Cloud has a free single-developer plan, a per-seat Starter plan with build limits and custom Enterprise pricing for SSO, RBAC and Mesh. It works with Snowflake, BigQuery, Databricks, Redshift, Postgres and many other platforms.
dbt created the analytics engineering role and is the right choice for most teams with a warehouse who want tested, version-controlled transformations. Jinja templating can get messy, large DAGs need orchestration tuning, and Cloud seats add up. SQLMesh, whose developer Tobiko Data was bought by Fivetran in 2025, is the main open-source challenger, Dataform is the option built into Google BigQuery, and Coalesce offers a more visual approach.
Key features of dbt
- 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
Pros and cons
Pros
- Industry standard with huge community
- Brings software engineering practices to analytics
- Free open-source core
- Integrates with the whole modern data stack
Cons
- Cloud pricing per developer seat adds up
- Jinja templating can get complex
- Long-running DAGs need orchestration tuning
- Fivetran merger adds roadmap uncertainty
dbt pricing
dbt uses a freemium model. A 14-day free trial is available.
| Plan | Price | Includes |
|---|---|---|
| Developer | $0 | 1 seat, 3,000 models built/mo, 1 project |
| Starter | $100 / user/mo | 5 seats, 15,000 models built/mo, 1 project |
| Enterprise | Custom | Billed annually; 100,000 models built/mo, 30 projects |
| Enterprise+ | Custom | Unlimited projects |
Source: www.getdbt.com · checked on Oct 20, 2026
How dbt compares in Data integration & ETL
- Rank by votes
- #1 / 16
- Starting price
- $100
- Free alternatives
- 2
0 votes from members
At the category median of $100/mo
Free or open-source tools in Data integration & ETL
dbt ranks #1 of 16 data integration & etl tools by community votes and is priced in line with the category.
Common use cases
- 1Transforming raw warehouse data into clean marts
- 2Testing data quality in CI before dashboards break
- 3Documenting metrics with a semantic layer
- 4Multi-team data platform with Mesh
Best for
Data teams with a warehouse who want tested, documented, version-controlled transformations.
Not ideal for
Organizations without a warehouse or with only spreadsheet-scale data.
Integrations
- Snowflake
- BigQuery
- Databricks
- Redshift
- Postgres
- Airflow
- Dagster
- GitHub
- Lightdash
- Looker
Our take
If you have a warehouse, you need dbt or something like it. Start with Core and a scheduler; buy Cloud when collaboration outgrows the CLI.
FAQ
- What is dbt?
- dbt is a Data integration & ETL tool: Transform data in the warehouse with SQL.
- How much does dbt cost?
- dbt uses a Freemium model; paid plans start at $100 per month.
- What are the best alternatives to dbt?
- Community-listed alternatives to dbt include Matillion.
- Does dbt have a free trial?
- Yes, dbt offers a 14-day free trial.
- What does dbt integrate with?
- dbt integrates with Snowflake, BigQuery, Databricks, Redshift, Postgres, Airflow and more.
- Which platforms does dbt support?
- dbt is available on web.
- Who is dbt for?
- Data teams with a warehouse who want tested, documented, version-controlled transformations.
Alternatives to dbt
Matillion
▲ 0Cloud ELT and pipeline platform with Maia AI data engineering agents
PaidEnterpriseDevelopers
More Data integration & ETL tools
Boomi
▲ 0Enterprise iPaaS for integration, APIs, data and AI agents
Paid · $99EnterpriseSmall businesses
Reviews
No reviews yet. Be the first to share real experience.
Sign in to write a review.