vioscaleAI
Comparison

dlt vs Kestra

On the evidence we track, dlt leads this comparison with a composite score of 65/100. Scores are only directly comparable because these tools share a category; the full breakdown and every source is below.

dlt full profile →Kestra full profile →
Machine formatsMarkdownJSONGraphQLMarkdown is open. JSON and GraphQL need a free key.
★dlt65
Kestra59
Score
vioscaleAI score
dlt65 / 100low · 46%
Kestra59 / 100medium · 54%
Pricing
Free tier
dlt✓
Kestra✓
Model
Price level
dlthigh
Kestralow
Starting price
dlt$12,000
Kestra–
Transparent
dlt✓
Kestra✗
Integrations
Count
dlt5,000
Kestra2,000
Security
Certifications
dlt–
KestraSOC 2
Disclosure policy
dlt✓
Kestra–
Gdpr
dlt✓
Kestra✓
Soc2
dlt–
Kestra✓
Trust center
Vulnerabilities
Reliability
Status page
dlt✓
Kestra–
Adoption
Dependent repos
dlt23
Kestra–
Github stars
dlt5,969
Kestra–
Activity
Commits last 30d
dlt36
Kestra–
Release
Cadence days
dlt12
Kestra–
History
dlt20 items
Kestra–
License
Spdx
dltApache-2.0
Kestra–
Language
Primary
dltPython
Kestra–
Market
Availability
Content
Faq

Capabilities

Feature-by-feature on the axes that matter for data engineering tools. “-” means undocumented, not absent.

Core
Tool role
dltELT / ingestion
KestraOrchestrator
Processing paradigm
dltBatch + streaming
KestraBatch + streaming
Connectivity
Connector count
dlt5,000+
Kestra1900+
CDC / log-based replication
dlt✓
Kestra✗
Transformation
In-warehouse transformation (push-down)
dlt✓
Kestra✓
dbt-native orchestration
dlt✓
Kestra✓
Deployment
Self-hosted / open-source available
dlt✓
Kestra✓
Managed cloud available
dlt✓
Kestra✓
Governance
Data lineage / asset catalog
dlt✓
Kestra✓
Authoring
Python-first authoring
dlt✓
Kestra✓
Execution
Incremental / partition-aware runs
dlt✓
Kestra✓
Quality
Built-in data quality / tests
dlt✓
Kestra✓
Scale
Horizontal scale (distributed executor)
dlt-
Kestra✓

What each one is

The product in its own terms, so the numbers below have context.

dlt

Leader

A managed platform that enables teams to build, deploy, and monitor data pipelines with AI assistance, built on the open-source dlt library. It provides runtime management, observability, data quality monitoring, and team collaboration features for moving data from any source to any destination.

Independently observed

Kestra

A language-agnostic platform that lets teams define and run business-critical workflows declaratively as code, with built-in scheduling, event-driven triggers, retries, failure handling, and full observability across cloud, on-premise, and air-gapped deployments.

Independently observed

Pricing

List pricing as published by each vendor, with the date we read it. Always verify at the source before you buy.

dlt

Leader
from $12000/moHybridFree tier14-day trial

Free open-source tier. Hub plan from $12,000/month with 5,000 included credits. Tiered overage pricing. 14-day free trial.

  • dltFree
    • Open source ingestion library
    • Reliable ingestion and loading
    • Limited verified OSS connectors
    • AI help and community support
  • Hub$12,000/month with 5,000 credits included. Tiered overage pricing: $1.00–$0.80 per credit depending on volume.
    • Everything in dlt
    • AI Harness (Claude Code, Codex, Cursor)
    • Managed runtime for ingestion
    • Transformations & Data apps
    • Data quality metrics & checks
    • +18 more
  • EnterpriseContact sales
    • Custom credits and volume pricing
    • Enterprise security and governance controls
    • Role-based access control (RBAC) and audit logs
    • SLA and tailored support options
    • Custom onboarding and architecture guidance
as of verify ↗

Kestra

HybridFree tier
  • Open SourceFree
  • Kestra CloudManaged cloud with enterprise support
    • Fully Managed Platform (Hosting, Upgrades, Monitoring)
    • Built-in Security and Governance Features
    • Customer Success Program & Enterprise Support with SLA
    • Audit Logs
  • Kestra EnterpriseContact sales
    • Run anywhere Cloud, On-Prem, Air-Gapped
    • RBAC, audit logs, secrets management, asset lineage
    • AI Copilot (Any LLM Cloud or Self-Hosted)
    • Human-in-the-Loop Approvals
as of verify ↗

Platform & deployment

Where each product runs and how it can be hosted. A dash means undocumented, not unsupported.

Platforms
Web
dlt✓
Kestra✓
CLI
dlt✓
Kestra✓
Deployment
Cloud / SaaS
dlt✓
Kestra✓
Self-hosted
dlt✓
Kestra✓
On-premise
dlt✗
Kestra✓
Hybrid
dlt✓
Kestra✗
Air-gapped
dlt✗
Kestra✓

Integrations

What each product connects to. Counts come from the vendor's own integration directory where one exists.

In common (7)
  • Salesforce
  • PostgreSQL
  • MySQL
  • OpenAI
  • Postgres
  • Slack
  • GitHub

dlt

Leader
46 total - 39 not shared
  • HubSpot
  • Snowflake
  • Databricks
  • BigQuery
  • MotherDuck
  • DuckDB
  • SQLite
  • Amazon S3
  • Google Cloud Storage
  • Microsoft Azure
  • SFTP
  • Parquet
  • Apache Delta
  • Apache Iceberg
  • DuckLake
  • Pydantic Logfire
  • Arize
  • Langfuse
  • LangChain
  • Apache Airflow
  • Dagster
  • AWS Lambda
  • Marimo
  • Hugging Face
  • +15 more
Independently observed

Kestra

58 total - 51 not shared
  • Ansible
  • dbt
  • Spark
  • Airbyte
  • Dremio
  • Arrow Flight SQL
  • Git
  • GitHub Actions
  • Kubernetes
  • Docker
  • Terraform
  • S3
  • Azure Data Lake Storage
  • JDBC databases
  • HTTP APIs
  • Polars
  • Python
  • Bash
  • Node.js
  • Go
  • Apache Kafka
  • Apache Spark
  • PagerDuty
  • Anthropic
  • +27 more
Independently observed
Still deciding?

dlt or Kestra: which one depends on you

A composite score cannot know your constraints. Describe them and both get re-weighted against what you actually need, with the evidence behind every position.

Free to run, no account needed to start. How the evaluation works

Comparison generated from independently-sourced facts. Every value links to its source and retrieval date. See the method.