# Census vs Dagster

**Leader by Vioscale score:** Census

| Attribute | Census | Dagster |
|---|---|---|
| **Vioscale score** | 82.3 (74% (medium)) | 70.4 (68% (medium)) |
| activity.commits_last_30d | - | 81 |
| adoption.dependent_repos | - | 286 |
| adoption.github_stars | - | 16,066 |
| adoption.package_downloads_weekly | - | 2,176,853 |
| deployment.options | `{"cloud":true,"hybrid":true}` | `{"cloud":true,"hybrid":true,"self_hosted":true}` |
| description.long | A fully managed data integration platform that moves data from 900+ sources into warehouses, lakes, and applications, then transforms and activates it for analytics and AI. Supports real-time and scheduled synchronization with enterprise security and compliance certifications. | A unified orchestration and observability platform that manages data pipelines through assets, tracks dependencies and lineage, enforces data quality, and integrates with existing tools like dbt, Snowflake, and Spark. Supports both self-hosted open-source and managed cloud deployment. |
| features.capabilities | `{"cdc":true,"role":"elt","lineage":false,"paradigm":"both","dbt_native":true,"data_quality":false,"elt_pushdown":true,"python_first":false,"managed_cloud":true,"connector_count":"900+ sources and destinations","self_hosted_oss":false,"incremental_runs":true,"distributed_executor":true}` | `{"cdc":false,"role":"orchestrator","lineage":true,"paradigm":"batch","dbt_native":true,"data_quality":true,"elt_pushdown":false,"python_first":true,"managed_cloud":true,"self_hosted_oss":true,"incremental_runs":true,"distributed_executor":true}` |
| integrations.count | 900 | 14 |
| integrations.list | `[{"name":"Snowflake"},{"name":"Google BigQuery"},{"name":"Salesforce"},{"name":"Databricks"},{"name":"AWS Redshift"},{"name":"Azure Synapse"},{"name":"Marketo"},{"name":"HubSpot"},{"name":"Zendesk"},{"name":"Braze"},{"name":"Facebook Ads"},{"name":"Google Ads"},{"name":"Postgres"},{"name":"MySQL"}]` | `[{"name":"dbt"},{"name":"Snowflake"},{"name":"Spark"},{"name":"Databricks"},{"name":"Azure"},{"name":"AWS"},{"name":"Airbyte"},{"name":"Tableau"},{"name":"Soda"},{"name":"Slack"},{"name":"Microsoft Teams"},{"name":"PagerDuty"},{"name":"Datadog"},{"name":"Python"}]` |
| language.primary | - | Python |
| license.spdx | - | Apache-2.0 |
| market.availability | `{"hqCountry":"US","primaryMarkets":["US","EU"],"availabilityScope":"global","availableCountries":[],"notAvailableCountries":[]}` | `{"primaryMarkets":["US"],"availabilityScope":"global","availableCountries":[],"notAvailableCountries":[]}` |
| platform.support | `{"web":true}` | `{"cli":true,"web":true}` |
| pricing | `{"type":"usage","plans":[{"free":true,"name":"Free","summary":"Free up to 500k MAR connections, 3.5k MAR activations, 5k MMR transformations","features":["Access to core platform","700+ connectors","200+ activation destinations","dbt Core integration"],"description":"Introductory offering for low-volume data with core platform functionality","contactSales":false,"includedLimits":{"activations_mar":"3.5k/month","connections_mar":"500k/month","transformations_mmr":"5k/month"}},{"free":false,"name":"Standard","summary":"Usage-based pricing on Monthly Active Rows; $5 base charge per connection (1-1M MAR range)","features":["Unlimited users","15-minute syncs","700+ fully managed connectors","200+ fully managed activation destinations","dbt Core integration","Role-based access control","REST API access","SSH tunnels"],"commitment":"monthly","components":[{"kind":"fixed","amount":5,"period":"month","currency":"USD"}],"description":"Core platform functionality for teams automating data movement","contactSales":false,"includedLimits":{}},{"free":false,"name":"Enterprise","summary":"All Standard features plus premium sync speed and deployment flexibility","features":["All Standard features","1-minute syncs","Fivetran Activations Audience Hub","Enterprise database connectors","Custom roles","VPN tunnels","SCIM/user provisioning","Multi-cloud provider choice (GCP/AWS/Azure)","Hybrid deployment"],"commitment":"annual","description":"Greater platform flexibility and granular control for scale","contactSales":false,"includedLimits":{}},{"free":false,"name":"Business Critical","summary":"Enterprise-grade security with customer-controlled encryption and advanced compliance","features":["All Enterprise features","Customer-managed keys for encryption","PCI DSS Level 1 certification","Private networking options"],"commitment":"annual","description":"Highest data protection and compliance for regulated or sensitive data","contactSales":false,"includedLimits":{}}],"addOns":[{"name":"Professional Services"},{"name":"Enterprise License Agreement"}],"summary":"Free tier available. Usage-based pricing starting $5/month base + per-MAR metering. Annual contracts save up to 22%. Enterprise License Agreements available for fixed annual pricing.","currency":"USD","freeTier":true,"sourceUrl":"https://www.getcensus.com/pricing","retrievedAt":"2026-08-13T22:21:48.361Z","freeTrialDays":14,"startingPrice":{"amount":5,"period":"month","currency":"USD"},"billingPeriods":["month","year"]}` | `{"type":"subscription","plans":[{"free":false,"name":"Solo","summary":"$120/month with 7.5k credits/month included; overages at $0.040/credit","features":["1 User","1 Code location","1 Deployment","Core orchestration","Asset-based orchestration","Data quality checks","Asset metadata and lineage","Email/Slack/Teams alerts","Serverless compute","SOC 2 Type II","GDPR"],"minSeats":1,"components":[{"kind":"fixed","amount":120,"period":"month","currency":"USD"},{"per":{"qty":1,"unit":"credit"},"kind":"metered","amount":0.04,"currency":"USD"},{"per":{"qty":1,"unit":"minute"},"kind":"metered","amount":0.01,"currency":"USD"}],"description":"Personal projects and simple pipelines","contactSales":false,"includedLimits":{"credits":"7.5k/month"}},{"free":false,"name":"Starter","summary":"$1200/month with 30k credits/month included; overages at $0.035/credit","features":["Up to 3 Users","5 Code locations","1 Deployment","Catalog search","Column-level lineage","Data quality checks","Asset health status","Cost tracking for BigQuery/Snowflake","PagerDuty/Datadog integration","Role-based access control","Hybrid deployments","SSO","Audit logs"],"minSeats":3,"components":[{"kind":"fixed","amount":1200,"period":"month","currency":"USD"},{"per":{"qty":1,"unit":"credit"},"kind":"metered","amount":0.035,"currency":"USD"},{"per":{"qty":1,"unit":"minute"},"kind":"metered","amount":0.01,"currency":"USD"}],"description":"Production pipelines for small teams with role-based access control and catalog search","contactSales":false,"includedLimits":{"credits":"30k/month"}},{"free":false,"name":"Pro/Enterprise","summary":"Custom pricing; contact sales","features":["Unlimited code locations","Unlimited deployments","Custom serverless compute pricing","Cost tracking and insights","Personalized onboarding support","Private Slack channel","Uptime SLAs","Custom security questionnaires","SAML/SCIM provisioning (Okta, Entra ID)","AI-native features (Dagster+ AI chat, auto-remediation)","EU data residency","HIPAA compliance","Webhook and advanced alerting"],"description":"Large-scale enterprise data platforms with custom requirements","contactSales":true}],"summary":"From $120/month. 30-day free trial. Subscription with metered credits (asset materializations and ops executed); serverless compute charged separately.","currency":"USD","freeTier":false,"sourceUrl":"https://dagster.io/pricing","retrievedAt":"2026-08-14T15:27:01.773Z","freeTrialDays":30,"startingPrice":{"amount":0.01,"period":"month","currency":"USD"},"billingPeriods":["month"]}` |
| pricing.free_tier | yes | yes |
| pricing.model | freemium | freemium |
| pricing.price_level | low | low |
| pricing.transparent | yes | yes |
| release.cadence_days | - | 7 |
| release.history | - | `[{"url":"https://github.com/dagster-io/dagster/releases/tag/1.13.19","date":"2026-08-21T15:53:20Z","type":"stable","version":"1.13.19"},{"url":"https://github.com/dagster-io/dagster/releases/tag/1.13.18","date":"2026-08-14T19:59:51Z","type":"stable","version":"1.13.18"},{"url":"https://github.com/dagster-io/dagster/releases/tag/1.13.17","date":"2026-08-07T19:12:58Z","type":"stable","version":"1.13.17"},{"url":"https://github.com/dagster-io/dagster/releases/tag/1.13.16","date":"2026-07-30T17:24:09Z","type":"stable","version":"1.13.16"},{"url":"https://github.com/dagster-io/dagster/releases/tag/1.13.15","date":"2026-07-23T15:59:52Z","type":"stable","version":"1.13.15"},{"url":"https://github.com/dagster-io/dagster/releases/tag/1.13.14","date":"2026-07-16T18:39:10Z","type":"stable","version":"1.13.14"},{"url":"https://github.com/dagster-io/dagster/releases/tag/1.13.13","date":"2026-07-09T17:39:15Z","type":"stable","version":"1.13.13"},{"url":"https://github.com/dagster-io/dagster/releases/tag/1.13.12","date":"2026-07-02T16:27:40Z","type":"stable","version":"1.13.12"},{"url":"https://github.com/dagster-io/dagster/releases/tag/1.13.11","date":"2026-06-25T18:23:24Z","type":"stable","version":"1.13.11"},{"url":"https://github.com/dagster-io/dagster/releases/tag/1.13.10","date":"2026-06-18T19:23:58Z","type":"stable","version":"1.13.10"},{"url":"https://github.com/dagster-io/dagster/releases/tag/1.13.9","date":"2026-06-11T19:16:52Z","type":"stable","version":"1.13.9"},{"url":"https://github.com/dagster-io/dagster/releases/tag/1.13.8","date":"2026-06-04T18:11:04Z","type":"stable","version":"1.13.8"},{"url":"https://github.com/dagster-io/dagster/releases/tag/1.13.7","date":"2026-05-28T17:18:25Z","type":"stable","version":"1.13.7"},{"url":"https://github.com/dagster-io/dagster/releases/tag/1.13.6","date":"2026-05-22T18:17:05Z","type":"stable","version":"1.13.6"},{"url":"https://github.com/dagster-io/dagster/releases/tag/1.13.5","date":"2026-05-15T16:40:58Z","type":"stable","version":"1.13.5"},{"url":"https://github.com/dagster-io/dagster/releases/tag/1.13.4","date":"2026-05-14T15:31:55Z","type":"stable","version":"1.13.4"},{"url":"https://github.com/dagster-io/dagster/releases/tag/1.13.3","date":"2026-04-30T20:46:18Z","type":"stable","version":"1.13.3"},{"url":"https://github.com/dagster-io/dagster/releases/tag/1.13.2","date":"2026-04-23T18:30:38Z","type":"stable","version":"1.13.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/dagster-io/dagster/releases/tag/1.13.1","date":"2026-04-17T19:33:16Z","type":"stable","version":"1.13.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/dagster-io/dagster/releases/tag/1.13.0","date":"2026-04-09T18:57:35Z","type":"stable","version":"1.13.0"}]` |
| reliability.status_page | yes | - |
| security.disclosure_policy | - | yes |
| security.gdpr | yes | yes |
| security.hipaa | yes | yes |
| security.iso27001 | yes | - |
| security.pci | yes | - |
| security.scorecard | - | 4.8 |
| security.soc2 | yes | yes |
| security.vulnerabilities | - | `{"count":3,"source":"https://advisories.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/advisories?ecosystem=pypi&package_name=dagster&per_page=100","last_12m":1,"max_severity":"HIGH"}` |

## Capabilities (Data Engineering Tools)

| Capability | Census | Dagster |
|---|:--:|:--:|
| **Core** |  |  |
| Tool role | ELT / ingestion | Orchestrator |
| Processing paradigm | Batch + streaming | Batch |
| **Connectivity** |  |  |
| Connector count | 900+ sources and destinations | - |
| CDC / log-based replication | ✓ | ✗ |
| **Transformation** |  |  |
| In-warehouse transformation (push-down) | ✓ | ✗ |
| dbt-native orchestration | ✓ | ✓ |
| **Deployment** |  |  |
| Self-hosted / open-source available | ✗ | ✓ |
| Managed cloud available | ✓ | ✓ |
| **Governance** |  |  |
| Data lineage / asset catalog | ✗ | ✓ |
| **Authoring** |  |  |
| Python-first authoring | ✗ | ✓ |
| **Execution** |  |  |
| Incremental / partition-aware runs | ✓ | ✓ |
| **Quality** |  |  |
| Built-in data quality / tests | ✗ | ✓ |
| **Scale** |  |  |
| Horizontal scale (distributed executor) | ✓ | ✓ |

*Source: Vioscale. Generated 2026-09-01T16:29:38.726Z. "-" = undocumented, not absent.*