# dbt Core vs Hightouch

**Leader by Vioscale score:** Hightouch

| Attribute | dbt Core | Hightouch |
|---|---|---|
| **Vioscale score** | 64.9 (77% (high)) | 71.5 (74% (medium)) |
| activity.commits_last_30d | 100 | - |
| adoption.dependent_repos | 553 | - |
| adoption.github_stars | 13,694 | - |
| adoption.package_downloads_weekly | 21,005,917 | - |
| deployment.options | `{"cloud":true,"self_hosted":true}` | `{"cloud":true}` |
| description.long | dbt is a framework that enables data teams to transform data using SQL-based development practices similar to software engineering, with built-in testing, version control, and deployment capabilities. It provides lineage tracking, documentation, and can run locally or in the cloud. | A customer data platform and marketing automation tool that enables teams to send data from their warehouse to any marketing platform in real-time, powered by AI decisioning for campaign optimization and audience targeting. |
| features.capabilities | `{"role":"transform","lineage":true,"paradigm":"batch","dbt_native":true,"data_quality":true,"managed_cloud":true,"connector_count":"6+ named integrations with broader ecosystem","self_hosted_oss":true}` | `{"role":"reverse_etl","paradigm":"both","dbt_native":true,"elt_pushdown":true,"managed_cloud":true,"connector_count":"300+","self_hosted_oss":false,"incremental_runs":true}` |
| integrations.count | 6 | 300 |
| integrations.list | `[{"name":"Tableau"},{"name":"Fivetran"},{"name":"OpenAI"},{"name":"Snowflake"},{"name":"Azure AI"},{"name":"Databricks"}]` | `[{"name":"Acoustic"},{"name":"ActiveCampaign"},{"name":"Adobe Analytics"},{"name":"Adobe Campaign Classic"},{"name":"Adobe Experience Platform"},{"name":"Adobe Target"},{"name":"Airship"},{"name":"Airtable"},{"name":"Algolia"},{"name":"Amplitude"},{"name":"Anaplan"},{"name":"Apache Kafka"},{"name":"AppsFlyer"},{"name":"Asana"},{"name":"Attentive"},{"name":"Auth0"},{"name":"Awin"},{"name":"AWS Lambda"},{"name":"Azure Blob Storage"},{"name":"Azure Functions"},{"name":"BigCommerce"},{"name":"Bloomreach"},{"name":"Bluecore"},{"name":"Braze"},{"name":"Brevo"},{"name":"Campaign Monitor"},{"name":"Chargebee"},{"name":"ChartMogul"},{"name":"ChatGPT Ads"},{"name":"ChurnZero"},{"name":"ClickUp"},{"name":"Close"},{"name":"CockroachDB"},{"name":"Cordial"},{"name":"Courier"},{"name":"Criteo"},{"name":"Customer.io"},{"name":"Discord"},{"name":"Drift"},{"name":"Dropbox"},{"name":"DynamoDB"},{"name":"Elasticsearch"},{"name":"Eloqua"},{"name":"Emarsys"},{"name":"Epsilon Retail Media"},{"name":"Freshdesk"},{"name":"Freshsales"},{"name":"Front"},{"name":"FullStory"},{"name":"Gainsight"}]` |
| language.primary | Rust | - |
| license.spdx | Apache-2.0 | - |
| market.availability | `{"primaryMarkets":["US"],"availabilityScope":"global","availableCountries":[],"notAvailableCountries":[]}` | `{"hqCountry":"US","primaryMarkets":[],"availabilityScope":"global","availableCountries":[],"notAvailableCountries":[]}` |
| platform.support | `{"cli":true,"mac":true,"web":true,"linux":true,"windows":true}` | `{"web":true}` |
| pricing | `{"type":"hybrid","plans":[{"free":true,"name":"Developer","summary":"Free","features":["Browser-based IDE","Multi-factor authentication (MFA)","Job scheduling","Keep on the latest dbt release"],"minSeats":1,"description":"The fastest way to get started with dbt","contactSales":false,"includedLimits":{"seats":"1","projects":"1","successful_models_per_month":"3,000"}},{"free":false,"name":"Starter","summary":"$100/seat/month","features":["All Developer features","dbt Catalog basic","dbt Semantic Layer basic","dbt Copilot code generation","API access"],"minSeats":5,"components":[{"kind":"per_unit","unit":"seat","amount":100,"period":"month","currency":"USD"}],"description":"Pay as you go pricing for your first dbt project","contactSales":false,"includedLimits":{"seats":"5","projects":"1","queried_metrics_per_month":"5,000","successful_models_per_month":"15,000"}},{"free":false,"name":"Enterprise","summary":"Custom pricing","features":["All Starter features","dbt Catalog advanced","dbt Semantic Layer advanced","dbt Copilot","dbt Canvas","dbt Insights","dbt Mesh Enterprise"],"contactSales":true,"includedLimits":{"projects":"30","queried_metrics_per_month":"20,000","successful_models_per_month":"100,000"}},{"free":false,"name":"Enterprise+","summary":"Custom pricing","features":["All Enterprise features","PrivateLink","IP Restrictions","Rollback","Hybrid projects"],"contactSales":true,"includedLimits":{"projects":"Unlimited","queried_metrics_per_month":"20,000","successful_models_per_month":"100,000"}}],"summary":"Free Developer tier, $100/seat/month for Starter, custom pricing for Enterprise","currency":"USD","freeTier":true,"sourceUrl":"https://www.getdbt.com","retrievedAt":"2026-08-05T13:08:54.690Z","freeTrialDays":14,"startingPrice":{"amount":100,"period":"month","currency":"USD"},"billingPeriods":["month"]}` | `{"type":"usage","plans":[{"free":true,"name":"Basic Reverse ETL","summary":"Free tier","features":["Up to 2 active syncs","Unlimited destination count","Unlimited user seats"],"description":"Reverse ETL platform with limited active syncs","contactSales":false,"includedLimits":{"active_syncs":"2"}}],"addOns":[{"name":"Premium Extensions"}],"summary":"Usage-based pricing with free tier. Mix-and-match products based on actual usage.","currency":"USD","freeTier":true,"sourceUrl":"https://hightouch.com/pricing","retrievedAt":"2026-08-13T22:24:29.684Z"}` |
| pricing.free_tier | yes | yes |
| pricing.model | open_source | freemium |
| pricing.price_level | free | low |
| pricing.transparent | yes | yes |
| release.cadence_days | 2 | - |
| release.history | `[{"url":"https://github.com/dbt-labs/dbt-core/releases/tag/v1.12.3","date":"2026-08-21T00:28:55Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.12.3"},{"url":"https://github.com/dbt-labs/dbt-core/releases/tag/v1.11.14","date":"2026-08-20T15:48:47Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.11.14"},{"url":"https://github.com/dbt-labs/dbt-core/releases/tag/v2.0.0-beta.2","date":"2026-08-18T18:00:10Z","type":"prerelease","version":"v2.0.0-beta.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/dbt-labs/dbt-core/releases/tag/v1.8.10","date":"2026-08-14T06:08:39Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.8.10"},{"url":"https://github.com/dbt-labs/dbt-core/releases/tag/v1.7.20","date":"2026-08-14T06:51:29Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.7.20"},{"url":"https://github.com/dbt-labs/dbt-core/releases/tag/v1.6.19","date":"2026-08-14T08:06:53Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.6.19"},{"url":"https://github.com/dbt-labs/dbt-core/releases/tag/v1.5.12","date":"2026-08-14T08:46:08Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.5.12"},{"url":"https://github.com/dbt-labs/dbt-core/releases/tag/v1.4.10","date":"2026-08-14T10:47:20Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.4.10"},{"url":"https://github.com/dbt-labs/dbt-core/releases/tag/v1.3.8","date":"2026-08-14T13:11:35Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.3.8"},{"url":"https://github.com/dbt-labs/dbt-core/releases/tag/v1.2.7","date":"2026-08-14T13:54:14Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.2.7"},{"url":"https://github.com/dbt-labs/dbt-core/releases/tag/v1.1.6","date":"2026-08-14T13:48:20Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.1.6"},{"url":"https://github.com/dbt-labs/dbt-core/releases/tag/v1.9.11","date":"2026-08-13T20:13:01Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.9.11"},{"url":"https://github.com/dbt-labs/dbt-core/releases/tag/v1.12.2","date":"2026-08-12T19:27:40Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.12.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/dbt-labs/dbt-core/releases/tag/v1.12.1","date":"2026-08-12T10:43:22Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.12.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/dbt-labs/dbt-core/releases/tag/v1.11.13","date":"2026-08-12T15:48:56Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.11.13"},{"url":"https://github.com/dbt-labs/dbt-core/releases/tag/v1.10.23","date":"2026-08-12T16:28:10Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.10.23"},{"url":"https://github.com/dbt-labs/dbt-core/releases/tag/v2.0.0-beta.1","date":"2026-08-10T15:35:44Z","type":"prerelease","version":"v2.0.0-beta.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/dbt-labs/dbt-core/releases/tag/v2.0.0-alpha.5","date":"2026-07-20T10:03:00Z","type":"prerelease","version":"v2.0.0-alpha.5"},{"url":"https://github.com/dbt-labs/dbt-core/releases/tag/v1.12.0","date":"2026-07-16T13:56:39Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.12.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/dbt-labs/dbt-core/releases/tag/v1.12.0rc3","date":"2026-07-14T22:48:06Z","type":"prerelease","version":"v1.12.0rc3"}]` | - |
| reliability.status_page | yes | yes |
| security.gdpr | yes | yes |
| security.hipaa | - | yes |
| security.iso27001 | yes | yes |
| security.scorecard | 6 | - |
| security.soc2 | - | yes |
| security.vulnerabilities | `{"count":4,"source":"https://advisories.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/advisories?ecosystem=pypi&package_name=dbt-core&per_page=100","last_12m":0,"max_severity":"HIGH"}` | - |

## Capabilities (Data Engineering Tools)

| Capability | dbt Core | Hightouch |
|---|:--:|:--:|
| **Core** |  |  |
| Tool role | Transformation | Reverse-ETL |
| Processing paradigm | Batch | Batch + streaming |
| **Connectivity** |  |  |
| Connector count | 6+ named integrations with broader ecosystem | 300+ |
| 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 2026-09-01T14:44:03.948Z. "-" = undocumented, not absent.*