Census vs Dagster Pricing (2026)

How do these two stack up on price? Here's what each one costs, what you get, and where the value sits.

Census pricing Dagster pricing
Starts at Custom $10/mo
Number of plans 4 3
Free plan —
Free trial
Pricing model usage-based hybrid

Price is one row. To weigh the features too, use our feature comparison template →

Census pricing

Official page

Free

$0/mo
  • 500,000 monthly active rows (MAR) for connections
  • 3,500 monthly active rows (MAR) for activations
  • 5,000 monthly model runs (MMR) for transformations

Standard

Popular
Custom
  • Unlimited users
  • 15-minute syncs
  • 700+ fully managed connectors
  • 200+ fully managed activation destinations
  • Integration for dbt Core
  • Role-based access control
  • Access to Fivetran REST API
  • Access to SSH tunnels for encryption

Enterprise

Custom
  • 1-minute syncs
  • Fivetran Activations' Audience Hub
  • Enterprise database connectors
  • Custom roles
  • VPN tunnels (annual contract only)
  • SCIM/user provisioning
  • Pick any cloud provider (GCP, AWS, Azure)
  • Hybrid deployment option

Business Critical

Custom
  • Customer-managed keys for encryption
  • PCI DSS Level 1 certification
  • Private networking options

Dagster pricing

Official page

Solo Plan

$10/mo
  • Pay-as-you-go $0.040/credit
  • Serverless compute $0.010/minute
  • 1 User
  • 1 Code location
  • 1 Deployment
  • 30-day free trial

Starter Plan

Popular
$100/mo
  • Pay-as-you-go $0.035/credit
  • Serverless compute $0.010/minute
  • Up to 3 Users
  • 5 Code locations
  • 1 Deployment
  • Catalog Search
  • 30-day free trial

Pro Plan

Custom
  • Custom Serverless compute
  • Unlimited code locations
  • Unlimited deployments
  • Cost Tracking and Insights
  • Personalized Onboarding Support
  • Private Slack channel
  • Uptime SLAs
  • Custom Security Questionnaires

Census vs Dagster FAQ

Which one is cheaper?
One or both use custom pricing, so it depends on your specific needs.
Can I use either one for free?
Census has a free plan. Dagster doesn't — though they do offer a free trial.
How do they charge?
Different approach here. Census uses usage-based pricing, while Dagster goes with hybrid. That changes the math depending on your team size and usage.
Which one is a better deal?
Depends on what you need. Census: Census plays in the middle-to-premium band of the reverse ETL space, priced to compete with Hightouch rather than DIY scripts or cheap connectors — they're betting on being the polished, enterprise-ready option rather than the budget pick. The custom-quote-everything approach signals they're chasing mid-market and enterprise data teams, not self-serve solo users. Dagster: The $10 entry point undercuts most managed orchestration options, which makes Dagster an easy credit-card trial against Airflow-hosted and Prefect-style alternatives. Mid-market and enterprise pricing is hidden behind 'Custom,' so they're cheap to start but premium at scale, aiming to win individual engineers first and expand into data platform budgets.

Still deciding? See the best Census alternatives or the best Dagster alternatives, ranked with verified pricing.

Stop checking your competitors manually.

Outmano watches your competitors' prices and features for you. See how competitor pricing monitoring works.

Try Outmano free »

14-day free trial