dbt Labs vs Airbyte Pricing (2026)

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

Which one is cheaper?

Airbyte is the cheaper option, starting at $20/mo vs $100/mo for dbt Labs.

Can I use either one for free?

dbt Labs has a free plan. Airbyte doesn't — though they do offer a free trial.

How do they charge?

Both use a hybrid model, so the comparison is straightforward — it comes down to features and limits at each price point.

Which one is a better deal?

Depends on what you need. dbt Labs: dbt Labs isn't competing on price — the free Developer tier is a land-and-expand move, not a signal they're the budget option. They're positioning as the category-defining standard for analytics engineering, so the real competition is convincing teams to pay for orchestration and governance instead of duct-taping open-source dbt Core themselves. Airbyte: Airbyte sits cheap-to-mid at the entry tier compared to Fivetran or Stitch, using that $20 price to hook teams who'd otherwise build custom ELT scripts, then makes its real money once usage scales into Pro/Enterprise territory. They're clearly chasing the open-source-to-commercial pipeline: win developers on cost and connector breadth, then convert them as data volume grows past what self-serve pricing can handle.

Still deciding? See the best dbt Labs alternatives or the best Airbyte alternatives, ranked with verified pricing.