dbt Labs vs Starburst Pricing (2026)
How do these two stack up on price? Here's what each one costs, what you get, and where the value sits.
Developer
- Browser-based IDE
- Multi-factor authentication (MFA)
- Job scheduling
- Keep on the latest dbt release
Starter
- dbt Wizard
- dbt Catalog basic
- dbt Semantic Layer basic
- API access
Enterprise
- dbt Catalog advanced
- dbt Semantic Layer advanced
- dbt Copilot advanced
- dbt Canvas
- dbt Insights
- dbt Mesh
Enterprise+
- PrivateLink
- IP Restrictions
- Rollback
- Hybrid projects
Free
- Create and run up to 3 clusters
- Access to standard cluster execution mode for ad hoc queries
Pro
- Flexible cluster execution modes
- Streaming Ingest
- Advanced cluster management
Enterprise
Popular- Advanced autoscaling features
- Fine-grained access controls (ABAC, SCIM)
- AWS PrivateLink for data sources
- Early access to features (Private Preview)
- AIDA (token usage billed separately)
Mission-Critical
- Elite support and ticketing
- Advanced governance integrations
- Lakehouse security and compliance tools
- Highest uptime guarantees
- AIDA (token usage billed separately)
dbt Labs vs Starburst 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?
- Both offer free plans, so you can try each without paying. Start with whichever fits your workflow better and upgrade when you hit the limits.
- How do they charge?
- Different approach here. dbt Labs uses hybrid pricing, while Starburst goes with usage-based. That changes the math depending on your team size and usage.
- Which one is a better deal?
- Depends on what you need. dbt Labs: At $100/user/month, Starter isn't cheap for what's essentially a small-team tier — it signals dbt Labs is positioning as the premium standard in the analytics engineering space rather than competing on price. They're betting that teams already sold on dbt as a category (versus building it themselves) will pay up rather than shop around. Starburst: Starburst plays in the premium end of the query-engine and data-lake analytics space, going after enterprises already committed to a multi-cloud or lakehouse strategy rather than budget-conscious startups. They're competing with the likes of Trino-as-a-service alternatives and Databricks/Snowflake on capability, not on being the cheap option.
Still deciding? See the best dbt Labs alternatives or the best Starburst alternatives, ranked with verified pricing.
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