head to head · open source
Airbyte vs pudl
Airbyte has 22,303 GitHub stars, 5,431 forks, 2,395 open issues and last shipped yesterday. pudl has 613 stars, 151 forks, 502 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Airbyte leads on adoption by 3,538% (22,303 vs 613 stars). Airbyte is written in Python under a custom or non-standard licence; pudl is written in Python under MIT. Airbyte has attracted 24% as many forks as stars, pudl 25%. pudl was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (etl), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
← all 20902 open source comparisons
Side by side
| Airbyte | pudl | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 22K | ★ 613 |
| License | Custom / other | MIT |
| Written in | Python | Python |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.4K | ⑂ 151 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Airbyte if
- You weight community size — 22K stars and counting
- You want the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick pudl if
- You want the pudl feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and pudl fits your workflow better
About Airbyte
Open source data movement for ELT pipelines and AI agents — from APIs, databases & files to warehouses, lakes, and AI applications We believe that only an open source solution to data movement can cover the long tail of data sources while empowering data engineers to customize existing connectors. Our ultimate vision is to help you move data from any source to any destination — whether that destination is a data warehouse, a data lake, or an AI agent. Airbyte provides a catalog of 600+ connectors for APIs, databases, data warehouses, data lakes, and AI applications. Screenshot taken from Airbyte Cloud . Pick the…
read the full Airbyte overview →
About pudl
=============================================================================== The Public Utility Data Liberation Project (PUDL) =============================================================================== .. readme intro .. repo status image:: :target: :alt: Project Status: Active .. pytest image:: :target: :alt: PyTest Status .. codecov image:: :target: :alt: Codecov Test Coverage .. docs image:: :target: :alt: Docs Build Status .. oc image:: :target: .. pre commit ci image:: :target: :alt: pre commit CI .. zenodo doi image:: :target: :alt: Zenodo DOI .. office hours image:: :target: :alt: Schedule a 1 on…
More in Data & Analytics
Related comparisons
More Data Engineering & Integration projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the Data Engineering & Integration field.
Frequently asked questions
Is Airbyte or pudl more popular?
Airbyte has 22,303 GitHub stars and pudl has 613. Airbyte has the larger community by that measure.
Are Airbyte and pudl free?
Both are open source. Airbyte has no licence declared in this registry, and pudl is licensed under MIT. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Airbyte and pudl?
Airbyte is written in Python and pudl in Python. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Airbyte or pudl?
Choose Airbyte if you want the larger community (22,303 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose pudl if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.