head to head · open source
dbt vs duckdb-wasm
dbt has 13,880 GitHub stars, 2,570 forks, 1,534 open issues and last shipped today. duckdb-wasm has 2,121 stars, 227 forks, 189 open issues and last shipped 2 months ago. dbt leads on adoption by 554% (13,880 vs 2,121 stars). dbt is written in Rust under Apache-2.0; duckdb-wasm is written in C++ under MIT. dbt has attracted 19% as many forks as stars, duckdb-wasm 11%. dbt was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (analytics), 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.
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Side by side
| dbt | duckdb-wasm | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 14K | ★ 2.1K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Rust | C++ |
| Last push | 2026-09-20 | 2026-07-28 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.6K | ⑂ 227 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick dbt if
- You weight community size — 14K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick duckdb-wasm if
- You want the duckdb-wasm feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches C++
- You evaluated both and duckdb-wasm fits your workflow better
About dbt
dbt is an open source data transformation framework that lets data analysts and engineers transform their data using the same practices software engineers use to build applications, and it is aimed at analytics teams that model data inside a warehouse.
About duckdb-wasm
DuckDB Wasm is the WebAssembly build of DuckDB, an in process SQL OLAP database management system, that runs analytical SQL queries entirely inside a web browser or a Node.js process — built for front end developers and data engineers who want full OLAP query power on data that already sits on the client, without standing up a server.
read the full duckdb-wasm overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is dbt or duckdb-wasm more popular?
dbt has 13,880 GitHub stars and duckdb-wasm has 2,121. dbt has the larger community by that measure.
Are dbt and duckdb-wasm free?
Both are open source. dbt is licensed under Apache-2.0 and duckdb-wasm under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between dbt and duckdb-wasm?
dbt is written in Rust and duckdb-wasm in C++. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, dbt or duckdb-wasm?
Choose dbt if you want the larger community (13,880 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose duckdb-wasm if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.