head to head · open source
dbt vs mailcheap
dbt has 14,020 GitHub stars, 2,622 forks, 1,534 open issues and last shipped today. mailcheap has 933 stars, 233 forks, 8 open issues and last shipped today. dbt leads on adoption by 1,403% (14,020 vs 933 stars). dbt is written in Rust under Apache-2.0; mailcheap is written in JavaScript under AGPL-3.0. dbt has attracted 19% as many forks as stars, mailcheap 25%. mailcheap was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
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 | mailcheap | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 14K | ★ 933 |
| License | Apache-2.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Rust | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-10-15 | 2026-10-15 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.6K | ⑂ 233 |
| 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 mailcheap if
- You want the mailcheap feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and mailcheap 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 mailcheap
MailCheap is an open source newsletter application in JavaScript — dashboard, public archive, REST API and MCP server in one Next.js app — for writers, teams and agent builders who want to keep their subscriber list in their own database and pay a sending provider per email instead of paying a platform per subscriber.
read the full mailcheap overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is dbt or mailcheap more popular?
dbt has 14,020 GitHub stars and mailcheap has 933. dbt has the larger community by that measure.
Are dbt and mailcheap free?
Both are open source. dbt is licensed under Apache-2.0 and mailcheap under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between dbt and mailcheap?
dbt is written in Rust and mailcheap in JavaScript. 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 mailcheap?
Choose dbt if you want the larger community (14,020 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose mailcheap if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.