head to head · open source
dbt vs roapi
dbt has 13,880 GitHub stars, 2,570 forks, 1,534 open issues and last shipped yesterday. roapi has 3,434 stars, 209 forks, 66 open issues and last shipped 6 months ago. dbt leads on adoption by 304% (13,880 vs 3,434 stars). dbt is written in Rust under Apache-2.0; roapi is written in Rust under Apache-2.0. dbt has attracted 19% as many forks as stars, roapi 6%. 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 | roapi | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 14K | ★ 3.4K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Rust | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-09-20 | 2026-03-25 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.6K | ⑂ 209 |
| 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 roapi if
- You want the roapi feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You evaluated both and roapi 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 roapi
ROAPI is a Rust based, Apache 2.0 licensed server that turns static and slowly changing datasets into read only SQL, FlightSQL, GraphQL and REST APIs without requiring a single line of application code, and it is built for data engineers, analysts and developers who need to publish Parquet, CSV, JSON or database tables as queryable endpoints quickly.
read the full roapi overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is dbt or roapi more popular?
dbt has 13,880 GitHub stars and roapi has 3,434. dbt has the larger community by that measure.
Are dbt and roapi free?
Both are open source. dbt is licensed under Apache-2.0 and roapi under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between dbt and roapi?
dbt is written in Rust and roapi in Rust. 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 roapi?
Choose dbt if you want the larger community (13,880 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose roapi if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.