head to head · open source
duckdb vs dbt
duckdb has 41,440 GitHub stars, 3,798 forks, 858 open issues and last shipped yesterday. dbt has 13,851 stars, 2,567 forks, 1,534 open issues and last shipped yesterday. duckdb leads on adoption by 199% (41,440 vs 13,851 stars). duckdb is written in C++ under MIT; dbt is written in Rust under Apache-2.0. duckdb has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, dbt 19%. duckdb 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.
← all 8884 open source comparisons
Side by side
| duckdb | dbt | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 41K | ★ 14K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | C++ | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.8K | ⑂ 2.6K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick duckdb if
- You weight community size — 41K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches C++
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick dbt if
- You want the dbt 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 dbt fits your workflow better
About duckdb
DuckDB is an analytical, in process SQL database management system written in C++ and released under the MIT license. It runs inside the application process rather than as a separate server, and it is distributed as a standalone command line application as well as through clients for Python, R, Java, and WebAssembly. The project lives in the analytical SQL ecosystem, where the topics listed for it are analytics, database, embedded database, OLAP, and SQL. It has been developed for about eight years, with the last push recorded on 15 September 2026.
read the full duckdb overview →
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.
More in Business Software
Related comparisons
More Marketing & Customer Engagement projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the Marketing & Customer Engagement field.
Frequently asked questions
Is duckdb or dbt more popular?
duckdb has 41,440 GitHub stars and dbt has 13,851. duckdb has the larger community by that measure.
Are duckdb and dbt free?
Both are open source. duckdb is licensed under MIT and dbt under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between duckdb and dbt?
duckdb is written in C++ and dbt 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, duckdb or dbt?
Choose duckdb if you want the larger community (41,440 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose dbt if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.