head to head · open source
dbt vs duckdb-wasm
dbt has 14,118 GitHub stars, 2,661 forks, 1,534 open issues and last shipped yesterday. duckdb-wasm has 2,162 stars, 240 forks, 189 open issues and last shipped yesterday. dbt leads on adoption by 553% (14,118 vs 2,162 stars). dbt is written in Rust under Apache-2.0; duckdb-wasm is written in TypeScript 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 | ★ 2.2K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Rust | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-04 | 2026-11-04 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.7K | ⑂ 240 |
| 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 TypeScript
- You evaluated both and duckdb-wasm fits your workflow better
About dbt
[!WARNING] dbt v1 development has moved to the 1.latest branch. The main branch now contains all the Apache 2.0 source code of dbt v2.0 — a ground up rewrite of dbt in Rust. If you're looking for the v1 Python implementation of the dbt framework, switch to 1.latest . dbt enables data analysts and engineers to transform their data using the same practices that software engineers use to build applications. About dbt v2.0 🚧 dbt v2.0 is in beta. Behavior, APIs, and on disk formats may change before the stable release. dbt v2.0 is engineered for performance at scale. It parses, compiles, and runs projects in a…
About duckdb-wasm
DuckDB Wasm DuckDB is an in process SQL OLAP Database Management System. DuckDB Wasm brings DuckDB to every browser thanks to WebAssembly. Duckdb Wasm speaks Arrow fluently, reads Parquet, CSV and JSON files backed by Filesystem APIs or HTTP requests and has been tested with Chrome, Firefox, Safari and Node.js. Learn more about DuckDB Wasm from our VLDB publication or the recorded talk. Try it out at shell.duckdb.org or at duckdb.org/visualizer. External third party embedding of DuckDB Wasm, read the API documentation, check out the web app examples, and chat with us on Discord. DuckDB and DuckDB Wasm DuckDB…
read the full duckdb-wasm overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is dbt or duckdb-wasm more popular?
dbt has 14,118 GitHub stars and duckdb-wasm has 2,162. 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 TypeScript. 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 (14,118 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.