head to head · open source
dbt vs preswald
dbt has 13,880 GitHub stars, 2,570 forks, 1,534 open issues and last shipped today. preswald has 4,269 stars, 646 forks, 330 open issues and last shipped 3 months ago. dbt leads on adoption by 225% (13,880 vs 4,269 stars). dbt is written in Rust under Apache-2.0; preswald is written in Python under Apache-2.0. dbt has attracted 19% as many forks as stars, preswald 15%. 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 | preswald | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 14K | ★ 4.3K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Rust | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-20 | 2026-06-11 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.6K | ⑂ 646 |
| 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 preswald if
- You want the preswald feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and preswald 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 preswald
Preswald is an Apache 2.0 Python static site generator that packages interactive data apps — compute, data access, and UI — into self contained .html files that run entirely in the browser on a WebAssembly runtime built from Pyodide and DuckDB, aimed at analysts, data engineers, and developers who need to hand a working dashboard, report, or inspection tool to someone who will not install anything.
read the full preswald overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is dbt or preswald more popular?
dbt has 13,880 GitHub stars and preswald has 4,269. dbt has the larger community by that measure.
Are dbt and preswald free?
Both are open source. dbt is licensed under Apache-2.0 and preswald under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between dbt and preswald?
dbt is written in Rust and preswald in Python. 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 preswald?
Choose dbt if you want the larger community (13,880 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose preswald if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.