head to head · open source
dbt vs starrocks
dbt has 14,118 GitHub stars, 2,661 forks, 1,534 open issues and last shipped yesterday. starrocks has 12,229 stars, 2,650 forks, 1,443 open issues and last shipped yesterday. dbt leads on adoption by 15% (14,118 vs 12,229 stars). dbt is written in Rust under Apache-2.0; starrocks is written in Java under Apache-2.0. dbt has attracted 19% as many forks as stars, starrocks 22%. starrocks 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 | starrocks | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 14K | ★ 12K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Rust | Java |
| Last push | 2026-11-04 | 2026-11-04 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.7K | ⑂ 2.6K |
| 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 starrocks if
- You want the starrocks feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Java
- You evaluated both and starrocks 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 starrocks
Download Docs Benchmarks Demo StarRocks is the world's fastest open query engine for sub second, ad hoc analytics both on and off the data lakehouse. With average query performance 3x faster than other popular alternatives, StarRocks is a query engine that eliminates the need for denormalization and adapts to your use cases, without having to move your data or rewrite SQL. A Linux Foundation project. Learn more 👉🏻 What Is StarRocks: Features and Use Cases, Join StarRocks Summit 2025! Features 🚀 Native vectorized SQL engine: StarRocks adopts vectorization technology to make full use of the parallel computing…
read the full starrocks overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is dbt or starrocks more popular?
dbt has 14,118 GitHub stars and starrocks has 12,229. dbt has the larger community by that measure.
Are dbt and starrocks free?
Both are open source. dbt is licensed under Apache-2.0 and starrocks under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between dbt and starrocks?
dbt is written in Rust and starrocks in Java. 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 starrocks?
Choose dbt if you want the larger community (14,118 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose starrocks if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.