head to head · open source
dbt vs trino
dbt has 13,880 GitHub stars, 2,570 forks, 1,534 open issues and last shipped today. trino has 13,257 stars, 3,779 forks, 2,764 open issues and last shipped today. dbt leads on adoption by 5% (13,880 vs 13,257 stars). dbt is written in Rust under Apache-2.0; trino is written in Java under Apache-2.0. dbt has attracted 19% as many forks as stars, trino 29%. trino 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 | trino | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 14K | ★ 13K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Rust | Java |
| Last push | 2026-09-20 | 2026-09-20 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.6K | ⑂ 3.8K |
| 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 trino if
- You want the trino 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 trino 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 trino
Trino is a distributed SQL query engine for big data analytics, published as the official Apache 2.0 licensed Java repository of the project formerly known as PrestoSQL, and it is aimed at teams that need to query data spread across Hadoop, Hive, Iceberg, Delta Lake and other large scale sources through a single SQL interface.
read the full trino overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is dbt or trino more popular?
dbt has 13,880 GitHub stars and trino has 13,257. dbt has the larger community by that measure.
Are dbt and trino free?
Both are open source. dbt is licensed under Apache-2.0 and trino under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between dbt and trino?
dbt is written in Rust and trino 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 trino?
Choose dbt if you want the larger community (13,880 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose trino if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.