Your team didn't get into data
to maintain pipelines
Many nimble data teams start with self-hosting dbt. dbt platform gives you the governance, computer efficiency,
and AI readiness that self-hosted dbt can't. Let's get you ready for the AI future.
What dbt platform delivers for customers:
Move from maintenance to impact. Cut compute costs, eliminate tooling sprawl, and give every team and AI tool a data foundation you trust.
Reduction in dbt-related compute spend
Fewer data quality incidents
hours per week of time reclaimed by engineering teams
Where are you in the dbt journey?
Most teams hit the same wall as their models and teams grow. Here’s what that looks like — and what comes next.
Starter
Team: 1-3 builders
Models: 10-50
Operating Mode: Self-hosted dbt Core works great.
Growing
Team: 4-10 contributors
Models: 50-200
Operating Mode: More jobs, more dependencies.
Scaling pain
Team: 10+ teams blocked
Models: 200+
Operating Mode: Fragile, orchestration + Custom CI + tool sprawl.
- Breaks and regressions
- Costs spike
- Slow releases
- Trust gaps
dbt platform
Team: Many teams self-serve
Models: Shared + resused
Operating Model: Optimized, governed and trusted
- Fully managed
- Cost optimization
- Governed self-service
- AI-ready foundation
Managing tools, not outcomes
- Fridays spent triaging pipeline failures before weekend stakeholder reviews
- No clear picture of which teams are blocked or why data is late
- Headcount requests driven by maintenance load, no product work
- Hard to answer “can we trust this number?” in a board meeting
Leading with confidence
- One view of pipeline health across all teams — issues caught before they surface
- Engineers spending time on new data products, not keeping the lights on
- Shared metric definitions mean every team is working from the same truth
- AI initiatives have a governed foundation — not a data quality liability
Real outcomes from real data teams
From cutting compute costs to powering AI initiatives, data teams across every industry are moving faster on dbt platform.
Read Sweetgreen's storyBy leveraging AI and the dbt Semantic Layer, self-service analysis has become a 30-minute job, compared to the old process of reaching out to the data team and waiting two weeks for the bandwidth to get an answer.
Sankalp Vatsh, Analytics Lead
Read HubSpot's storyWe think empowering analysts to own their tools is the only way to build a productive analytics team at scale. dbt makes it easier to do data modeling the right way, and harder to do it the wrong way.
James Densmore, Director of Data Infrastructure
Read Bilt Rewards 's story10x faster
implementation delivering cost savings in hours instead of months
Read Whoop's storyAccess to accurate data is critical, it allows us to improve the customer experience and increase retention, lifetime value, and profitability.
Matt Luizzi, Senior Director of Analytics for WHOOP
Trusted by 5,700+ organizations including:
Self-hosting dbt vs dbt platform
A closer look at what’s included with self-hosting dbt vs. dbt platform.
Build data transformations
| self-hosted dbt | dbt platform | |
|---|---|---|
SQL-first transformations | ||
Built-in testing | ||
Documentation | ||
CLI support | ||
Instant SQL validation & IntelliSense | via dbt VS Code extension, up to 15 users | |
CTE preview & compiled SQL view | via dbt VS Code extension, up to 15 users | |
Column-Aware refactors & go-to-definition | via dbt VS Code extension, up to 15 users | |
dbt Studio IDE | ||
dbt Canvas | ||
dbt Dev Agents (Beta) |
Reduce data platform costs & overhead
| self-hosted dbt | dbt platform | |
|---|---|---|
State-aware job orchestration (Preview) | ||
Defer to production | ||
Efficient Testing & Column-Aware CI (Preview) | ||
Cost Insights (Beta) | ||
Cloud-native (Fully-managed infrastructure) | ||
Automatic dbt version upgrades |
Scale with governed collaboration
| self-hosted dbt | dbt platform | |
|---|---|---|
AI-powered development | ||
dbt Catalog | ||
Column-level lineage & impact analysis | ||
Fusion-powered Catalog & Scheduler metadata | ||
dbt Mesh | ||
Continuous Integration (CI) | ||
Native job orchestration | ||
Logging and alerting | ||
Automated version control |
Enable trusted AI and analytics
| self-hosted dbt | dbt platform | |
|---|---|---|
dbt Semantic Layer | dbt CLI tool only, limited to individual development | |
dbt MCP Server tools | MetricFlow open source | MCP tools for discovery, querying, the semantic layer, admin, and more |
dbt Insights with Analyst Agent | ||
Metadata API |
Built-in security, governance and support
| self-hosted dbt | dbt platform | |
|---|---|---|
SSO | ||
SCIM User Provisioning | ||
Role-Based Access Control | ||
Private Link | ||
IP Restrictions | ||
SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001 certifications | ||
GDPR, HIPAA & PCI Compliance | Self-managed | |
Automatic audit Logging | ||
Model Contracts | ||
99.99% uptime SLA | ||
Documentation | ||
dbt Community | ||
24/5 Support & SLAs |
Ready to build on dbt, not around it?
Talk to someone who's helped teams like yours make the shift. 30 minutes. No pitch deck. Just your questions.