Pick Airbyte if
teams who will burn the 14-day Cloud trial (400 credits, ~100 GB) or stay on Core $0, then buy Standard at $20/month when they want hosted hourly syncs without standing up Docker.
Read the Airbyte pageAirbyte vs MotherDuck
Our take
Pick Airbyte if teams who will burn the 14-day Cloud trial (400 credits, ~100 GB) or stay on Core $0, then buy Standard at $20/month when they want hosted hourly syncs without standing up Docker. Pick MotherDuck if solo analysts who will stay on Lite $0 (10 GB + 10 Pulse hours), then buy Business at $250/org/month plus usage when they need Standard+ instances, Flights at scale, and a 99.9% SLA.
Best for
Airbyte Move data on a schedule you can self-host
MotherDuck Cloud DuckDB metered in CU-hours and GB
Free plan
Airbyte $0 · community Slack/GitHub support. You run the metal
MotherDuck $0 · no card. Up to 3 internal users and 2 service accounts. 10 GB storage and 10 Pulse hours / month included. Pulse instances only. Preset RBAC. Community support. 1-day snapshots. Lite without a card includes 30 minutes/day of F4 Flights
Lowest paid
Airbyte Standard $20/mo
MotherDuck Storage $0.04/mo
Next step up
Airbyte Plus $189/mo
MotherDuck Flights $0.15/hour
Coding agent
Airbyte
MotherDuck Flights
Runs where
Airbyte Local; you host it
MotherDuck
Watch out
Airbyte Standard is $20 plus leftover credits
MotherDuck Lite is Pulse-only
Last checked
Airbyte 2026-10-22 · airbyte.com/pricing
MotherDuck 2026-10-22 · motherduck.com/pricing
Which one, then?
Pick MotherDuck if
solo analysts who will stay on Lite $0 (10 GB + 10 Pulse hours), then buy Business at $250/org/month plus usage when they need Standard+ instances, Flights at scale, and a 99.9% SLA.
Read the MotherDuck page