Our take
Pick dbt if analytics engineers who will stay on Developer Free (1 seat, 3,000 models / month, 1 project) while they open a first Explorer graph, then buy Starter at $100 / user / month when they want Catalog lineage and the Semantic Layer. Pick Lightdash if analytics teams who already own dbt and will self-host at $0, or buy Cloud Pro at $3,000/month after the 21-day trial — and will not treat embedding as the core
dbt-native BI desk
Best for
dbt Models, jobs, and lineage you start at $0
Lightdash Charts on your dbt semantic layer you start at $0 or $3,000
Free plan
dbt $0 · for the open-source CLI. You run the warehouse and the scheduler
Lightdash $0 · core BI. Unlimited seats. Community Slack only. Access to Lightdash OSS only
Lowest paid
dbt Not published by the vendor
Lightdash Cloud Pro $3/mo
Next step up
dbt
Lightdash HIPAA BAA $490/mo
Runs where
dbt Local or hosted
Lightdash Local; you host it
Watch out
dbt Developer Free is 1 seat, 1 project, 3,000 models / month
Lightdash Cloud Pro is $3,000/month
Last checked
dbt 2026-10-23 · getdbt.com/pricing
Lightdash 2026-10-23 · lightdash.com/pricing
analytics engineers who will stay on Developer Free (1 seat, 3,000 models / month, 1 project) while they open a first Explorer graph, then buy Starter at $100 / user / month when they want Catalog lineage and the Semantic Layer.
Read the dbt pageanalytics teams who already own dbt and will self-host at $0, or buy Cloud Pro at $3,000/month after the 21-day trial — and will not treat embedding as the core product.
Read the Lightdash page