What is dbt?
dbt (data build tool) lets analytics engineers transform data already loaded into a warehouse using SQL, with version control, automated testing and auto-generated documentation applied like software engineering practice. It grew out of Fishtown Analytics, founded in 2016 by Tristan Handy, Drew Banin and Connor McArthur, which renamed to dbt Labs in 2021; the company is headquartered in Philadelphia and merged with Fivetran in 2026. dbt Core (the CLI) is free and open source under Apache 2.0; dbt Cloud is the paid managed platform.
Read the full overview
Sources checked 27 September 2026: official website, documentation, GitHub repository.
Key capabilities
- SQL models with tests: Version-controlled transformations with built-in and custom data tests (dbt Core, free).
- dbt Cloud: Managed job scheduling, lineage graphs and a semantic layer (paid).
- Warehouse adapters: Snowflake, BigQuery, Databricks, Redshift, Postgres and more.
Analytics engineering and SQL-based data transformation are the primary use cases.
Shortlist dbt when your team does warehouse-first (ELT) transformations and wants SQL models under version control with tests and lineage. Compare self-hosted dbt Core (run via your own orchestrator) against paying for dbt Cloud's scheduling, hosted docs and semantic layer.
Confirm the warehouse adapter you need is fully supported, and decide whether self-hosted orchestration of dbt Core meets your needs before paying for dbt Cloud.
Technical details
- Access
- Self-hosted
- Source model
- Open source
- Founded
- 2016
- Headquarters
- Philadelphia, USA
- Pricing model
- Freemium
- API
- Not specified
- Website
- www.getdbt.com ↗
Official resources
What to verify for your environment
Start from the users, systems and operating responsibilities the tool needs to support.
- Confirm current features, licensing and support terms with the publisher.
- Validate deployment, data location, access control, backup and recovery requirements.
- Test integrations, export paths and a representative operational workflow before committing.
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