Zapier vs dbt comparison

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dbt

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 11, 2025

Zapier and dbt operate within the automation and data transformation category, respectively, with each catering to unique business objectives. Despite Zapier's competitive pricing and ease of integration, dbt's robust feature set gives it a distinct advantage for companies prioritizing comprehensive data transformation.

Features: Zapier connects numerous applications, enabling automation of workflows without coding, simplifying tasks across business systems. Its drag-and-drop interface suits non-technical users. Conversely, dbt specializes in data transformations, offers deep data warehouse integration, and utilizes SQL for customization. Its built-in lineage and Jinja templating facilitate complex analytics workflows.

Room for Improvement: Zapier could enhance its advanced features to compete with more complex solutions and expand on customization capabilities for automation beyond basic workflows. Improved support for more technical users could enhance its value. dbt, while powerful, requires expertise in SQL, which can be a barrier for non-technical users. Simplifying the setup process or offering more intuitive user guidance would make it more accessible. Expanding integrations beyond data warehouses could also broaden its appeal.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Zapier is straightforward to deploy with minimal technical expertise required, making it accessible for non-technical teams. Its customer service is focused on rapid troubleshooting. On the other hand, dbt requires a more technical deployment environment, including SQL and data warehousing skills, but offers detailed customization and supports complex configurations through its knowledgeable support team.

Pricing and ROI: Zapier's scalable pricing is suitable for businesses of all sizes, offering quick returns by automating repetitive tasks. It balances cost with efficiency, making it attractive for budget-conscious companies. dbt, while involving higher initial setup costs, delivers significant ROI for firms needing extensive data transformation capabilities, justifying the investment for data-intensive operations.

To learn more, read our detailed Zapier vs. dbt Report (Updated: February 2026).

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Zapier vs. dbt

February 2026

Helped 881,733 peers since 2012

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

dbt

Ranking in Data Integration

18th

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

7.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Data Quality (8th)

Zapier

Ranking in Data Integration

24th

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

6.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Cloud Data Integration (14th), Business Orchestration and Automation Technologies (18th), AI Software Development (17th)

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2026, in the Data Integration category, the mindshare of dbt is 1.7%, up from 0.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Zapier is 0.8%, up from 0.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Data Integration Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
dbt	1.7%
Zapier	0.8%
Other	97.5%

Data Integration

Featured Reviews

reviewer2780388

Senior Data Engineer at a pharma/biotech company with 10,001+ employees

Streamlined Data engineering and built-in lineages

The best features of dbt include lineage and Jinja templating languages that make it easy for creating pipelines. The built-in lineage feature provides a good understanding of the several layers where data is being loaded in dbt, allowing visibility from different layers into the end product. dbt has positively impacted version controlling as it has different version control steps involved. The specific improvements seen with version control in dbt are that it has helped trace the data lineage, enabled faster trace and rollbacks, and enabled safe collaboration at every scale, which has improved data quality. A return on investment has been seen from using dbt as the time has reduced while utilizing dbt in the form of data pipelines and ETL scripting. There is operational efficiency achieved, and data quality and governance have also been achieved with modular SQL and version controlling, which reduced duplication of data and data errors.

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René Ludwigs

Product Owner | Integration

Diverse integration options support workflow automation while pricing and support need improvements

You can build similar or dependent automations in one Zap, which helps with understanding the process without switching between different records. I would appreciate quicker response times and more direct interactions. It would be great to have a direct contact person for support, but bigger companies usually have solution partners handling support. I do not have a solution partner for Zapier due to using it for small use cases.

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Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"There is operational efficiency achieved, and data quality and governance have also been achieved with modular SQL and version controlling, which reduced duplication of data and data errors."

"Since we migrated from SSIS to dbt model architecture, it takes around four hours only to complete a full refresh, and the client is now happy because our downtime was drastically reduced when we perform a complete refresh of the data."

"dbt has positively impacted my organization by allowing us to create our data pipelines much faster, going from ingestion of data to creating a data product in weeks instead of months, and we can do it in-house with the skillset we already have."

"The product is developer-friendly."

"The most valuable aspect of this solution is that it is very intuitive and has a very flat learning curve."

"The main thing I appreciate about Zapier is that it has maximum availability of apps, with most tools being available compared to different solutions."

"The product's most valuable feature is automation."

"The product's initial setup phase was very easy."

"The solution is a SaaS and does not require a complex setup."

"The connection between Facebook lead forms and MailChimp integrations is the most valuable feature."

"The most valuable aspect is the ability to integrate with over 20,000 applications, which is a superior feature compared to Make.com that has limited applications access."

"We find it effortless to set up. We really don't have to do anything other than finding the application in the Zapier catalog. And as long as the application has been re-integrated into Zapier, they're able to then just provide the connection details and hook it up."

More Zapier pros

Cons

"dbt can be improved as I find the co-pilot in dbt is not very good, and my team has tried using it but opted to move off it and use other co-pilots such as GitHub."

"The solution must add more Python-based implementations."

"Dbt is not as stable as preferred, as it has had a few outages in the current year itself, so improvement should be made in the outages section as it is not stable."

"Since dbt has a license cost, if a company is small and does not have much budget, they can explore other tools because there are other tools that provide the same functionality at a lower cost."

"Zapier could be a little faster, but that might not be possible. I would encourage Zapier to make more API endpoints for each application"

"Some apps are not available yet. For instance, a connection with Joomla! would be great. In general, all the most-used apps are available, but I bumped into Joomla! with a client."

"At the moment, they allow a limited number of apps. I look forward to getting more apps for each package."

"The solution does not work properly when we apply filters and we get errors."

"After mapping them out, and they'd worked for a while, I've had Zapier fail."

"One issue I experienced was that when Zapier did not automate or threw an error, the error was not user-friendly."

"Zapier needs more YouTube or video tutorials or more training for people. That would help a lot. In particular, Zapier should have documentation for every connector. Its documentation needs to be more detailed and visual."

"The pricing could be a little cheaper."

More Zapier cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution’s pricing is affordable."

"It's very straightforward licensing. There's only one cost you have to pay, and if you want a relevant pricing plan, I think you have two or three different models or packages which include the number of notifications or Zaps, as they call it, that you can program."

"It's very affordable."

"The price of Zapier is approximately $75 monthly."

"Zapier is a paid service. Its license renews monthly, and Zapier will downgrade your subscription to the free version when your credit card doesn't have funds. That significantly impacts your service because everything halts completely. Zapier doesn't have any hidden costs."

"The least expensive plan is $24 a month, and you can go all the way to $800 a month if you're a huge company using many tasks."

"There is a free plan that is, of course, limited. However, it allows you to understand and check true scenarios for a while."

"Think your Zaps through to make sure you don't use more Zaps than you need."

"Zapier's price is good."

More Zapier pricing and cost advice

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Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Data Integration solutions are best for your needs.

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881,733 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

14%

Insurance Company

Computer Software Company

Manufacturing Company

University

11%

Financial Services Firm

Retailer

Computer Software Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	30
Midsize Enterprise	10
Large Enterprise	7

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for dbt?

The pricing, setup cost, and licensing cost are managed by our infrastructure teams. As data engineers, we are not familiar with these details. I need to check with my infrastructure team on whethe...

What needs improvement with dbt?

I am not very familiar with dbt's version control system. I cannot identify any improvements in dbt because I am still exploring more functionality. I have been working with dbt for only three year...

What is your primary use case for dbt?

I am currently working with dbt and Snowflake together. We use dbt for data transformation purposes. We obtain the data and store the raw data directly into Snowflake, then perform all transformati...

What do you like most about Zapier?

The product's most valuable feature is automation.

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Zapier?

The pricing is in accordance with market standards and even lower in some cases. The license setup cost is reasonable.

What needs improvement with Zapier?

In my opinion, what could be improved in Zapier is its UI, which operates as a one-line system. Compared to Make.com and other tools that have a drag-and-drop system, this is lacking. If the scenar...

Oracle Data Integrator (ODI) vs dbt

Comparisons

SSIS vs dbt

Compared 19% of the time

Compared 9% of the time

Informatica Intelligent Data Management Cloud (IDMC) vs dbt

Compared 7% of the time

Informatica PowerCenter vs dbt

Compared 7% of the time

Tobiko vs dbt

Compared 6% of the time

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Compared 7% of the time

Workato vs Zapier

Compared 6% of the time

Matillion Data Productivity Cloud vs Zapier

Compared 6% of the time

Coefficient vs Zapier

Compared 5% of the time

Boomi iPaaS vs Zapier

Compared 5% of the time

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Product Reports

Download dbt product report

dbt

February 2026

Download Zapier product report

January 2026

Overview

dbt is a transformational tool that empowers data teams to quickly build trusted data models, providing a shared language for analysts and engineering teams. Its flexibility and robust feature set make it a popular choice for modern data teams seeking efficiency.

Designed to integrate seamlessly with the data warehouse, dbt enables analytics engineers to transform raw data into reliable datasets for analysis. Its SQL-centric approach reduces the learning curve for users familiar with it, allowing powerful transformations and data modeling without needing a custom backend. While widely beneficial, dbt could improve in areas like version management and support for complex transformations out of the box.

What are the most valuable features of dbt?

SQL-Based Development: Facilitates transformations using SQL, streamlining the data modeling process.
Modularity: Encourages reusable components, making projects easier to manage and scale.
Version Control: Integrates with version control systems to track changes and collaborate effectively.
Testing Framework: Ensures data quality through automated tests, increasing trust in data outputs.

What benefits should you expect from using dbt?

Efficiency: Cuts down data processing times, allowing faster access to insights.
Collaboration: Promotes teamwork through shared data models and a common working language.
Scalability: Supports growing data demands by transforming complex data more flexibly and modularly.
Transparency: Provides clear documentation and lineage tracking, aiding in troubleshooting and understanding.

In the finance industry, dbt helps in cleansing and preparing transactional data for analysis, leading to more accurate financial reporting. In e-commerce, it empowers teams to rapidly integrate and analyze customer behavior data, optimizing marketing strategies and improving user experience.

dbt Labs

Zapier connects thousands of apps, enabling seamless automation without coding. It supports webhooks, multi-step tasks, and a wide array of integrations. Despite needing enhancements in Google Sheets capabilities, API limits, and UI, it remains a tool for boosting productivity across many sectors.

By linking tools such as Google Sheets, HubSpot, Slack, and Salesforce, Zapier allows users to automate workflows without coding expertise. Its integrations serve logistics operations, CRM, and social media management. Users can process tracking exceptions and streamline operations with third-party software like QuickBooks, Zoho, and Power BI. Although users suggest features like better Google Sheets handling and improved collaboration tools, Zapier continues to provide expansive automation, enhancing efficiency and facilitating new opportunities through integrations.

What Features Stand Out in Zapier?

App Connectivity: Integrates thousands of tools, simplifying task automation.
Ease of Use: No coding needed to set up integrations.
Webhooks: Offers real-time data transfer between applications.
Multi-step Zaps: Allows complex workflows across various apps.
Comprehensive Library: Extensive list of app integrations for users.

What Benefits Should You Expect?

Increased Productivity: Facilitates seamless automation of tasks.
Efficiency Improvement: Streamlines processes across multiple tools.
Business Agility: Supports varied workflows to meet specific needs.
Integration Flexibility: Connects a wide range of popular applications.
Simple Automation: Users automate processes without technical skills.

In logistics, Zapier enhances operations by automating exception tracking and third-party software integration. Its use in CRM and social media streamlines lead creation and workflow automation. Users from diverse industries leverage its extensive connectivity to support intelligence management, generate analytical insights, and execute cross-functional tasks efficiently.

Sample Customers

Information Not Available

BuzzFeed, Groupon, Spotify, Columbia University, FOX