No more typing reviews! Try our Samantha, our new voice AI agent.

Zapier vs dbt comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 15, 2026

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
17th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
7
Ranking in other categories
Data Quality (6th)
Zapier
Ranking in Data Integration
27th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
48
Ranking in other categories
Cloud Data Integration (14th), Business Orchestration and Automation Technologies (20th), AI Software Development (16th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2026, in the Data Integration category, the mindshare of dbt is 1.7%, up from 1.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Zapier is 0.8%, up from 0.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Data Integration Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
dbt1.7%
Zapier0.8%
Other97.5%
Data Integration
 

Featured Reviews

AS
Principal Data Engineer at Integrant, Inc.
Data teams have streamlined code-driven pipelines and now collaborate faster on shared models
We are still experimenting with testing, but not that much. We are not using some features yet. We are trying to introduce them because we are coming from a background of SSIS. The team used to work with SSIS, Microsoft SQL Server Integration Services. We are still adapting one feature at a time. Currently, we are working with the SQL modules and with the Jinja templating. We are experimenting with testing, but I would say towards the end of this year, we are planning to explore more of the documentation and the data lineage options as well. I would say the benefits are coming from GUI-based tools like SSIS. We have more control on the codebase. We can create something of a system where we can use macros and templating, speeding up the development cycle. We are now trying to introduce a little testing, and also we are using some sort of a CI/CD cycle, so continuous integration and continuous deployment. I do not believe that these kinds of features are that common as a package as a whole package. dbt excels in that area. I used to have a couple of notes about the performance, but lately I have discovered something called dbt Fusion, which, according to dbt Labs, they proclaim is much faster during the parsing of dbt models. However, I would love to see even more of an out-of-the-box solution regarding the testing. They are treating the testing in a good way so far, but I would love to see even more improvement because the whole data testing field is not very mature. It is not the same as software testing; for example, you have test suites, test tools, and profilers, but for data testing, it is not yet that advanced. I would love for dbt to take the lead on that.
MI
Go High Level Manager at Virtual Worker Now
Automation expertise grows and enhances global collaboration
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. I use multi-step automation workflows in my tasks, which increases productivity and efficiency. The features such as if-else conditions allow for different branches in automation, making the automation more productive. I utilized conditional logic, text parsing, and formatting. My experience with these advanced features has been excellent. For instance, I once pushed data from Zapier to GoHighLevel while checking the date, and based on that date, I created automation in GoHighLevel that involved various branches, effectively creating a loop. Remote access to Zapier's automated workflows and cloud integration is beneficial. I use cloud services such as Google Drive and Dropbox within Zapier. The remote capabilities are advantageous, allowing us to provide services from Pakistan for businesses based in the USA, reducing company expenses when hiring employees from the USA. The ability to work remotely globally through Zapier is a significant opportunity.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"I would say the best feature or the most desirable feature for dbt is the ability to write everything in code."
"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."
"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."
"From a developer point of view, I find the ease of development and the code to be the most useful capabilities of dbt."
"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."
"The included actions that satisfy our requirements are very useful."
"The connection between Facebook lead forms and MailChimp integrations is the most valuable feature."
"With Zapier we are easily able to set up a custom notification and event-tracking service in only a few hours as opposed to several days."
"On a personal level, I used Zapier to automate otherwise tedious and manual tasks."
"Zapier is a powerful tool; it helps us automate social media curation, sales funneling, client onboarding, and qualitative data collection, while improving team productivity, collaboration, transparency, and accountability."
"I think it’s brilliant because the webhook feature allows you to basically send information from any application and connect to all the most common applications on the market."
"I utilized Zapier's feature of connecting over 2000 apps for various automations in my business processes."
"Zapier's ability to connect disparate systems is incredibly valuable."
 

Cons

"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."
"The solution must add more Python-based implementations."
"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."
"If I needed to name a few areas for improvement, I would mention the migration of code to Git and GitHub, which sometimes fails and can be confusing for developers during handover."
"Every upgrade is a little bit of a risk for us because we do not know if the workarounds that we developed will be available for the next version."
"Zapier could improve on some Google Sheets features. For example, having the Zaps not break down when one row has been moved, but the header has stayed the same."
"If the scenario or automation is complex, it becomes difficult to create and deploy because of various routes. For example, with 20 routes, it becomes really difficult to create them due to certain limits, and the UI is not conducive for viewing all the routes."
"Zapier is good for small businesses, but it’s not reliable enough for large enterprise businesses where you need to automate business critical services."
"With Zapier, improvements are required in the areas of concerns like bugs, ease of use, and documentation."
"There could be improvements in creating more complex workflows within the data domain."
"Technical support is very bad. But, thankfully, not needed often."
"Zapier needs to improve in the same way most RPA solutions should, such as Robocorp, Make, or UiPath. They are not good at helping you find the connections that you need for the problem that you have."
"Some recent changes to the solution have made it bulky and not as intuitive to use as it previously was."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution’s pricing is affordable."
"It's very affordable."
"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 product is reasonably priced."
"There is a free plan that is, of course, limited. However, it allows you to understand and check true scenarios for a while."
"The price of Zapier is approximately $75 monthly."
"Zapier's price is good."
"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."
"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."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Data Integration solutions are best for your needs.
885,376 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
13%
Insurance Company
8%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Computer Software Company
7%
Construction Company
15%
University
8%
Retailer
7%
Financial Services Firm
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business1
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise3
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business30
Midsize Enterprise10
Large Enterprise7
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for dbt?
The course content that dbt provides is free and excellent for anyone starting out.
What needs improvement with dbt?
We are still experimenting with testing, but not that much. We are not using some features yet. We are trying to introduce them because we are coming from a background of SSIS. The team used to wor...
What is your primary use case for dbt?
I am working with one of our enterprise customers, managing their newly established cloud warehouse. They are using Snowflake and we are using dbt to manage all the transformation and views and tab...
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...
What is your primary use case for Zapier?
I used three tools: Make.com, Zapier, and nEn nEight nEight n for my use cases. I created automation for social media integration, CRM integration, AI agents, e-commerce automation, finance automat...
 

Comparisons

 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
BuzzFeed, Groupon, Spotify, Columbia University, FOX
Find out what your peers are saying about Zapier vs. dbt and other solutions. Updated: March 2026.
885,376 professionals have used our research since 2012.