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Comparison · Analytics
dbt Core vs Umami
A side-by-side editorial comparison of dbt Core and Umami — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
dbt Core vs Umami: at a glance
What is dbt Core?
dbt 2.0 ships — proprietary binary forks from dbt-oss as AI agent skills land
dbt just shipped its 2.0.0 GA release, formally splitting the codebase into a proprietary 'dbt' binary (the Fusion engine) and 'dbt-oss'. The 2.0 release adds AI agent skill installs from packages, native Databricks metric view materializations, and a new ClickHouse ADBC driver. Post-2.0 dev builds (dev.41) are already extending Lake Compute with Databricks Unity Catalog read access.
What is Umami?
Umami spent late 2025 patching Next.js CVEs, then shipped Boards and Session Replay in v3.1.0.
The window splits sharply. Four of six releases are December 2025 patches across the v2 and v3 lines, all responding to the same Next.js and React security advisories plus Docker build breakage — several shipped within days of each other because the first fix updated Next.js without the affected React versions. Then v3.1.0 in April 2026 delivered custom dashboards as Boards, Session Replay, Web Vitals performance tracking, a redesigned share page, and a large batch of fixes.
dbt Core vs Umami: editorial side-by-side
dbt Core
7.5ANALYTICS
dbt 2.0 ships — proprietary binary forks from dbt-oss as AI agent skills land
◆ Current state
dbt just shipped its 2.0.0 GA release, formally splitting the codebase into a proprietary 'dbt' binary (the Fusion engine) and 'dbt-oss'. The 2.0 release adds AI agent skill installs from packages, native Databricks metric view materializations, and a new ClickHouse ADBC driver. Post-2.0 dev builds (dev.41) are already extending Lake Compute with Databricks Unity Catalog read access.
◆ Where it's heading
The proprietary/OSS fork is the defining structural move: dbt (proprietary) will accumulate AI-adjacent features — agent skills, Lake Compute, Databricks-specific materializations — while dbt-oss serves the backward-compat install base. The agent skills system (SKILL.md packages) is early but establishes a plugin surface for AI workflow definitions inside dbt runs. Expect the Databricks surface to keep widening as Lake Compute moves toward write support.
◆ Prediction
Next likely move: agent skills expand from installation-only to execution, and Lake Compute adds write paths or more Unity Catalog capabilities. The ClickHouse ADBC driver work may also get a GA tag soon given the volume of RC iterations.
Umami
0.0ANALYTICS
Umami spent late 2025 patching Next.js CVEs, then shipped Boards and Session Replay in v3.1.0.
◆ Current state
The window splits sharply. Four of six releases are December 2025 patches across the v2 and v3 lines, all responding to the same Next.js and React security advisories plus Docker build breakage — several shipped within days of each other because the first fix updated Next.js without the affected React versions. Then v3.1.0 in April 2026 delivered custom dashboards as Boards, Session Replay, Web Vitals performance tracking, a redesigned share page, and a large batch of fixes.
◆ Where it's heading
The security cluster is a framework dependency showing its cost — an analytics tool inheriting its release schedule from Next.js advisories. v3.1.0 is where product work resumes, and its content is telling: Session Replay and Web Vitals move Umami past pageview counting into behaviour and performance, which is the territory occupied by heavier commercial analytics rather than the lightweight privacy-first tools it grew up alongside.
◆ Prediction
Expect the next releases to build on Boards and Session Replay rather than return to the counting core, since both are new surfaces that arrived with a single release and no follow-up yet.
Alternatives to dbt Core and Umami
Other Analytics products tracked by Sparkpulse, ranked by recent ship velocity. Each card links to a full editorial trajectory and lets you pivot into a head-to-head comparison with either dbt Core or Umami.
Fulcrum
Fulcrum ships an MCP server for AI-managed form building while Photo FastFill pushes toward general availability.
Holistics
Holistics connects to warehouse-native semantic layers, shifting from semantic owner to governed exploration layer.
Tinybird
Tinybird builds out MCP tooling for LLM-driven data access while hardening its ingestion pipeline
Basedash
Basedash makes its MCP server writable — AI agents can now author dashboards on your behalf
OpenObserve
OpenObserve hits v1.0 GA with first-class AI Observability and SLOs, then stabilizes fast.
See all dbt Core alternatives → · See all Umami alternatives →
Recent activity from dbt Core and Umami
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 2d agodbt CoreLake Compute gains Databricks Unity Catalog read access
- 9d agodbt Coredbt v2.0.0 ⚡
- 10d agodbt Coredbt v1.12.5
- 10d agodbt CoreInternal test-PyPI build (2.0.2)
- 14d agodbt Corev2.0.0-rc.2
- 16d agodbt CoreClickHouse ADBC driver dev build (2.0.0-dev.39)
- 5mo agoUmamiv3.1.0: Boards, Session Replay and Web Vitals ⚡
- 9mo agoUmamiv3.0.3: Next.js security patch
- 9mo agoUmamiv2.20.2: Next.js security patch for the v2 line
- 9mo agoUmamiv2.20.1: React version fix and Docker build repairs
- 9mo agoUmamiv2.20.0: Next.js CVE fix for the v2 line
- 9mo agoUmamiv3.0.2: Next.js RSC vulnerability patch and UI fixes
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between dbt Core and Umami?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. dbt Core is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 7.5 vs 0.0), with 1 editorial sparks in the last 30 days against 0. See the at-a-glance table above for a side-by-side breakdown of velocity, recent sparks, and editorial themes.
Is dbt Core better than Umami?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. dbt Core is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 7.5 vs 0.0), with 1 editorial sparks in the last 30 days against 0. For your specific use case, the alternatives sections above list other Analytics products to evaluate alongside.
What are the best alternatives to dbt Core?
Top dbt Core alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "dbt Core alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/dbt-core for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to Umami?
Top Umami alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "Umami alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/umami for the full list with editorial commentary on each.