Airbyte and Keboola are two data integration / ETL platforms. Compare supported data sources and destinations, features, pricing, and more. Understand their differences along with key pros and cons.
Summarize this article with:
vs.
.png)
%201.svg){kind=logo}
%201.svg)
Airbyte is the open standard in data movement, and can be deployed self-hosted, cloud, or hybrid. Airbyte is used by 18% of the F500 and has over 25,000 community members.
Keboola is a unified data and AI orchestration platform that brings together integrations, transformation, storage, and automation into one governed system. It emphasizes self-service, pipeline readiness, and full lifecycle data operations.
While Keboola supports many integrations and full lifecycle operations, if your core need is massive data movement and replication across many disparate sources (especially niche legacy systems), then a solution focused explicitly on connectors and EL/ELT like Airbyte may have an edge.
Keboola’s strength is in delivering a full stack — ingestion, transformation, and orchestration. If you require maximum control over infrastructure, custom connector code, or on-premise deployment, you might find trade-offs compared to the self-hosted flexibility of Airbyte.
Because the platform includes modules for storage, transformations, and orchestration, and uses a usage-based model, tracking cost per workload may require careful planning. For pure ingestion workloads, simpler capacity models (like those offered by Airbyte) may offer more predictable costs.
Airbyte gives you complete control over your data infrastructure with flexible deployment options that adapt to your security and compliance requirements. Whether you need to keep sensitive data on-premise for sovereignty requirements, leverage cloud scalability, or implement a hybrid approach, Airbyte's single codebase architecture ensures consistent functionality across all deployment models. This flexibility helps organizations meet strict compliance standards like GDPR and HIPAA while maintaining full ownership of their data pipeline infrastructure.
With over 600 pre-built connectors and an AI-powered connector builder, Airbyte removes the traditional barriers to data integration. The platform's extensive connector library covers everything from modern SaaS applications to legacy databases and unstructured data sources. When you need a custom connector, the no-code Connector Builder and low-code CDK enable rapid development in hours instead of weeks. This is amplified by a vibrant community of over 1000 contributors who continuously expand the ecosystem, ensuring you're never blocked by connector availability.
Airbyte's predictable capacity-based pricing model means you can scale your data operations without worrying about surprise bills or budget overruns. Unlike consumption-based models that penalize growth, Airbyte's transparent pricing grows predictably with your infrastructure needs. Combined with enterprise-grade reliability featuring 99.9% uptime SLAs and the freedom to choose between deployment options, organizations can confidently scale their data operations without vendor lock-in concerns.
1. How do Airbyte and Keboola differ in their approach to data integration
Airbyte and Keboola play different roles. Airbyte is an open-source ELT platform focused on large-scale ingestion and pipeline management, with 600+ connectors into warehouses like Snowflake, BigQuery, and Databricks. Keboola is an all-in-one managed data platform that bundles ingestion, transformation, orchestration, and governance. Keboola is broader, but Airbyte is more modular and easier to plug into existing stacks while keeping full control over data movement.
2. Which platform Airbyte or Keboola offers more deployment and customization flexibility
Airbyte offers more deployment freedom than Keboola, with self-hosted, cloud, and hybrid options (including Airbyte Flex) so teams can process data in their own infrastructure for sovereignty and compliance. Keboola’s fully managed SaaS is easier to run but limits where processing happens and how much you can customize. Airbyte’s open-source model and CDK let teams build and tweak connectors deeply—customization that’s much harder to achieve in Keboola.
3. How do Airbyte and Keboola compare in cost and scalability
Airbyte is typically more affordable and scalable than Keboola. Its capacity-based pricing is predictable, and the open-source version can run for free on your own infrastructure. Keboola’s managed pricing (by volume, workspaces, and add-ons) can get expensive at scale. Airbyte also scales horizontally across clouds and regions, making it better suited for high-throughput, multi-region pipelines with a lower total cost of ownership.
4. Which is more developer-friendly Airbyte or Keboola
Airbyte is more developer-friendly than Keboola, with open APIs, a connector SDK, and deep integrations with tools like dbt and Airflow, giving engineers full code-level control and visibility. Keboola’s visual approach is easier for non-technical users but hides logic, making debugging and complex customizations harder than with Airbyte.
5. When should a data team choose Airbyte over Keboola
Teams should pick Airbyte over Keboola when they want a flexible, open, and scalable ingestion layer with 600+ connectors, hybrid deployment, and capacity-based pricing. Keboola is more of an all-in-one platform, while Airbyte fits better into existing stacks and offers more control and cost efficiency.
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)