dbt
Hacker ApprovedData transformation tool in Developer tools
People recommend dbt for building SQL pipelines as a DAG with version control, testing and docs. Critics find its mix of SQL, YAML and Jinja hard to work with.
People recommend dbt for building SQL pipelines as a DAG with version control, testing and docs. Critics find its mix of SQL, YAML and Jinja hard to work with.
23 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 16
- criticize it
- 7
- approval share
- 70%
Recommended in 10 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 16 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 2.3 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 10 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Version control, testing and docs
“people use dbt etc. to test every little edit of their manually coded delta pipelines, but don't look at IVM”
Comment from 31 Dec 2025 in “Readings in Database Systems (5th Edition)” “I find it easier to maintain and it helps me with version control, testing, and docs.”
Comment from 4 Jun 2026 in “Learn SQL Once, Use It for 30 Years” Structured SQL instead of string manipulation
“You should be using dbt instead of string manipulation for serious query building.”
Comment from 3 Sep 2026 in “Pre-Release of Polars 2.0” “you're turning SQL into a proper programming language with just one library”
Comment from 3 Sep 2026 in “Pre-Release of Polars 2.0” Seen as useful, even necessary
“Looker and DBT already mostly or completely solve it.”
Comment from 12 Jul 2026 in “Show HN: Sqlsure – deterministic semantic checks for AI-generated SQL” “Airflow and dbt serve a real purpose.”
Comment from 18 Jan 2026 in “Command-line Tools can be 235x Faster than your Hadoop Cluster (2014)” “without something like dbt”
Comment from 4 Sep 2026 in “Pre-Release of Polars 2.0”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Described as a cluster fire
“introduced the cluster fire that was DBT”
Comment from 23 Oct 2026 in “Can we replace a $150k Looker with a bucket of HTML files?” “the cluster fire that was DBT”
Comment from 23 Oct 2026 in “Can we replace a $150k Looker with a bucket of HTML files?” Overkill for this use case
“layers of abstraction (Airflow, dbt, Snowflake) applied to datasets that often fit entirely in RAM”
Comment from 18 Jan 2026 in “Command-line Tools can be 235x Faster than your Hadoop Cluster (2014)” “considering that dbt is not suiting well this particular use-case”
Comment from 29 Apr 2026 in “Show HN: Rocky – Rust SQL engine with branches, replay, column lineage”
What people recommend instead
The same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| dbtThis page | 16 | 7 | 70% | 10 | — | Approved |
| CyberChef | 9 | 0 | 100% | 4 | — | — |
What people said
22 of the 26 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“the cluster fire that was DBT”
“introduced the cluster fire that was DBT”
“rather than a whole new vibe coded mess”
“What drew me to the dbt project back in 2020”
“without something like dbt”
“My issue with DBT is it is a mix of SQL, yaml, jinja2 flow controls”
“you're turning SQL into a proper programming language with just one library”
“You should be using dbt instead of string manipulation for serious query building.”
“So far, it's been promising.”
“Looker and DBT already mostly or completely solve it.”
“it is definitely a big upgrade vs. folks using core”
“I find it easier to maintain and it helps me with version control, testing, and docs.”
“requires to write the rule for the failure first, which is exactly the part that's hard”
“considering that dbt is not suiting well this particular use-case”
“the verbs literally ARE the operations, so reading the code IS reading the intent”
“together with `dbt` and `rill` I'm able do to”
“not a dbt test framework (Soda does that)”
“dbt is super useful for building a dag and managing pieces of it that update on different schedules.”
“I am currently ditching both airflow and dbt.”
“Airflow and dbt serve a real purpose.”
“layers of abstraction (Airflow, dbt, Snowflake) applied to datasets that often fit entirely in RAM”
“people use dbt etc. to test every little edit of their manually coded delta pipelines, but don't look at IVM”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.