Extract is a brand-new competitor on the ELT scene. It’s super-fast, super-efficient, and super cost effective, but how does it stack up against older, more established competitors? Especially if we look at Extract vs Airbyte … how does Extract compare?
Can it even compete?
Key Takeaways:
- Extract is a fully managed ELT tool with in-house connectors and up to 17x better performance.
- Airbyte offers open-source flexibility but may require more engineering support.
- Extract provides better logs, alerting, and transparency for enterprise data teams.
- Extract’s pricing is more predictable and cost-effective, especially at scale.
- Compliance is built-in with Extract; Airbyte’s compliance varies with deployment.
Extract vs Airbyte: let’s look at Airbyte first
Most people in the ELT space are aware of Airbyte.
Airbyte is an open-source data integration platform. Like all the other tools in the space, it’s designed to help teams extract and load data from a wide range of sources into their data warehouses, data lakes, or databases.
It supports both cloud and self-hosted deployments, so if you want to own your own pipes and bring everything in-house, Airbyte is an option for you. Also, Airbyte’s open-source core enables community involvement in building and maintaining connectors. It supports dbt for transformations and offers API and UI-based control.
While powerful, especially for teams with engineering resources, Airbyte can require more configuration and maintenance compared to fully managed solutions.
Extract vs Airbyte: what about Extract?
If you’re new to Extract, you should definitely check out a bit more about what we do, why we exist, and how we’re different than other ELT vendors.
Extract is a fully managed ELT platform built for speed, reliability, and simplicity.
Extract is designed to eliminate the engineering burden of data movement by handling every part of the pipeline from extraction to loading through high-efficiency Rust-based connectors that are maintained entirely in-house.
This ensures predictable performance, full transparency, and deep observability, with features like real-time logging, custom scheduling, and flexible alerting.
Extract is API-first and supports advanced transformations (including SQL and value mapping), with dbt integration on the roadmap. It’s optimized for scalability and cost-efficiency, offering transparent pricing based on raw rows, and is often up to 75% cheaper than alternatives.
With built-in compliance for SOC 2, GDPR, and HIPAA, Extract is particularly well-suited for teams who prioritize performance, simplicity, and peace of mind.
OK, so how do these 2 ELT tools compare?
I’m going to compare Extract vs Airbyte across 7 key categories, but first, here’s a table with some of the key differences.
| Extract | Airbyte | |
|---|---|---|
| Type | Fully managed ELT | Fully managed ELT + DIY open source |
| Open source | No | Partial |
| Deployment | Cloud only | Cloud Self-hosted |
| License | Proprietary | MIT (Core) Commercial add-ons |
| Features | Extract | Airbyte |
| Built in | Rust | Python/Java/etc depending on connector |
| Connector reliability | High, 100% of the code is owned and maintained by the company | Mix, most of the connectors are open source projects |
| Efficiency | Heavily optimized with Rust; up to 17x more efficient | Inefficient architecture (multiple processes/ containers for a single connection) |
| Scheduling | Manual Predefined Schedule, Custom Cron Expressions API Invocation | Manual Predefined Schedule, Custom Cron Expressions API Invocation |
| Schema evolution | Automatic Configurable Full Audit Log | Automatic Configurable |
| Transparency | Full visibility into API calls, queries, and processing | Black blox |
| Scalability | Enterprise grade | Requires heavy tuning |
| Customization | Advanced controls | Medium |
| Transformation | SQL Column mapping Value mapping dbt (coming) | dbt Custom scripts (pre/post-load) |
| Logs availability | Yes, super robust in-product logging interface + API access | Yes, limited UI |
| Quality of logs | Detailed and useful customer facing logs. Code review process guarantees that in present and future connectors. | Depends on the developer; many connectors are open source written by non-AirByte employees, and may have no logging |
| Logs API | Yes | Partial |
| Realtime logs | Yes | No (unless self-hosted) |
| Alert customization | System event log + custom rule engine to define any alert you want. | Fixed list of events |
| Alert types | Any system event: failures, success, retries, user login, connector edit, etc. | Failures |
| Alert channels | Email Slack Webhooks | Email Webhooks |
| SSO | Yes | Yes |
| RBAC | Yes | Yes (if using SaaS and not self-hosting) |
| Pricing | Extract | Airbyte |
| Basis | Monthly rows | Monthly rows |
| Free tier | Yes | Yes |
| Cost | Low (up to 75% cheaper) | High |
| Security | Extract | Airbyte |
| SOC 2 | Yes | Yes (cloud) Optional (self-hosted) |
| GDPR | Yes | Yes (cloud) Optional (self-hosted) |
| HIPPA | Yes | Yes (cloud) Optional (self-hosted) |
(Check to see how Extract looks versus Airbyte, Fivetran, and Stitch.)
Here’s the Extract vs Airbyte comparison across 7 key categories
- Connector reliability & code ownership
Extract maintains all its connectors in-house, which delivers consistent performance and accountable maintenance. (Yeah, it’s our job to update connectors when APIs change … as they inevitably will.) Airbyte, while open source, has many connectors contributed by the community. Reliability can therefore vary across connectors … so we think the bottom line is that Extract offers more predictable connector reliability. - Efficiency & performance
Ummm … not to toot our own horn here TOO much, but Extract’s Rust-based architecture literally creates up to 17X better efficiency, reducing CPU usage. That may not matter to you, until you realize that our costs translate into your expenses. Airbyte uses a much heavier Java/Python stack that needs way more CPU cycles. Bottom line: we’re optimized for speed and cost savings at scale. - Transparency, logging & alerts
Extract delivers full visibility into API calls and queries with real-time logs, detailed APIs, and customizable alerts/webhooks. Meanwhile, Airbyte provides logs, but visibility depends on connector maturity, and alerts are limited to standard failure notifications. We think the bottom line is that Extract is better suited for teams that care deeply about observability. - Automation & scheduling
Extract offers flexible scheduling: manual runs, cron expressions, custom schedules, and robust API invocation. Airbyte’s scheduling, on the other hand, is limited to fixed intervals unless you pay extra for cron capabilities. Sorry, but the bottom line is again in our favor: Extract gives more control over sync timing. - Pricing
This might be a little unfair, but Extract charges on raw rows with transparent, low-cost pricing that is literally up to 75% cheaper than established competitors. (I mean, check it out for yourself. We’re not hiding it.) Meanwhile, Airbyte uses monthly active rows, whic is often more expensive at scale. Yep, the bottom line is that budget-conscious teams are probably going to lean toward Extract. - Transformations & integrations
Extract supports SQL-based transformations, column/value mapping, and upcoming dbt integration (soon!). Airbyte allows dbt and custom scripts but may require more manual setup. Bottom line: OK, dbt is pretty important. Extract offers a more integrated transformation experience, but if you really really need dbt integrated into your ELT, give us a couple of weeks. - Deployment & compliance
Extract is cloud-only but offers enterprise-grade compliance (SOC 2, GDPR, HIPAA) out of the box. I mean, our parent company has clients among literally the world’s top-10 companies by market capitalization. We’ve been doing this for a while. Airbyte’s cloud version is compliant, but self-hosting introduces optional compliance risks depending on your setup. The bottom line is that both support regulated environments just fine, but self-hosting introduces a host (sorry!) of additional complications.
Extract may be new, but clearly we’re already a significant competitor.
There’s more to the story, of course
Everyone is unique, and so is each company’s data stack. So the question of Extract vs Airbyte is going to result in slightly different answers for everyone.
In general, however, if you’re focused on enterprise-grade reliability, efficiency, observability, customization, and cost control, Extract is a pretty good option, particularly for large-scale or compliance-driven scenarios. But if you prioritize open-source flexibility and self-hosting, it’s still worth looking at Airbyte.
Ultimately, of course, we think Extract is a no-brainer.
The best way to confirm that for yourself is just to try the product. It’s free to try, and the free account level includes up to 1 million monthly rows, unlimited sources and destinations, up to 5 live connections, 2 platform users, and hourly syncs.
In other words: it’s pretty capable.