Elementary vs Great Expectations (GX Core)
Verdict: Elementary scores 8.4/10 against 7.9/10 for Great Expectations (GX Core) on our data score for data quality tools.
Both have a free plan.
Elementary leads on 1 check and Great Expectations (GX Core) on 0; 4 are even, out of 5 checks (yes/no, price and seats) where we have data for both.
Choose Elementary for analytics engineering teams that build with dbt. Choose Great Expectations (GX Core) for python data engineers who want code-defined data tests in pipelines at no license cost.
Scoreboard: 5 checks
| Check | Elementary | Great Expectations (GX Core) |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan | Even | Even |
| Free trial | Leads | |
| Smaller seat minimum | Even | Even |
| Custom rule checks | Even | Even |
| Open source | Even | Even |
| Total | 1 | 0 |
At a glance
| Elementary | Great Expectations (GX Core) | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 8.4/10 (#4) | 7.9/10 (#6) |
| Best for | Analytics engineering teams that build with dbt | Python data engineers who want code-defined data tests in pipelines at no license cost |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Paid from (annual) | See vendor | See vendor |
| Paid from (monthly) | — | — |
| Free trial | 30-day free trial of Elementary Cloud | — |
| Minimum seats | 1 | 1 |
| Platforms | Cloud (SaaS), Self-hosted (OSS) | Self-hosted (Python library), Python library (self-hosted), Cloud (SaaS) |
Features
| Tool | Score | Data profiling | Custom rule checks | ML anomaly detection | Data cleansing / correction | Open source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Elementary | 8.4/10 | Not confirmed | Yes | Yes | Not confirmed | Yes |
| Great Expectations (GX Core) | 7.9/10 | Not confirmed | Yes | Not confirmed | Not confirmed | Yes |
- Only Elementary confirms: ML anomaly detection.
Pros and cons
Elementary
Pros- Open-source dbt package and CLI (Apache-2.0) can be self-hosted at no cost
- Tests are configured in the dbt project as code, alongside existing dbt tests
- 30-day cloud trial with no limits on seats, environments or monitored tables
- Elementary states it is SOC 2 Type II certified and the cloud reads metadata only
- Mainly useful for teams already using dbt
- Cloud prices are not published ('Talk to sales')
- Pricing page has inconsistencies (trial references an 'Essentials' plan that is not listed)
- AI agents are billed separately with credits
Great Expectations (GX Core)
Pros- Free and open source (Apache-2.0), about 11.9k GitHub stars
- Large library of built-in Expectations, extensible with custom ones
- Checkpoint actions can notify Slack, Microsoft Teams, email, PagerDuty, Opsgenie or an API endpoint
- Actively released: version 1.25.0 published on PyPI on 2026-11-12
- GX Cloud (the hosted UI) is no longer publicly available, so there is no vendor-hosted option
- Code-first; requires Python skills to set up and maintain
- No built-in ML anomaly detection or data cleansing stated
- Long-term roadmap under Fivetran stewardship not yet detailed
Frequently asked questions
How do Elementary and Great Expectations (GX Core) compare on features and price?
Elementary leads on 1 check and Great Expectations (GX Core) on 0; 4 are even, out of 5 checks (yes/no, price and seats) where we have data for both.
Is Elementary better than Great Expectations (GX Core)?
Elementary scores 8.4/10 against 7.9/10 for Great Expectations (GX Core) on our data score for data quality tools. Elementary is best for analytics engineering teams that build with dbt; Great Expectations (GX Core) is best for python data engineers who want code-defined data tests in pipelines at no license cost.
Which is cheaper, Elementary or Great Expectations (GX Core)?
Check each vendor's pricing page; one of them does not publish an entry price.
Do Elementary and Great Expectations (GX Core) have free plans?
Elementary: yes. Great Expectations (GX Core): yes.
See the full Data Quality Tools ranking for other options.
Sources
- Elementary: official pricing page · Elementary pricing page · Elementary docs: OSS introduction · Elementary docs: volume_anomalies and freshness_anomalies tests · Elementary GitHub repository
- Great Expectations (GX Core): official pricing page · GX Core GitHub repository (fivetran/great_expectations) · Great Expectations blog: An update from Great Expectations · Fivetran press release on GX Core stewardship · GX Core checkpoint actions source · PyPI great-expectations · GX Cloud pricing page · GX docs: Connect to filesystem data · GX API reference: PandasFilesystemDatasource · GX docs: Schema data quality use case · great_expectations GitHub repository