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Soda vs Elementary

Checked Nov 15, 2026How we score

Verdict: Soda scores 9.6/10 against 9.2/10 for Elementary on our data score for data monitoring testing tools.

Both have a free plan.

Elementary leads on 1 check and Soda on 0; 7 are even, out of 8 checks (yes/no, price and seats) where we have data for both.

Choose Soda for data engineering teams that want data contracts and pipeline tests with a free tier and published team price. Choose Elementary for analytics engineering teams that build with dbt.

Scoreboard: 8 checks

Check	Soda	Elementary
Free plan	Even	Even
Free trial		Leads
Smaller seat minimum	Even	Even
ML anomaly detection	Even	Even
Freshness and volume checks	Even	Even
Alerts (email, Slack or Teams)	Even	Even
Data lineage	Even	Even
Custom rule checks	Even	Even
Total	0	1

At a glance

	Soda	Elementary
Score	9.6/10 (#2)	9.2/10 (#3)
Best for	Data engineering teams that want data contracts and pipeline tests with a free tier and published team price	Analytics engineering teams that build with dbt
Free plan	Yes	Yes
Paid from (annual)	See vendor	See vendor
Paid from (monthly)	$750/mo	—
Free trial	—	30-day free trial of Elementary Cloud
Minimum seats	1	1
Platforms	Cloud (SaaS), Self-hosted runner (Kubernetes), Python library, Private deployment (Team plan), Python library (Soda Core)	Cloud (SaaS), Self-hosted (OSS)

Features

Tool	Score	ML anomaly detection	Freshness and volume checks	Alerts (email, Slack or Teams)	Data lineage	Custom rule checks
Soda	9.6/10	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Elementary	9.2/10	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes

Pros and cons

Soda

Pros

Published pricing: Free at $0 and Team at $750 per month
Free plan includes unlimited users and alerting and ticketing integrations, no credit card needed
Alerts to Slack and Microsoft Teams; custom SQL metric monitors supported
Deployment options: Python libraries in pipelines, Soda-hosted runner, or self-hosted runner

Cons

Soda Core v4 is under the Elastic License 2.0, not an OSI open-source license
SSO, RBAC, audit logs and the no-code interface require the Team plan
Usage beyond the free Soda Processing Units (SPUs) is billed pay-as-you-go

Soda pricing →

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

Cons

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

Elementary pricing →

Frequently asked questions

How do Soda and Elementary compare on features and price?

Elementary leads on 1 check and Soda on 0; 7 are even, out of 8 checks (yes/no, price and seats) where we have data for both.

Is Soda better than Elementary?

Soda scores 9.6/10 against 9.2/10 for Elementary on our data score for data monitoring testing tools. Soda is best for data engineering teams that want data contracts and pipeline tests with a free tier and published team price; Elementary is best for analytics engineering teams that build with dbt.

Which is cheaper, Soda or Elementary?

Check each vendor's pricing page; one of them does not publish an entry price.

Do Soda and Elementary have free plans?

Soda: yes. Elementary: yes.

See the full Data Monitoring Testing Tools ranking for other options.