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Soda vs Great Expectations (GX Core)

Checked Nov 15, 2026How we score

Verdict: Soda scores 8.7/10 against 7.9/10 for Great Expectations (GX Core) on our data score for data quality tools.

Both have a free plan.

Great Expectations (GX Core) leads on 1 check and Soda on 0; 4 are even, out of 5 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 Great Expectations (GX Core) for python data engineers who want code-defined data tests in pipelines at no license cost.

Scoreboard: 5 checks

CheckSodaGreat Expectations (GX Core)
Free planEvenEven
Free trialEvenEven
Smaller seat minimumEvenEven
Custom rule checksEvenEven
Open sourceLeads
Total01

At a glance

SodaGreat Expectations (GX Core)
Score8.7/10 (#2)7.9/10 (#6)
Best forData engineering teams that want data contracts and pipeline tests with a free tier and published team pricePython data engineers who want code-defined data tests in pipelines at no license cost
Free planYesYes
Paid from (annual)See vendorSee vendor
Paid from (monthly)$750/mo—
Free trial——
Minimum seats11
PlatformsCloud (SaaS), Self-hosted runner (Kubernetes), Python library, Private deployment (Team plan), Python library (Soda Core)Self-hosted (Python library), Python library (self-hosted), Cloud (SaaS)

Features

ToolScoreData profilingCustom rule checksML anomaly detectionData cleansing / correctionOpen source
Soda8.7/10YesYesYesNot confirmedNo
Great Expectations (GX Core)7.9/10Not confirmedYesNot confirmedNot confirmedYes

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 →

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
Cons
  • 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
Great Expectations (GX Core) pricing →

Frequently asked questions

How do Soda and Great Expectations (GX Core) compare on features and price?

Great Expectations (GX Core) leads on 1 check and Soda on 0; 4 are even, out of 5 checks (yes/no, price and seats) where we have data for both.

Is Soda better than Great Expectations (GX Core)?

Soda scores 8.7/10 against 7.9/10 for Great Expectations (GX Core) on our data score for data quality tools. Soda is best for data engineering teams that want data contracts and pipeline tests with a free tier and published team price; 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, Soda or Great Expectations (GX Core)?

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

Do Soda and Great Expectations (GX Core) have free plans?

Soda: yes. Great Expectations (GX Core): yes.

See the full Data Quality Tools ranking for other options.

Sources