Elementary review
Elementary is a dbt-native data observability with an open-source package and CLI plus a paid cloud platform. It ranks #3 of 12 in our data monitoring testing tools list (9.2/10). Best for analytics engineering teams that build with dbt.
Also ranked in Data Quality Tools (#4, 8.4/10).
Price: Free plan · paid plans quote-only · 30-day free trial of Elementary Cloud.
What Elementary is
Elementary adds anomaly detection tests (volume, freshness and others) and metadata tables to a dbt project, and its open-source CLI sends alerts and builds a self-hosted observability report. Elementary Cloud adds column-level lineage, incident management, a catalog and AI agents, priced by seats and environments.
Pros and cons
- 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
Elementary pricing
| Plan | Billed annually | Billed monthly | Annual saving | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| OSS | Free | Free | — | Open source (Apache-2.0), self-hosted |
| Scale | Custom quote | Custom quote | — | Talk to sales. Up to 10 editor seats, up to 1K tables; priced by seats and environments |
| Enterprise | Custom quote | Custom quote | — | Up to 20 editor / 40 viewer seats, up to 3K tables; SSO, RBAC, SCIM |
| Unlimited | Custom quote | Custom quote | — | Unlimited seats; dedicated CS engineer; overage per extra 1K tables |
USD, per user per month unless noted. "—" means the price is not published or we could not confirm it. Last checked Nov 15, 2026. Status: verified on Elementary's pricing page.
Key facts
| Free plan | Yes. Elementary OSS: open-source dbt package and CLI, self-hosted |
|---|---|
| Free trial | 30-day free trial of Elementary Cloud |
| Paid from | Quote-only (contact sales) |
| Minimum seats | 1 |
| Platforms | Cloud (SaaS), Self-hosted (OSS) |
| Compliance and security | SOC 2 Type II, SSO (Okta/OneLogin/AD, Enterprise and Unlimited), RBAC/SCIM (Enterprise and Unlimited) |
| Support | Community Slack (OSS), Shared Slack channel (paid plans), Dedicated CS engineer (Unlimited), Docs |
| ML anomaly detection | Yes |
| Freshness and volume checks | Yes |
| Alerts (email, Slack or Teams) | Yes |
| Data lineage | Yes |
| Custom rule checks | Yes |
| Facts checked | Nov 15, 2026 · verified on the vendor's own site (source) |
Also ranked in
Elementary is ranked in 3 of our lists: #3 of 12 in Data Monitoring Testing Tools, and:
Elementary alternatives
Elementary compared
- iceDQ vs Elementary
- Soda vs Elementary
- Elementary vs Metaplane
- Elementary vs Acceldata Data Observability Cloud (ADOC)
- Elementary vs Anomalo
- Deequ vs Elementary
- Elementary vs Informatica Data Quality & Observability
- Elementary vs Great Expectations (GX Core)
Frequently asked questions
How much does Elementary cost?
Elementary has a free plan; paid plans are quote-only (contact Elementary sales). Prices last checked Nov 15, 2026.
Is Elementary free?
Yes. Elementary OSS: open-source dbt package and CLI, self-hosted
What are the best Elementary alternatives?
Soda (9.6/10), Metaplane (9.2/10), Acceldata Data Observability Cloud (ADOC) (8.6/10) are the highest-scoring alternatives in our data monitoring testing tools ranking.