CData Semantic Layer vs dbt Semantic Layer
CData Semantic Layer
cdata.com
dbt Semantic Layer
getdbt.comSide by side
| Figure | CData Semantic Layer | dbt Semantic Layer |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | — | $0.09/mo |
| Free plan | — | Yes |
| Free trial | — | Yes |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | — | Yes |
| API | — | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | — |
| Plans published | 0 | 5 |
| Spec score · Semantic Layer Software | 7.5 (#19) | 9.2 (#2) |
| Founded | 2016 | 2016 |
| Headquarters | Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States | Oakland, California, United States |
| Integrations | The product page names Google, SAP, Palantir, Zebra, Salesforce, UiPath, GSK, and Office Depot among its displayed organizations. | The product page says the Semantic Layer offers an API, the dbt MCP Server, and dozens of out-of-the-box integrations for BI, notebooks, spreadsheets, embedded analytics, and AI systems. |
| Intended users | The product is presented for enterprise analytics and AI, with centrally governed self-service access for business users. | The product is presented for data teams seeking governed, consistent metrics for analytics, embedded applications, and AI use cases. |
| Purpose | CData Semantic Layer unifies enterprise data across on-premises, cloud, and SaaS environments into a governed source of truth for people and AI. | The Semantic Layer centralizes metric definitions on dbt models and automatically handles data joins for consistent use across downstream tools and applications. |
| Security certifications | CData says it has completed third-party SOC 2 Type II and ISO/IEC 27001:2022 compliance audits. | dbt Labs reports ISO 42001, ISO 27001, ISO 27701, ISO 27017, ISO 27018, and SOC 2 Type II coverage. |
| Support | CData lists technical support hours as Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. ET. | The pricing page lists 24x5 support for Starter and priority support with SLAs for Enterprise. |
Plans
dbt Semantic Layer
- DeveloperFree
- dbt State add-on$0.09 a month
- Starter$100 a month
- EnterprisePriced on request
- Enterprise+Priced on request
In their own words
CData Semantic Layer
CData Semantic Layer has no write-up on Specifiction yet; its figures are above.
dbt Semantic Layer
The dbt Semantic Layer centralizes metric definitions on dbt models and handles joins so downstream tools and applications can use metrics consistently. MetricFlow generates SQL at query time from semantic model and metric configurations. Teams define those models and metrics in YAML as version-controlled, lineage-aware code. MetricFlow can optimize joins, rewrite queries to reduce compute and latency, and cache repeated queries. The product offers an API, the dbt MCP Server and integrations for BI tools, notebooks, spreadsheets, embedded analytics and AI systems. GraphQL and JDBC APIs and a Python SDK provide ways to query metrics and dimensions; Claude and ChatGPT can connect to governed metrics through the MCP server. Documented warehouse platforms include Snowflake, BigQuery, Databricks and Redshift. Defining and querying metrics requires a dbt Starter or Enterprise-tier account, and single-tenant accounts need account-representative setup and enablement. Starter includes 5,000 queried metrics per month; Enterprise and Enterprise+ each include 20,000. Starter costs $100 a month per user. The free Developer plan does not list the Semantic Layer.