Independent directory

Find the right data tools

Every tool in the modern data stack on one honest card: real pricing, free tier, open source or not, and what it replaces. No vendor writes its own page.

New in the directory

The tools we have written up most recently. Each one gets the same card and the same pricing check.

All categories

Monte Carlo

The category-defining data observability platform. Automatic freshness, volume and schema monitors, lineage and incident management. Credit-based pricing through sales.

Hightouch

Reverse ETL and a composable CDP on top of your warehouse. Free for two active syncs, usage-based pricing above that.

Metabase

The fastest BI tool to stand up. Open source and free to self-host; Metabase Cloud from $100 a month for five users.

Looker

Google's governed BI platform with the LookML semantic layer. Sold as annual Standard, Enterprise and Embed editions, priced through sales.

Dagster

Asset-based orchestrator with a hosted Dagster+ control plane. Open source is free; Dagster+ starts at $10 a month plus $0.040 per credit.

Apache Airflow

The default open-source orchestrator. Free to run yourself; managed versions from Astronomer (Astro deployments from $0.35 an hour), AWS and Google.

Questions people ask

How the directory works, who writes it, and what the prices mean.

One page per tool in the modern data stack, written by us, never by the vendor. Every page carries the same card: pricing model, starting price, free tier, open source or not, deployment, what it replaces, and the pros and cons we found.

They are not, really. Category pages sort by popularity, date or name and you choose which. Sponsored placements sit beside the list and say so; they never change the order or the recommendations.

Every price comes from the vendor’s own pricing page and shows the date we last checked it. Vendors change things without telling anyone, so treat the number as a starting point and confirm before you buy.

Yes, and it is free. Claiming lets you keep pricing, integrations and positioning accurate, and add a logo and a demo link. What you cannot do is write the page, remove criticism or change a ranking.

Yes, and no account is needed. The site pays for itself with clearly labelled vendor placements and a few affiliate links, neither of which changes what you see here.

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From the archive

The Panoply guides and articles, at their original addresses.