Airbyte vs Stitch (2026): which should you pick?
As of Nov 13, 2026, Airbyte grades higher than Stitch: 2.2 against 1.8 out of 4.0.
Checked Nov 13, 2026 · graded Nov 13, 2026 by ToolGPA
Airbyte grades higher on value for money, the free plan and platforms. Stitch grades higher on ease of use. They get the same grade on features.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
Airbyte
Data integration with a free self-hosted core and a managed cloud
Stitch
Row-based data pipelines into a warehouse, now part of Qlik
Which one is for you
Pick Airbyte if
- Fits if you can host Core and want no per-row fees
- Works for small teams that start on a $20 cloud plan
Look elsewhere if
- Skip it if you can't run and maintain a self-hosted install
- Tight if you need syncs faster than hourly on Standard
- Pricey if you want 15-minute syncs or SSO, which need Plus at $189
- Watch out: Core is under the Elastic License 2.0, with community support only
Pick Stitch if
- Fits if you want a printed monthly price for one warehouse
- Works for a small team with one destination
Look elsewhere if
- Pricey if you grow past Standard, because Advanced is $1,500 a month billed annually
- Tight if you need more than 1 destination or 10 standard sources on Standard
- Watch out: the site says Stitch is now part of Qlik and points new users to Qlik Talend Cloud
- Watch out: the page says prices are US only
How we grade them
| 2.2GPAAirbyteFair | 1.8GPAStitchWeak | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | CCore is free but you host it. Cloud Standard is $20 a month with 5 credits included, then Plus is $189. | D$100 a month on monthly billing for 5 million rows, about five times the category's middle of $19.99. Advanced is $1,500 and Premium $3,000. |
| Free plan and trial | BCore is free to self-host, and the cloud has a 14-day trial with 400 credits and no card. | C14-day trial with no card. No free plan. |
| Features | CConnectors and syncs. Standard is hourly at most; 15-minute syncs and SSO need Plus, and enterprise connectors are an add-on. | CLoads data into a warehouse. Standard allows 1 destination and 10 standard sources; unlimited enterprise sources start at Advanced. |
| Ease of use | DNo store rating on record. Running Core means installing and maintaining it yourself. | CNo store rating on record. You connect sources and a destination, so there's setup. |
| Platforms and integrations | BWeb console with connections to Airflow, Dagster, Prefect and Terraform. No desktop or phone apps. | CWeb only, with Qlik Talend Cloud as the one named integration. |
| Best for | moving data into a warehouse, self-hosted or cloud | loading data into one warehouse for a small team |
The GPA is the average of the five grades: an A is 4 points, an F is none. The full reasons are on each tool's page: Airbyte and Stitch. How we grade
Price against what you get
Airbyte starts at $20 a month and scores 2.0 out of 4 on features, ease of use and platforms. Stitch starts at $100 a month and scores 2.0.
They score the same, and Airbyte starts $80 a month lower. Of the other automation tools on the chart, 27 score higher than Airbyte for less, and 48 score higher than Stitch for less.
Features, ease of use and platforms, averaged
What paid plans start at, a month (each step along is roughly double) →
- The best score at each price
- Has a free plan
- No free plan
Where they differ
- Airbyte is open source and self-hostable, according to its own site.
At a glance
| Airbyte | Stitch | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free plan | Free trial |
| Starts at | $20 per month (Standard, 5 credits included) | $100 per month for up to 5M rows (monthly billing) |
| Free plan | Airbyte Core is free to self-host under the Elastic License 2.0; you run and maintain it yourself. | None |
| Free trial | 14-day Cloud trial with 400 credits, no credit card required | 14-day free trial, no credit card required. |
| Web | ||
| Made by | Airbyte | Qlik |
| Price read from | airbyte.com | stitchdata.com |
| Checked | Nov 13, 2026 | Nov 13, 2026 |
Worth knowing
Airbyte
- Standard syncs at most hourly; 15-minute syncs and SSO need Plus at $189 a month or more.
- Enterprise connectors are an add-on on Standard and Plus, and AWS PrivateLink is an add-on on those plans.
- Core is licensed under the Elastic License 2.0 and you maintain it yourself, with community support only.
- Pro and Enterprise Flex prices are not published and need a quote.
Stitch
- The site says Stitch is now part of Qlik and points new users to Qlik Talend Cloud.
- Standard allows 1 destination and 10 standard sources; unlimited enterprise sources start at Advanced.
- Advanced and Premium are billed annually, and the page says the prices are US only.
- The Standard annual price was not readable; the figure here is the monthly-billing one.
Key features
Airbyte
- 700+ connectors
- Connectors cover sources and destinations, with CDC, schema propagation and column selection, and a Connector Builder for custom ones.
- Self-hosted or managed
- Airbyte Core runs on your own infrastructure for free; the cloud plans include hosting, upgrades and support.
- Credit-based usage pricing
- Standard and Plus bill by volume: 400 credits in the trial is about 100 GB of syncs, and 5 credits is about 1 GB.
- Capacity pricing
- Pro and Enterprise Flex price on Data Workers, dedicated compute units, so cost stays flat when data volume spikes.
- Orchestrator and developer access
- An Airbyte API, Terraform provider, PyAirbyte and integrations with Airflow, Dagster and Prefect are listed on the plan comparison.
Stitch
- Row-based plans
- Standard is priced by a slider from 5 to 300 million rows a month. Advanced and Premium add row and destination add-ons.
- Historical sync
- Each new integration gets a 7-day grace period in which its rows do not count toward the limit, so history can be loaded.
- Extensibility options
- The plan table lists post-load webhooks, advanced scheduling and Connect API access among its advanced features.
- Security and connectivity
- Plans list SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001 compliance, with VPN, AWS PrivateLink, reverse SSH and VPC peering as connectivity options.
- Agency platform
- A separate Stitch Platform offering gives agencies isolated pipelines for each client, sold through sales.
Plans
Airbyte
Core$0
Self-hosted edition you run and maintain yourself, under the Elastic License 2.0.
Standard$20
per month, 5 credits included
Managed cloud with syncs as often as hourly; 5 credits is about 1 GB of syncs. Pay for the data you sync.
Plus$189
per month for 40 credits
Adds SSO, 15-minute syncs, a 24-hour support SLA and 2 workspaces; packages run to 2,000 credits at $4,999 a month.
ProCustom
Flat annual capacity pricing on Data Workers, 5-minute syncs, RBAC, premium support and a dedicated Solutions Architect.
Enterprise FlexCustom
Everything in Pro with hybrid deployment in your own VPC, on-prem or multi-region.
Stitch
Standard$100
per month for 5M rows, monthly billing
5 to 300M rows a month, 1 destination, 10 standard sources, 5 users. Price rises with the row slider; annual billing is offered.
Advanced$1,500
per month, billed annually
100M rows a month, 3 destinations, unlimited enterprise sources and users, 60-day extraction log retention. Sold through sales.
Premium$3,000
per month, billed annually
1 billion rows a month, 5 destinations, unlimited sources and users. Sold through sales.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, Airbyte or Stitch?
As of Nov 13, 2026, Airbyte is cheaper to start with: $20 a month, against $100 a month for Stitch. Airbyte starts at $20 per month (Standard, 5 credits included), and Stitch starts at $100 per month for up to 5M rows (monthly billing).
Which has a free plan, Airbyte or Stitch?
As of Nov 13, 2026, only Airbyte has a free plan. Stitch does not, though it has a free trial.
More comparisons
How this page was made
- The verdict at the top follows a fixed rule. When both tools are in the same category and either is in our top three for it, the verdict follows that ranking: the higher-placed tool is our pick. The top three weigh who each tool suits as well as its grades, so a pick can go against the GPA. Otherwise the page does not pick one and says which grades higher: the higher GPA first; on a tie, the one with a free plan, then the one that starts cheaper in dollars a month, counted the same way for both; if they are still level, what the choice depends on.
- The grades are our own, from each tool’s review or report card. The GPA is their average.
- Prices, plans and platforms come from each tool’s listing. The table above says where each price was read and when.
- The differences and the answers to the questions are worked out from those listings.