# Dagster review (2026): is it worth $10 a month? > Asset-based data orchestration platform, now part of Prefect Checked Nov 13, 2026 ยท graded Nov 13, 2026 by ToolGPA. Dagster is an orchestration platform for data pipelines built around assets: the tables, files and models a pipeline produces. Its core framework is open source and can be self-hosted, and Dagster+ is the hosted product with a catalog, data quality checks and cost insights. The site says Dagster is now part of Prefect. - **Category:** Automation - **Made by:** Prefect Technologies, Inc. - **Website:** https://dagster.io - **Runs on:** Web - **Who should skip it:** Skip it if you can't write Python, as pipelines are code. - **Facts last checked:** Nov 13, 2026 ## Pricing As of Nov 13, 2026, Dagster is a paid product with a free trial, starting at $10 per month plus $0.040 per credit (Solo). - **Pricing model:** Free trial - **Free plan:** None. - **Free trial:** 30-day free trial with access to everything Dagster offers. | Plan | Price | What you get | | --- | --- | --- | | Solo | $10 per month, plus $0.040 per credit | 1 user, 1 code location and 1 deployment for personal projects. Serverless compute is $0.010 a minute. | | Starter | $100 per month, plus $0.035 per credit | Up to 3 users, 5 code locations, 1 deployment and catalog search. Serverless compute is $0.010 a minute. | | Pro | Custom | Unlimited code locations and deployments, cost tracking and insights, uptime SLAs and a private Slack channel. Sold through sales. | Read from https://dagster.io/pricing on Nov 13, 2026. Prices change, so confirm with Dagster before buying. ## Key features - **Asset-based orchestration:** Pipelines are modeled as assets with dependencies, alongside workflow-based orchestration for work that is not tied to a data asset. - **Data catalog and lineage:** Asset metadata, asset-level lineage and, on Starter and above, catalog search; column lineage is listed on the comparison table. - **Data quality checks:** Asset checks, freshness policies and dbt test integration surface the health of each asset. - **Insights and alerts:** Pipeline metrics with a 30-day lookback and alerts by email, Slack or Teams; cost tracking for BigQuery and Snowflake is a Pro feature. - **Hybrid or Serverless compute:** Run on Dagster Serverless, billed at $0.010 a minute, or on your own infrastructure in Hybrid mode with no compute charge from Dagster. - **Open-source core:** The core orchestration framework is open source on GitHub and can be self-hosted; Dagster+ adds branch deployments, RBAC and cost insights. ## Good for - Data engineering teams that think in tables and models rather than tasks - Teams running dbt, warehouse and ELT pipelines that want lineage in one place - Individuals who want a hosted orchestrator for under $20 a month to start ## Worth knowing - Usage is billed in credits: one per asset materialized and one per op executed, on top of the monthly fee. - There is no free hosted plan; the trial lasts 30 days, though the core framework can be self-hosted. - Cost tracking, role scoping by project and several alert types are limited to the Pro plan. - The site says Dagster is now part of Prefect, so plans and branding may change. ## ToolGPA grades **GPA: 2.0 out of 4**, graded Nov 13, 2026. Dagster orchestrates data pipelines written in Python, organised around the tables and files they produce. There's no free hosted plan, credits are billed on top of the monthly fee, cost tracking sits on Pro, and the site now says Dagster is part of Prefect, so plans may shift. - **Value for money: C.** Solo is $10 a month and Starter $100, but every asset and op also costs a credit ($0.040 or $0.035), so the bill isn't just the headline. The category's middle is $19.99. - **Free plan and trial: C.** 30-day trial with everything on, and the core framework can be self-hosted for nothing. There's no free hosted plan, so after a month you pay or run it yourself. - **Features: C.** Orchestration, catalog, data quality checks and cost insights. Cost tracking, project-level roles and several alert types are Pro only. - **Ease of use: D.** No store rating on record. You define pipelines as Python code and run or host a code location, which is a developer's setup, not a click-through one. - **Platforms and integrations: B.** Web console with integrations for dbt, Snowflake, Databricks, AWS and Airbyte. No desktop or phone apps. These are ToolGPA's own grades. Graded from this listing, whose facts were read from Dagster's own pages on 13 November 2026. Not based on using the product, and shorter than our full reviews. ## Where it stands among automation tools - Dagster's GPA of 2.0 is higher than 26 of the 134 other automation tools we grade, and level with 27. - It stands best on platforms and integrations (B, above 39 of 134) and worst on ease of use (D, above 0). - Its paid plans start at $10 a month, against a middle price of $22.17 for the category: 10 of the 65 others that charge start lower. - On features, ease of use and platforms it scores 2.0 out of 4. 10 tools score higher and cost less. The category's chart of price against score: https://toolgpa.com/charts/automation ## Keep it, or make your own? **Keep it.** To replace Dagster you would be making connections to other products, each kept working as those products change. That is not a weekend's work, with an AI app builder or without one. That makes this kind of software worth paying for, not this one in particular: 81 of the 134 other automation tools grade higher. It costs $120 a year. Dagster is open source, so there is a third way: take its code and run it yourself. - You could not: Connections to other products, each kept working as those products change. - You could not: Connections that pull numbers from dozens of other services. - You could not: AI features, unless you pay a model provider for each request yourself. A judgement by ToolGPA from this listing, by rules that are the same for every tool. Nothing was built to test it. ## Works with dbt, Snowflake, Databricks, AWS S3, AWS Glue, Airbyte, ClickHouse, Anthropic **Tags:** Workflow automation, Open source, Self-hostable, AI features, Dashboards ## Alternatives - [Prefect](https://toolgpa.com/tools/prefect): Python workflow orchestration with an open-source core and a cloud. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/dagster-vs-prefect) - [Apache Airflow](https://toolgpa.com/tools/apache-airflow): Open-source platform for authoring and scheduling workflows in Python. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/apache-airflow-vs-dagster) - [Astronomer](https://toolgpa.com/tools/astronomer): Managed Apache Airflow platform (Astro) with usage-based pricing. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/astronomer-vs-dagster) - [Kestra](https://toolgpa.com/tools/kestra): Open-source workflow orchestration platform defined in YAML. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/dagster-vs-kestra) - [Windmill](https://toolgpa.com/tools/windmill): Open-source platform for scripts, workflows and internal apps. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/dagster-vs-windmill) ## Sources The prices, plans, platforms and features above were read from these pages on Nov 13, 2026: - https://dagster.io/pricing - https://dagster.io - https://dagster.io/integrations Page: https://toolgpa.com/tools/dagster Listed by ToolGPA (toolgpa.com).