# dbt alternatives: what AI models name instead, September 2026

GTM AI Recommendation Index, September 2026 Edition. 148 of the 216 answers in the 1 category where dbt holds a standing named it neither first nor as an alternative; these are the first choices those answers made. Page: https://gtm-ai-index.com/vendors/dbt/alternatives/

## Named instead, most often (every category and segment added)

- Hightouch: 85
- BigQuery: 48
- Snowflake: 36
- Census: 24
- Airbyte: 2
- Improvado: 2

## Data warehouse and reverse ETL for marketing

**Small business**: 50 of 72 answers did not name dbt (dbt is #8 of 17 at 0%).

- Hightouch: first choice in 27 of those 50
- BigQuery: first choice in 23 of those 50
- Census: first choice in 9 of those 50
- Snowflake: first choice in 4 of those 50
- Polytomic: first choice in 2 of those 50
- Airbyte: first choice in 1 of those 50
- Hevo: first choice in 1 of those 50
- Metabase: first choice in 1 of those 50

**Mid-market**: 48 of 72 answers did not name dbt (dbt is #9 of 14 at 0%).

- Hightouch: first choice in 28 of those 48
- BigQuery: first choice in 16 of those 48
- Snowflake: first choice in 13 of those 48
- Census: first choice in 7 of those 48
- ClicData: first choice in 1 of those 48
- DuckDB: first choice in 1 of those 48
- Funnel: first choice in 1 of those 48
- Improvado: first choice in 1 of those 48

**Enterprise**: 50 of 72 answers did not name dbt (dbt is #8 of 13 at 0%).

- Hightouch: first choice in 30 of those 50
- Snowflake: first choice in 19 of those 50
- BigQuery: first choice in 9 of those 50
- Census: first choice in 8 of those 50
- Airbyte: first choice in 1 of those 50
- Databricks: first choice in 1 of those 50
- Fivetran: first choice in 1 of those 50
- Improvado: first choice in 1 of those 50

Published under CC BY 4.0. The output is the models' output; nothing here is a recommendation by the index.