If you are evaluating RudderStack in a build vs. buy context, it's important to understand the components and features that make up the RudderStack service as they relate to your current and future needs.
This guide will help you decide the right setup based on your environment and data needs: RudderStack Cloud or RudderStack Open Source.
Comparison overview (Summary)
Advanced RudderStack features are typically not supported in the open source version of the product.
| Feature | Description | RudderStack Cloud | RudderStack Open Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Events | Features related to tracking, collecting, and routing your events | ✅ | ✅ |
| Cloud Extract (ETL) | Collect third-party app data and send it to your data warehouse | ✅ | ❌ |
| Reverse ETL | Send data from your warehouse to third-party platforms. | ✅ | ❌ |
| Data governance | Investigate and troubleshoot inconsistencies in your event data. | ✅ | ❌ |
| Deployment and security | Scale and secure your RudderStack deployment. | ✅ | ❌ |
| Monitoring and observability | Monitor your data pipelines using different tools and alerting mechanisms. | ✅ | ❌ |
| Audits and user management | Manage users and set access controls for various RudderStack features. | ✅ | ❌ |
Cloud and Open Source setup
To understand the effort involved in setting up RudderStack, it's useful to take a look at RudderStack's architecture which comprises the control plane and the data plane. These two services work together to govern the data flow between your event sources and destinations.
- The control plane refers to the front-end RudderStack dashboard where you can manage the configuration of your sources and destinations.
- The data plane is RudderStack's core engine responsible for receiving event data and transforming it into the required destination format before relaying events to the destination.
RudderStack Cloud
In RudderStack Cloud, you get a RudderStack-hosted data plane and control plane so you need not worry about the setup. Sign up for free, set up a source and destination, and start seeing the events flow within minutes.
RudderStack's free cloud tier offers multiple sources, destinations and delivery of 5 million events per month. It provides key features like Live Events and Transformations. If you start on the cloud free tier, it's much easier to convert to a paid plan as your needs evolve over time.
RudderStack Open Source
For RudderStack Open Source, you have the following data plane and control plane setup options:
- Set up the data plane on Docker, Kubernetes, or in your own development environment. RudderStack will not host the data plane for you.
Set up the control plane using one of the following options:
- Use the RudderStack-hosted control plane (recommended).
- Self-host your source-destination configurations by setting up your own control plane using Control Plane Lite.
Detailed feature comparison
Event-related features
| Feature | RudderStack Cloud | RudderStack Open Source | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Event metrics | ✅ | ❗ |
|
| Event backup in your own bucket | ✅ | ✅ | RudderStack can manage it for you as a part of the Enterprise plan. |
| Live Events | ✅ | ❗ |
|
| End-to-end warehouse uploads | ✅ | ❌ | Use the RudderStack-hosted object storage to temporarily store your events before forwarding them to your warehouse destination. RudderStack does not persist any of this data. |
| Event Replay | ✅ | ❌ | This is a RudderStack Enterprise feature. |
| Maintaining event ordering | ✅ | ❌ |
|
| Transformations | ✅ | ✅ |
|
ETL and Reverse ETL
| Feature | RudderStack Cloud | RudderStack Open Source | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cloud Extract (ETL) | ✅ | ❌ | RudderStack Cloud Free users can set up 1 Cloud Extract source. Pro and Enterprise users can set up unlimited sources. |
| Reverse ETL | ✅ | ❌ | RudderStack Cloud Free users can set up 1 Reverse ETL source. Pro and Enterprise users can set up unlimited sources. |
| Data syncs scheduling | ✅ | ❌ | - |
| Models | ✅ | ❌ | - |
Data governance
| Feature | RudderStack Cloud | RudderStack Open Source | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Data governance | ✅ | ❌ | This is a RudderStack Enterprise feature. |
| Tracking plans | ✅ | ❌ | This is a RudderStack Enterprise feature. |
| Data regulation and suppression | ✅ | ❌ | This is a RudderStack Enterprise feature. |
Deployment and security
| Feature | RudderStack Cloud | RudderStack Open Source | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Multi-node scaling | ✅ | ❌ | Available for RudderStack Pro and Enterprise users. |
| Single sign-on (SSO) | ✅ | ❌ | This is a RudderStack Enterprise feature. |
| VPC deployment | ✅ | ❌ | This is a RudderStack Enterprise feature. |
Monitoring and observability
| Feature | RudderStack Cloud | RudderStack Open Source | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Grafana dashboards for monitoring | ✅ | ❌ | Available for RudderStack Pro and Enterprise users. |
| Alerting and error notifications | ✅ | ❌ | This is a RudderStack Enterprise feature. |
Auditing and user management
| Feature | RudderStack Cloud | RudderStack Open Source | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ability to add other team members in the workspace | ✅ | ❌ | You can invite up to 3 members to your workspace in RudderStack Cloud Free, up to 10 members in Pro, and unlimited members in the Enterprise plan. |
| Audit logs | ✅ | ❌ | This is a RudderStack Enterprise feature. |
Contact us
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