True open source
d8a.tech: MIT license, including production self-hosting.
Snowplow: Core pipeline under the Snowplow Limited Use License since January 2024; production use needs a commercial license.
Resources / Comparisons
d8a.tech vs Snowplow
Snowplow is a powerful behavioral data pipeline for data engineering teams. d8a.tech gives you warehouse-ready, sessionized tables from the GA4 or Matomo tags you already have, under a true open-source MIT license.
Which one should you choose?
Choose Snowplow if you want a real-time streaming pipeline, custom schemas for every event, and you have the data engineering team to run it. Choose d8a.tech if you want sessionized, reporting-ready tables without re-tagging your site, a lighter stack, and an MIT license that allows production self-hosting.
Jump to the feature tableWhat sets d8a.tech apart from Snowplow
No limits
d8a.tech: Self-host in production with no event caps and no license fee.
Snowplow: Highly available production use of the self-hosted pipeline is not allowed under the limited use license.
Modern infrastructure
d8a.tech: One Go binary, or receiver plus worker. Sessions computed in the pipeline.
Snowplow: Collector, enrich, loaders and a schema registry, with sessions modeled later in dbt.
No reimplementation
d8a.tech: Reuse your GA4 or Matomo tags as they are.
Snowplow: Snowplow trackers and event schemas, or a server-side GTM route for GA4 data.
Where Snowplow fits
Snowplow is a mature behavioral data platform with real-time streams, its own trackers, and self-describing event schemas validated against a schema registry. It suits data engineering teams that want to design every event and run a streaming pipeline.
Where d8a.tech is different
d8a.tech starts from the tracking you already have. It accepts GA4 and Matomo requests, computes sessions in the pipeline, and writes flat, reporting-ready tables to BigQuery, ClickHouse or Parquet, in our EU cloud or your own infrastructure.
d8a.tech vs Snowplow, feature by feature
Tick Discuss next to anything you want to cover on a call. We'll start the conversation there.
Feature
d8a.tech
Warehouse-native analytics
Snowplow
Behavioral data pipeline
Discuss
At A Glance
d8a.tech MIT
Snowplow Source-available (SLULA)
d8a.tech Yes
Snowplow No
d8a.tech Yes
Snowplow GA4 via server-side GTM
d8a.tech In the pipeline
Snowplow In dbt, afterwards
d8a.tech Yes
Snowplow Talk to sales
Open Source And Licensing
d8a.tech MIT
Snowplow Source-available
Since January 2024, the collector, enrich, loaders and Iglu Server use the Snowplow Limited Use License. Trackers stay Apache 2.0.
d8a.tech Yes
Snowplow No
The limited use license does not allow highly available production use without a commercial agreement.
d8a.tech Yes
Snowplow Read and modify, not redistribute
Tracking And Reimplementation How much of your existing tracking you can keep.
d8a.tech Duplicate or redirect
Snowplow Server-side GTM route
Snowplow's GTM Server-Side tag can build Snowplow events from GA4 clients. In the browser, Snowplow uses its own trackers.
d8a.tech Yes
Snowplow No
d8a.tech Yes
Snowplow JSON schemas required
Custom events are self-describing JSON validated against schemas in Iglu.
d8a.tech Drop-in gtag replacement
Snowplow JavaScript, mobile and server SDKs
Data Model And Sessions
d8a.tech Out of the pipeline
Snowplow After dbt modeling
Raw events land in an atomic events table with JSON entities; reporting tables come from Snowplow's dbt packages.
d8a.tech Computed in the pipeline
Snowplow Via the Unified dbt package
d8a.tech Yes
Snowplow Yes
d8a.tech Yes
Snowplow Schema registry
Infrastructure
d8a.tech Go binary, or receiver + worker
Snowplow Collector, enrich, loaders, schema registry, streams
d8a.tech BigQuery, ClickHouse, CSV/Parquet
Snowplow Snowflake, BigQuery, Databricks, Redshift, Postgres
d8a.tech On session close
Snowplow Streaming
d8a.tech Yes
Snowplow Not documented
AI And Analytics
d8a.tech Cloud
Snowplow Bring your BI
d8a.tech Ask AI
Snowplow Not built in
d8a.tech No
Snowplow Snowplow Signals
d8a.tech Yes
Snowplow Not documented
Operations And Pricing
d8a.tech Up to 500k events/mo
Snowplow Talk to sales
d8a.tech 30–45 days
Snowplow Talk to sales
d8a.tech Yes
Snowplow Check with vendor
Sources for Snowplow details:
Questions about d8a.tech vs Snowplow
Is d8a.tech a Snowplow alternative?
For teams that want warehouse-native behavioral data without running a streaming pipeline or re-tagging their sites, yes. d8a.tech reuses GA4 and Matomo tracking and delivers sessionized tables. Teams that need real-time streams and custom schemas for every event may still prefer Snowplow.
Is Snowplow open source?
Snowplow's trackers are Apache 2.0, but since January 2024 its core pipeline components use the Snowplow Limited Use License, a source-available license that does not allow highly available production use without a commercial agreement. d8a.tech is MIT-licensed, including production self-hosting.
Do I have to re-tag my website to move from Snowplow to d8a.tech?
Not if you also run GA4 or Matomo tags: d8a.tech can receive those requests directly. If your site only runs Snowplow trackers, you would add GA4-style tags or the d8a.tech web tracker.
When should I still choose Snowplow?
When you need real-time event streams for operational use cases, want to define a custom schema for every event, or plan to feed customer-facing AI agents with Snowplow Signals, and you have the data engineering capacity to run it.
Comparing us with Snowplow?
Tell us what matters to you and we'll walk you through it on your own stack. Or start with free Cloud and see for yourself.