RudderStack Cloud vs. RudderStack Open Source
Detailed guide comparing features available in RudderStack's two offerings - Cloud and Open Source.
This guide compares the features present in the two primary RudderStack offerings - RudderStack Cloud and RudderStack Open Source. It will help you in choosing the best option suited to your requirements.
RudderStack also offers three plans as a part of RudderStack Cloud : Free, Pro, and Enterprise. Refer to the Pricing page for detailed comparison and additional information on these plans.
Feature comparison
Setup and customizability
| Feature | RudderStack Cloud | RudderStack Open Source | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|
Data plane setup in your own environment | ✕ | ✓ | Cloud uses the RudderStack-hosted data plane. |
Control plane setup in your own environment | ✕ | ✓ | Cloud uses the RudderStack-hosted web app to manage your connections. |
Customize the data plane config parameters | ✕ | ✓ | - |
For more information on the data plane and control plane setup options in RudderStack Cloud and Open Source, refer to the FAQ section below.
Event-related features
| Feature | RudderStack Cloud | RudderStack Open Source | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|
Event-related metrics | ✓ | ✓ | Get information on the number of events ingested during a specified timeframe. |
✓ | ✓ | RudderStack can manage it for you as a part of the Enterprise plan. | |
✓ | ✕ | This feature is applicable only for cloud mode destinations. | |
RudderStack-hosted object storage | ✓ | ✕ | You can use the RudderStack-hosted bucket to temporarily store your events before forwarding them to your warehouse destination. |
✓ | ✕ | This is an Enterprise-only feature. | |
Maintaining event ordering | ✓ | ✓ |
|
✓ | ✓ |
|
ETL and Reverse ETL
| Feature | RudderStack Cloud | RudderStack Open Source | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|
✓ | ✕ | RudderStack Cloud Free users can set up only 1 Cloud Extract source. Pro and Enterprise users can set up unlimited sources. | |
✓ | ✕ | RudderStack Cloud Free users can set up only 1 Reverse ETL source. Pro and Enterprise users can set up unlimited sources. | |
Data syncs scheduling | ✓ | ✕ | - |
✓ | ✕ | Models let you define and run custom SQL queries on your warehouse and send the resulting data to specific destinations. |
Data governance
| Feature | RudderStack Cloud | RudderStack Open Source | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|
✓ | ✕ | This is an Enterprise-only feature. | |
✓ | ✕ | This is an Enterprise-only feature. | |
✓ | ✕ | This is an Enterprise-only feature. |
Deployment and security
| Feature | RudderStack Cloud | RudderStack Open Source | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|
Multi-node scaling | ✓ | ✕ | Available for Pro and Enterprise users. |
Single sign-on(SSO) | ✓ | ✕ | This is an Enterprise-only feature. |
VPC deployment | ✓ | ✕ | This is an Enterprise-only feature. |
Monitoring and observability
| Feature | RudderStack Cloud | RudderStack Open Source | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|
Grafana dashboards for monitoring | ✓ | ✕ | Available for Pro and Enterprise users. |
Alerting and error notifications | ✓ | ✕ | This is an Enterprise-only feature. |
Auditing and user management
| Feature | RudderStack Cloud | RudderStack Open Source | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|
Ability to add other team members in the workspace | ✓ | ✕ | You can invite upto 3 members in your workspace in RudderStack Cloud Free, upto 10 members in Pro, and unlimited members in the Enterprise plan. |
Audit logs | ✓ | ✕ | This is an Enterprise-only feature. |
FAQ
What is the data plane and control plane in RudderStack? How do I set them up?
The data plane is RudderStack's core engine responsible for receiving the event data, transforming it into the required destination format, before relaying those events to the destination.
The control plane manages the configuration of your sources and destinations in RudderStack.
For more information on the data plane and control plane in RudderStack, refer to the Architecture guide.
In case of RudderStack Cloud, RudderStack self-hosts the data plane and the control plane so you don't have to worry about their setup.
For RudderStack Open Source, you get the following data plane and control plane setup options:
You need to set up the data plane in your own environment. RudderStack will not host it for you.
For the control plane, you can either use the RudderStack-hosted control plane or set up your own control plane.
Features like Transformations and Live Events are not available if you self-host the control plane.
Contact us
For more information or queries on this guide, you can contact us or start a conversation in our Slack community.
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