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DataHub vs OpenMetadata

Both are free, active open-source metadata platforms; OpenMetadata unifies catalog, lineage and quality testing, while DataHub leans on a real-time graph.

Side by side

DataHub OpenMetadata
Vendor Linux Foundation AI & Data (commercial: Acryl Data) OpenMetadata community (commercial: Collate)
Pricing model Open source + paid options Free tier + paid plans
Free tier Yes Yes
Deployment Cloud, Self-hosted Cloud, Self-hosted
Open source Yes (Apache-2.0) Yes (Apache-2.0)
Best for Engineering teams wanting a self-hosted, extensible open-source metadata platform. Teams wanting catalog, lineage and data quality in a single open-source platform.
Pricing

Core platform is free to self-host; DataHub Cloud (managed, by Acryl Data) is sold via custom quote with no public pricing page.

Pricing has not been verified yet — see the vendor's site.

Self-hosted core is free; Collate's hosted version has a genuine free tier plus quote-based Premium and Enterprise plans.

Free Free
Premium Custom (demo required)
Enterprise Custom (demo required)

Prices read from the vendor's own page on September 21, 2026. Vendors change prices; check the source before you budget.

Features
  • Metadata search and discovery
  • Column and table-level lineage
  • Business glossary and classification
  • Ownership and access tracking
  • Data quality integration
  • Slack and webhook alerting
  • GraphQL and REST APIs
  • AI/MCP layer for agent tools (Cloud)
  • Unified catalog, lineage, quality and observability schema
  • Column-level lineage
  • Automated PII classification
  • Built-in data quality test suites
  • Glossary and classification tags
  • Collaboration (tasks, announcements)
  • Role-based access control
  • Collate AI assistant (hosted)

Verdict

DataHub and OpenMetadata are the two actively maintained open-source data catalogs in this category — both Apache-2.0, both self-hostable for free, both backed by a company (Acryl Data and Collate, respectively) selling a managed cloud version by quote. The design difference is in scope: OpenMetadata was built from the start to unify cataloging, lineage, data quality test suites, and observability under a single metadata schema, so those capabilities feel native rather than bolted together. DataHub was built around a real-time metadata graph with GraphQL and REST APIs as first-class citizens, making it a strong foundation to push metadata into or pull it from other tools, with data quality handled more as an integration point than a built-in module.

Choose DataHub if

  • You want to push and pull metadata programmatically via GraphQL/REST as part of a broader platform, not just browse a UI.
  • Your team is comfortable operating the underlying stack (Kafka, Elasticsearch, a metadata service) and wants maximum extensibility.
  • You're building agentic or AI tooling on top of the catalog — DataHub Cloud's newer AI/MCP layer is aimed specifically at that.

Choose OpenMetadata if

  • You want catalog, lineage, and data quality testing in one tool instead of integrating a separate quality product.
  • You want a genuine free managed tier to start on (Collate's hosted free plan covers 5 users and 500 assets) before committing to self-hosting or a paid plan.
  • Automated PII classification and role-based access control out of the box matter to your rollout.

What they share

Both trace their engineering lineage to large tech companies (DataHub from LinkedIn, OpenMetadata's founders previously built Uber's data catalog), both are free to self-host indefinitely, and both are meaningfully more active than older open-source options like Amundsen in this category. Either is a reasonable default if the deciding factor is "actively developed and free to start" rather than a specific feature gap — the honest next step is trying both against your own warehouse's metadata before committing.

Last reviewed September 22, 2026

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