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Jitsu vs Nebula

Jitsu logo

Jitsu

Developer Tools

Open source event pipeline that streams behavioural data to your own warehouse

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Nebula logo

Nebula

Networking

Certificate based overlay network from Slack, with identity and firewall rules carried in the certificate

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: Jitsu jitsu is a pipeline, not a customer data platform, so identity resolution, audience building and reverse ETL are absent and a marketing team expecting Segment parity will be disappointed.; Nebula the open source project has no user interface, no enrolment workflow and no revocation service, so certificate issuing, distribution and expiry become scripts you write and then have to keep working.
  • They diverge on capability: Jitsu covers Event collection, Nebula covers Certificate carried identity.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Jitsu and Nebula actually diverge.

Attributes where Jitsu and Nebula differ
AttributeJitsuNebula
Pricing modelPer month by event volumeOpen source, no licence fee
PlatformsWeb, Linux, Docker, Kubernetes, iOS, AndroidLinux, macOS, Windows, iOS, Android, FreeBSD
CategoryDeveloper ToolsNetworking

Identical on both: starting price (Free), free tier (Yes), user rating (Not yet rated).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in Jitsu

  • Event collection
  • Warehouse destinations
  • Connector syncs
  • Transformations
  • Bundled ClickHouse
  • Event debugger
  • Self-hosting
  • Custom domains

Only in Nebula

  • Certificate carried identity
  • Group based host firewall
  • Lighthouse discovery
  • Noise protocol encryption
  • Unsafe routes
  • Managed option

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Jitsu

  • A team paying five figures a year to a customer data platform when all it actually does is send events to Snowflakenot Nebula
  • An engineering group that needs event collection running inside its own VPC for data residency or security review reasonsnot Nebula
  • A product analytics setup that wants raw events in the warehouse as the source of truth rather than trapped in a vendor toolnot Nebula
  • A startup that needs first-party event collection on its own domain to reduce loss from tracker blocking without paying CDP pricesnot Nebula

Nebula

  • Flattening a network across several clouds and datacentres without VPC peering or route tablesnot Jitsu
  • Very large fleets where a central policy service on the connection path is unacceptablenot Jitsu
  • Environments that already run an internal certificate authority and want the network to use itnot Jitsu
  • Replacing per host iptables rules with policy written against roles that follow the hostnot Jitsu

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Jitsu

  • Jitsu is a pipeline, not a customer data platform, so identity resolution, audience building and reverse ETL are absent and a marketing team expecting Segment parity will be disappointed.
  • Connector sync frequency is deliberately tiered, with the free plan limited to manual runs and one daily sync, so anything approaching operational freshness requires the paid plan or self-hosting.
  • Self-hosting means you own the reliability of a system that drops data silently when misconfigured, and event loss is uniquely hard to notice because nothing errors, the numbers are just quietly lower.
  • The connector catalogue is far smaller than Fivetran or Airbyte, so if your requirement is pulling from many SaaS sources rather than pushing events, Jitsu is the wrong half of the problem.
  • It is a small company with a small commercial team, so enterprise procurement processes around security review, contractual SLAs and support escalation take longer than with an incumbent vendor.

Nebula

  • The open source project has no user interface, no enrolment workflow and no revocation service, so certificate issuing, distribution and expiry become scripts you write and then have to keep working.
  • Revoking a compromised host means distributing a blocklist entry to every other host and reloading them, which is a fleet wide operation rather than a click, and easy to get wrong under pressure.
  • Changing a host group membership means reissuing and redeploying its certificate, so policy changes are a deployment rather than a configuration edit.
  • There is no identity provider integration or single sign on in the open source version, so it maps well to servers and badly to a fleet of user laptops.
  • NAT traversal is best effort and hosts behind symmetric NAT need a relay configured deliberately, so connectivity failures show up as intermittent rather than immediate and are awkward to diagnose.

Pricing, plan by plan

Jitsu

Free
  • Open SourceFree
    • MIT licence
    • Self-host on any cloud
    • No usage limits
  • Cloud FreeFree
    • Unlimited captured events
    • 200,000 active events per month
    • Manual connector runs only
  • Business$99/month
    • 2,000,000 active events per month
    • $40 per additional million events
    • Hourly connector sync frequency
  • Enterprise$undefined/year
    • Custom event volume
    • One minute sync frequency
    • Unlimited active syncs

Nebula

Free
  • NebulaFree
    • Full functionality under the MIT licence
    • No host limit
    • You operate the certificate authority and lighthouses
  • Defined Networking$undefined/month
    • Hosted control plane and enrolment
    • Managed certificate lifecycle and revocation
    • Policy and DNS interface

Which should you pick?

Choose Jitsu if

  • You need event collection.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Web, Linux, Docker, Kubernetes, iOS, Android.
  • You also want warehouse destinations.
Jitsu review

Choose Nebula if

  • You need certificate carried identity.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Linux, macOS, Windows, iOS, Android, FreeBSD.
  • You also want group based host firewall.
Nebula review

Questions people ask

Is Jitsu or Nebula better?
Neither clearly leads. Jitsu starts at Free and Nebula at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Jitsu or Nebula?
Jitsu starts at Free and Nebula at Free.
Does Jitsu or Nebula run on more platforms?
Jitsu runs on Web, Linux, Docker, Kubernetes, iOS, Android. Nebula runs on Linux, macOS, Windows, iOS, Android, FreeBSD.
Can I use Jitsu for free?
Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
What is Jitsu best used for?
Jitsu is most often used for a team paying five figures a year to a customer data platform when all it actually does is send events to snowflake, an engineering group that needs event collection running inside its own vpc for data residency or security review reasons, a product analytics setup that wants raw events in the warehouse as the source of truth rather than trapped in a vendor tool, a startup that needs first-party event collection on its own domain to reduce loss from tracker blocking without paying cdp prices. Of those, a team paying five figures a year to a customer data platform when all it actually does is send events to snowflake and an engineering group that needs event collection running inside its own vpc for data residency or security review reasons are not what Nebula is typically brought in for.
What can Jitsu do that Nebula cannot?
Jitsu covers Event collection, Warehouse destinations, Connector syncs, Transformations. Nebula covers Certificate carried identity, Group based host firewall, Lighthouse discovery, Noise protocol encryption.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Jitsu: Is Jitsu the same as Jitsi?

No. Jitsu is an open source event data pipeline. Jitsi is an unrelated video conferencing project.

Nebula: Does it use WireGuard?

No. Nebula predates the common WireGuard mesh tools and uses the Noise protocol framework with its own certificate format.

Jitsu: Can I self-host for free?

Yes. The project is MIT licensed with no usage limits when self-hosted.

Nebula: Can I run it without Defined Networking?

Yes, entirely. Defined Networking sells the control plane conveniences, not the network itself.

Jitsu: How does the cost compare with Segment?

The Business plan is 99 US dollars a month for two million active events, where a per-tracked-user CDP typically costs orders of magnitude more at comparable volume.

Nebula: How do I revoke a host?

Add its certificate fingerprint to the blocklist in the configuration of the other hosts and reload them. There is no online revocation check.

Jitsu: Does Jitsu do identity resolution?

No. It transports and transforms events; identity stitching and audiences are not part of the product.

Nebula: Is it a good fit for laptops?

Less so than the identity provider based tools. There is no single sign on, so every laptop needs a certificate issued and renewed by whatever process you build.

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