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Developer Tools · head to head

Jitsu vs Rill Data

Jitsu logo

Jitsu

Developer Tools

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

From
Free
Free plan
Yes
Visit JitsuFull review
Rill Data logo

Rill Data

Business Intelligence

Local-first BI on DuckDB and ClickHouse with dashboards defined as code

From
$20/month
Free plan
No
Visit Rill DataFull review

The short version

  • Jitsu is an MIT-licensed alternative to Segment.
  • Jitsu has a free plan, then $99/mo; Rill Data starts at $20/mo.
  • Only Jitsu lists event collection; only Rill Data lists local development.
  • Prices and features on this page were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Jitsu and Rill Data actually diverge.

Attributes where Jitsu and Rill Data differ
AttributeJitsuRill Data
Starting priceFree$20/month
Pricing modelPer month by event volumePer user per month plus metered compute
Free tierYesNo
PlatformsWeb, Linux, Self-hosted, iOS, AndroidWeb, Linux, macOS, Windows
CategoryDeveloper ToolsBusiness Intelligence

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 Rill Data

  • Local development
  • Dashboards as code
  • Embedded DuckDB
  • Bring your own database
  • Alerts and scheduled reports
  • Embedded analytics

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 Rill Data
  • An engineering group that needs event collection running inside its own VPC for data residency or security review reasonsnot Rill Data
  • A product analytics setup that wants raw events in the warehouse as the source of truth rather than trapped in a vendor toolnot Rill Data
  • A startup that needs first-party event collection on its own domain to reduce loss from tracker blocking without paying CDP pricesnot Rill Data

Rill Data

  • An analytics team that wants dashboard changes to go through code review rather than being edited in a web UInot Jitsu
  • Interactive exploration of event-scale data where a warehouse round trip per filter click is too slownot Jitsu
  • Embedding fast slice-and-dice dashboards into a product where the underlying store is already ClickHouse or Druidnot Jitsu
  • A data engineer prototyping a metrics layer locally on a laptop before committing to any cloud spendnot 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

Rill Data

  • The seat price of 20 dollars is misleading as a budget figure: Rill’s own calculator puts a small two-seat project at around 256 dollars a month, with compute making up the great majority
  • Dashboards are defined in YAML and SQL, so business users cannot create or change one without a developer and a Git workflow, which stalls self-service adoption
  • It is built for the explore-a-metric pattern and does not produce pixel-perfect financial or operational reports, so most organisations still need a second reporting tool
  • AI tokens and API calls are quota-limited per seat, with API overage at a cent per call, so programmatic consumers can create an unbudgeted line item
  • As a smaller vendor competing against Looker, Tableau and Power BI, the ecosystem of consultants, templates and trained analysts is thin, which raises the cost of hiring for it

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/mo
    • 2,000,000 active events per month
    • $40 per additional million events
    • Hourly connector sync frequency
  • EnterpriseOn request
    • Custom event volume
    • One minute sync frequency
    • Unlimited active syncs

Rill Data

$20/month
  • Starter$20/mo
    • Per seat, up to twenty seats
    • Three projects
    • Compute at 0.15 USD per compute unit hour
  • Growth$30/mo
    • Per seat, up to one hundred seats
    • Ten projects
    • Compute at 0.20 USD per compute unit hour
  • EnterpriseOn request
    • Annual platform licence with negotiated capacity
    • Unlimited seats and projects
    • Dedicated infrastructure

Which should you pick?

Choose Jitsu if

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

Choose Rill Data if

  • You need local development.
  • You work on Web, Linux, macOS, Windows.
  • You also want dashboards as code.
Rill Data review

Questions people ask

Is Jitsu or Rill Data better?
Neither clearly leads. Jitsu starts at Free and Rill Data at $20/month, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Jitsu or Rill Data?
Jitsu has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at Free for Jitsu and $20/month for Rill Data.
Does Jitsu or Rill Data run on more platforms?
Jitsu runs on Web, Linux, Self-hosted, iOS, Android. Rill Data runs on Web, Linux, macOS, Windows.
Can I use Jitsu for free?
Yes. Jitsu has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Rill Data starts at $20/month.
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 Rill Data is typically brought in for.
What can Jitsu do that Rill Data cannot?
Jitsu covers Event collection, Warehouse destinations, Connector syncs, Transformations. Rill Data covers Local development, Dashboards as code, Embedded DuckDB, Bring your own database.

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.

Rill Data: Is Rill open source?

The Rill developer binary is open source and free to run locally; Rill Cloud is the paid product.

Jitsu: Can I self-host for free?

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

Rill Data: How much does it actually cost?

Seats start at 20 USD per month, but hosted compute at 0.15 USD per compute unit hour typically dominates the bill. Bringing your own database removes the usage fee.

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.

Rill Data: Can business users build dashboards?

Not directly. Dashboards are YAML and SQL under version control.

Jitsu: Does Jitsu do identity resolution?

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

Rill Data: Which databases can back a deployed project?

DuckDB, ClickHouse, Druid, Pinot, Snowflake and others.

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