PickYourTechPickYourTech home
RudderStack logo

RudderStack

Build real‑time, privacy‑first customer data pipelines with RudderStack.

Customer Data Platforms (CDP)

RudderStack lets developers collect, transform, and route event data from any source to warehouses and tools, offering warehouse‑first architecture, high availability, and fine‑grained privacy controls.

RudderStack banner

Overview

Overview

RudderStack is a developer‑focused Customer Data Platform that enables you to ingest events from websites, mobile apps, and SaaS services, then activate that data in your data warehouse or downstream tools. It treats the warehouse as a first‑class destination, providing near‑real‑time sync and extensive transformation capabilities while keeping data under your control.

Capabilities & Deployment

The platform offers over 90 native integrations, Segment‑compatible SDKs, and a JavaScript engine for custom event enrichment. Built in Go with a React UI, it runs on a single PostgreSQL instance and can be deployed via Docker, Kubernetes, or Helm charts for production‑grade high availability (99.99% uptime). Privacy‑first features let you filter or mask sensitive fields before forwarding data.

Getting Started

Start with the free RudderStack Cloud tier or self‑host using the provided Docker images. Verify your setup by sending test events, then scale to unlimited event volumes as needed.

Highlights

Warehouse‑first sync with near‑real‑time delivery
Developer‑centric API and over 90 SDK integrations
Built‑in high availability and retry mechanisms
JavaScript‑based per‑event transformation framework

Pros

  • Open‑source flexibility with no event‑volume caps
  • Strong privacy controls and data residency
  • Seamless compatibility with Segment API
  • Extensive catalog of destination integrations

Considerations

  • Self‑hosting requires operational infrastructure
  • Advanced production setups benefit from Kubernetes/Helm
  • Custom JavaScript transformations have a learning curve
  • Community support may be slower than commercial SaaS

Managed products teams compare with

When teams consider RudderStack, these hosted platforms usually appear on the same shortlist.

Hightouch logo

Hightouch

Composable Customer Data Platform and AI decisioning for marketing

Segment logo

Segment

Customer data platform to collect, unify, and activate customer data across tools

Looking for a hosted option? These are the services engineering teams benchmark against before choosing open source.

Fit guide

Great for

  • Teams needing full control over customer data pipelines
  • Organizations with strict privacy or compliance mandates
  • Companies that use data warehouses as primary analytics destinations
  • Developers seeking Segment‑compatible SDKs without vendor lock‑in

Not ideal when

  • Small startups lacking ops resources for self‑hosting
  • Teams preferring a fully managed SaaS solution only
  • Projects that require out‑of‑the‑box UI analytics dashboards
  • Use cases dependent on native mobile analytics SDKs not yet supported

How teams use it

Real‑time event streaming to Snowflake

Events from web and mobile apps are ingested, transformed, and synced to Snowflake within seconds, enabling up‑to‑date analytics.

Privacy‑compliant data enrichment

Sensitive user attributes are filtered or masked before forwarding to marketing tools, meeting GDPR and CCPA requirements.

Segment API migration

Existing Segment integrations are swapped for RudderStack SDKs, preserving functionality while eliminating third‑party data collection.

ELT pipeline for BI reporting

Raw event data is loaded into BigQuery, transformed via JavaScript, and made available for downstream BI dashboards.

Tech snapshot

Go90%
HTML10%
PLpgSQL1%
Makefile1%
Shell1%
Dockerfile1%

Tags

data-synchronizationsnowflakecustomer-databigqueryetlevent-streamingeltcustomer-data-platformprivacydata-warehousewarehouse-managementcustomer-data-pipelineredshiftwarehouse-nativedata-engineeringdata-pipelinecustomer-data-lakedata-integrationsegment-alternativecdp

Frequently asked questions

Is RudderStack free to use?

Yes, the open‑source version can be self‑hosted at no cost; optional cloud plans are also available.

Which destinations are supported?

RudderStack includes native integrations for over 90 tools and warehouses such as Snowflake, BigQuery, Redshift, Mixpanel, and Amplitude.

How does it handle data privacy?

You control exactly which events and fields are sent to each destination, and data never leaves your infrastructure unless you forward it.

What infrastructure is required?

A PostgreSQL database plus a Docker or Kubernetes environment; Helm charts simplify production deployments.

Can I run custom transformations?

Yes, RudderStack provides a JavaScript engine to write per‑event transformations that can reference internal data.

Project at a glance

Active
Visit siteView repo
Stars
4,342
Watchers
4,342
Forks
18
Repo age6 years old
Last commit4 hours ago
Primary languageGo

Last synced 3 hours ago