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SAS Viya Platform vs dbt comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

ROI

Sentiment score
3.9
Migrating to dbt improved efficiency, reduced costs, and enhanced data quality and governance without needing more staff.
Sentiment score
4.4
SAS Viya Platform enhances ROI with AI, automation, cost savings, cloud scalability, data visualization, and efficiency improvements.
There is operational efficiency achieved, and data quality and governance have also been achieved with modular SQL and version controlling, which reduced duplication of data and data errors.
Senior Data Engineer at a pharma/biotech company with 10,001+ employees
I have seen a return on investment as it means we don't have to employ as many people.
Head of Data & AI engineering at One NZ
Since we migrated from SSIS to dbt model architecture, it takes around four hours only to complete a full refresh.
Manager Projects at Cognizant
I have seen a return on investment with SAS Viya Platform in the form of money saved, as this is scalable and on the cloud, whereas previously we had to pay for space and on-premises servers.
Director, Lead, Ri Technical Solutions at a insurance company with 10,001+ employees
We generate revenue from the data visualization options, which is a very important key aspect for return of investment.
Biostatistician at Lambda Therapeutic Research Ltd.
The relevant metrics definitely show time saved because it is able to crunch 50 to 60,000 rows of numbers in a matter of five to ten minutes, which is a huge improvement.
Computer Instructor at Carleton University
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.1
Users praise dbt's responsive support and active community, with satisfaction varying by service tier and resource availability.
Sentiment score
5.1
SAS Viya Platform offers highly rated, responsive customer service, with excellent support during migrations, despite limited community assistance.
If you type your question, you will likely find that someone has already asked it, so we do not need to contact their support directly.
Lead Software Engineer at Momentus
I would rate the technical support a nine out of ten.
Manager Projects at Cognizant
We ran dbt Core, which is open-source, so there is no direct vendor support.
AI Engineer at a educational organization with 51-200 employees
I would rate customer support for SAS Viya Platform a 10 out of 10.
Biostatistician at Lambda Therapeutic Research Ltd.
we have received help whenever we have asked, and their response time is quite fast
Senior Data Analyst at a government with 201-500 employees
we got the solution on time
Technical Architect at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.5
dbt is scalable and effective for complex transformations, integrating well with Snowflake, and valued for handling large data sets.
Sentiment score
6.0
SAS Viya Platform is highly scalable, efficiently managing large data and growing user demands without performance issues in the cloud.
The bottlenecks that we have are not coming from dbt; they are coming from Snowflake.
Principal Data Engineer at Integrant, Inc.
We were processing large volumes of financial documents, hundreds of trial balances, balance sheets, and invoice sets, and dbt handled the transformation layer without issues.
AI Engineer at a educational organization with 51-200 employees
dbt is quite scalable since it has its own feature set for incorporating business logic.
Data Architect at Envision Pharma, Inc.
We have not had a problem, and it is because it is on the cloud, it scales quite well.
Director, Lead, Ri Technical Solutions at a insurance company with 10,001+ employees
SAS Viya Platform is quite scalable and can handle large data volumes.
Senior Data Analyst at a government with 201-500 employees
SAS Viya Platform's scalability is great; it can be scaled throughout the project, even company-wide.
Technical Architect at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.8
Users praise dbt's stability, noting reliable data processing and comparing it favorably to industry leaders like Informatica and Alteryx.
Sentiment score
7.6
The SAS Viya Platform is mostly stable and scalable, though some users noted occasional lags and downtime resolved by support.
Comparing it to tools I have seen in the past, such as Informatica and Alteryx, dbt can easily match up to that rating, specifically for stability.
Lead Software Engineer at Momentus
Every upgrade is a little bit of a risk for us because we do not know if the workarounds that we developed will be available for the next version.
Principal Data Engineer at Integrant, Inc.
When I conduct dbt tests, the data processed in the data warehouse performs exactly as expected.
Data Architect at Envision Pharma, Inc.
SAS Viya Platform is good, scalable, and stable.
Data & BI Architect at a outsourcing company with 5,001-10,000 employees
In my experience, SAS Viya Platform is stable and perfect.
Computer Instructor at Carleton University
 

Room For Improvement

Users seek better integration, Python support, and stability improvements, alongside enhanced SQL, testing, setup, structure, and package management.
SAS Viya Platform needs interface simplification, better integration, enhanced reporting, and improved training resources for streamlined user experience.
Improvement is needed in the tool itself in terms of the copilot, in terms of covering outages, in terms of testing, and in terms of quality reasons related to governance and collaboration.
Senior Data Engineer at a pharma/biotech company with 10,001+ employees
The whole data testing field is not very mature. It is not the same as software testing; for example, you have test suites, test tools, and profilers, but for data testing, it is not yet that advanced.
Principal Data Engineer at Integrant, Inc.
dbt does not have a native concept of multi-tenant or multi-standard project organization.
AI Engineer at a educational organization with 51-200 employees
Two main improvements would transform this into a great tool: improving the UI and calculation capabilities, and merging AI capabilities.
Data & BI Architect at a outsourcing company with 5,001-10,000 employees
The cost is also quite high; SAS Viya Platform via SaaS can be expensive compared to some open-source or other cloud alternatives.
Assistant Manager Data Analytics (WFM) at Johari Digital Healthcare Limited
In comparison, other packages I have used are more complete and less divided; SAS is quite divided, particularly with quality control, which used to be included, but now requires separate packages for control charts and so on.
Senior Data Analyst at a government with 201-500 employees
 

Setup Cost

DBT is cost-effective, open-source, with manageable costs, praised for its affordability and free beginner courses.
Enterprise users find SAS Viya cost-effective, though some perceive it as expensive; comparisons with Tableau or Power BI are rare.
The course content that dbt provides is free and excellent for anyone starting out.
Lead Software Engineer at Momentus
dbt is open source for its core modules.
Data Engineer at a comms service provider with 10,001+ employees
I mentioned the cost as one of the advantages, specifically the license cost.
Data Engineer at Georgia Institute of Technology
I did check with Reddit and they indicated that SAS Viya Platform is a pretty expensive program.
Computer Instructor at Carleton University
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing is very positive, as the pricing is good and efficient for my organization.
Biostatistician at Lambda Therapeutic Research Ltd.
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing for SAS Viya Platform was smooth.
Director, Lead, Ri Technical Solutions at a insurance company with 10,001+ employees
 

Valuable Features

dbt offers fast, efficient SQL-based data transformation, with features like version control, templating, and testing for improved performance.
SAS Viya Platform enhances data processing with AI features, cloud-native architecture, and integration, supporting efficient, no-code decision-making.
dbt has positively impacted my organization by allowing us to create our data pipelines much faster, going from ingestion of data to creating a data product in weeks instead of months.
Head of Data & AI engineering at One NZ
There are the benefits of having code, so you have a software development lifecycle; you can use version control, testing, and documentation.
Principal Data Engineer at Integrant, Inc.
The tests, especially custom tests for financial data like validating that debits equal credits, caught a lot of our data quality issues early.
AI Engineer at a educational organization with 51-200 employees
SAS Viya Platform has improved the speed, scalability, and accessibility of data, leading to more efficient and informed decision-making.
Assistant Manager Data Analytics (WFM) at Johari Digital Healthcare Limited
SAS Viya Platform has positively impacted my organization by saving time compared to when we were using SAS 9.4.
Saa S Developer at XpertDox
The speed and documentation of SAS Viya Platform helped me in my coursework because we were having very intense analyses done and we needed to submit a lot of assignments and analyses as quickly as possible.
Computer Instructor at Carleton University
 

Categories and Ranking

dbt
Ranking in Data Integration
11th
Ranking in Data Quality
5th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
11
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
SAS Viya Platform
Ranking in Data Integration
27th
Ranking in Data Quality
8th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
5.2
Number of Reviews
9
Ranking in other categories
Data Governance (18th), Data Management Platforms (DMP) (8th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2026, in the Data Integration category, the mindshare of dbt is 1.4%, down from 1.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SAS Viya Platform is 0.4%. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Data Integration Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
dbt1.4%
SAS Viya Platform0.4%
Other98.2%
Data Integration
 

Featured Reviews

Harshwardhan Gullapalli - PeerSpot reviewer
AI Engineer at a educational organization with 51-200 employees
Data pipelines have improved financial accuracy and now build transparent audit-ready reports
As for something I wish we had, dbt's native support for Python transformations came later, and we did some complex financial classification calculations that felt clunky in pure SQL. We ended up writing Python in our n8n workflows and then fed the results back into dbt, which created a bit of a split-brain situation. If we would have had dbt Python models earlier, we could have kept that logic unified. Managing multiple reporting standards was our biggest operational pain point with dbt. We were running UAE corporate tax compliance and IFRS disclosure workflows simultaneously for different clients, and dbt does not have a native concept of multi-tenant or multi-standard project organization. Everything lives in one flat structure, so we had to build more conventions: separate schema folders for IFRS models versus UACT models, custom macros to tag models by compliance regime, and environment variables to control which set of transformations run for which client.
KK
Assistant Manager Data Analytics (WFM) at Johari Digital Healthcare Limited
Modern analytics has transformed large data into faster insights and streamlined reporting
There are some areas of improvement I would mention regarding SAS Viya Platform. New users may find it complex initially, as its learning curve can be steep. Understanding CAS and different components is very challenging for a new user. The cost is also quite high; SAS Viya Platform via SaaS can be expensive compared to some open-source or other cloud alternatives. There are also some limitations in Visual Analytics. While it is easy to use, it could be more flexible compared to Power BI or Tableau. These are the main improvement areas where SAS Viya Platform should focus. I would add some additional pointers about needed improvements in SAS Viya Platform. Regarding customer support, it is good, but the response time for complex issues can sometimes be slower than expected. The documentation and learning resources are not very beginner-friendly, making it challenging for beginners to navigate. Regarding integration, it could be smoother with Databricks, Snowflake, and Power BI, but it is more complex than it should be. Since updates are automatic, users are sometimes not fully aware of changes or new features that are being updated, as compared to Power BI, which publishes updates on its website. SAS Viya Platform should work on these aspects.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
17%
Insurance Company
7%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Construction Company
26%
Manufacturing Company
13%
Healthcare Company
10%
Comms Service Provider
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business2
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise6
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business2
Midsize Enterprise9
Large Enterprise7
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for dbt?
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing for dbt is that dbt is open source for its core modules, so the pricing, setup, and everything was really good.
What needs improvement with dbt?
dbt can be improved by introducing Python. Ideally, I would want to be able to orchestrate across the DAG and have both Python and SQL combined. The last time I used it, it was not able to visualiz...
What is your primary use case for dbt?
My main use case for dbt is data pipelines. I build data transformations and usually construct analytics pipelines.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SAS Viya Platform?
I am not much aware of the pricing, setup cost, and licensing of SAS Viya Platform because that was handled by the administrator. However, I do not think it is too costly to use. I never did a comp...
What needs improvement with SAS Viya Platform?
One thing I expect more from SAS Viya Platform, specifically on the report side, is how the calculations work. It is not that strong in that sense. It was very difficult to build the required calcu...
What is your primary use case for SAS Viya Platform?
I have used SAS Viya Platform for almost three years in various ways, including preparing data, using it, generating extracts, and sending them through email to users. We also built an internal das...
 

Overview

Find out what your peers are saying about SAS Viya Platform vs. dbt and other solutions. Updated: June 2026.
900,644 professionals have used our research since 2012.