Core vs Cloud: Comparison Guide

This guide compares DataHub Core (OSS) and DataHub Cloud features and platform differences. DataHub Cloud builds on the DataHub Core foundation with enterprise-grade capabilities including AI automation, advanced governance, operational reliability, and production support for mid-to-large organizations. Cloud also offers a fully managed service with 99.5%+ SLA-backed availability, dedicated support, enhanced security, training services, and flexible deployment options.

Context Platform

How context gets into DataHub, enriched, curated, and served to agents.

Context Ingestion

Connect sources and pull technical, business, and unstructured context into DataHub.

Feature Name	Core	Cloud	Business Value	Link
140+ Source Connectors with Unified Search	✔	✔	Connect entire data ecosystem	Docs
dbt Metrics & Semantic Model Ingestion	✔	✔	Bring in metric definitions and semantic models from dbt	Docs
BI Tool Glossary & Definitions Ingestion	✔	✔	Ingest business glossaries and definitions from Power BI, Tableau, Looker
Unstructured Document Ingestion (Notion, Confluence, etc)	✔	✔	Pull institutional knowledge from wikis, docs, and collaboration tools	Docs
Chunking & Semantic Embedding	✔	✔	Auto-chunk and embed all context for real-time semantic retrieval
Continuous Technical Metadata Sync	✔	✔	Keep the context graph current as data and definitions evolve
GraphQL & MCP Retrieval	✔	✔	Serve context to any agent or tool via GraphQL, MCP, or API	GraphQL · MCP

Context Intelligence

Mine and generate context automatically instead of authoring it by hand.

Feature Name	Core	Cloud	Business Value	Link
Cross-Platform Query History Mining	❌	✔	Turn years of warehouse query history into a structured semantic index
Metrics & Semantic Models	✔	✔	Search and browse business metrics alongside datasets, pipelines, and lineage	Docs
Context Documents Generation	❌	✔	Auto-generate context documents capturing proven joins, filters, metric definitions	Docs
AI Documentation Generation	❌	✔	Auto-document tables and columns at scale without manual authoring	Docs
Automated Context Updates	❌	✔	Continuously refresh context as schemas, queries, and business definitions change
Automated Eval Execution (Benchmark Q&A & Regression Testing)	❌	✔	Run benchmark Q&A and regression tests to catch accuracy drift before it reaches agents	Docs

Context Hub

Review, disambiguate, and approve context before agents rely on it.

Feature Name	Core	Cloud	Business Value	Link
Collaborative Workflow for Reviewing and Editing Context	❌	✔	Give domain experts a structured inbox to approve, reject, or refine AI-proposed context
Business Context Disambiguation & Domain-Specific Resolution	❌	✔	Resolve conflicting definitions at the domain level before they reach agents
Simulation & Validation Before Context Publishing	❌	✔	Preview how context changes affect text-to-SQL results before going live
Change Proposals: Documentation, Glossary, Tags & Ownership	❌	✔	Controlled vocabulary and documentation changes with audit trail	Docs

Context Activation

Serve verified context to agents, tools, and custom workflows.

Feature Name	Core	Cloud	Business Value	Link
DataHub Hosted MCP Server	❌	✔	Connect AI tools directly to your data catalog	Docs
Scoped MCP Servers	❌	✔	Create purpose-built MCP servers with curated tools and scoped access to specific data assets and context documents	Docs
Skills Library (Ask DataHub, SQL grounding, lineage lookup)	✔	✔	Pre-built skills for accurate SQL generation and data discovery	Docs
Full API & SDK	✔	✔	Integrate DataHub context into any custom agent or workflow	Docs
Native Agent Surfaces (Claude, Snowflake, Databricks, etc.)	✔	✔	Surface verified context inside the tools your team already uses	Docs
Ask DataHub AI Agent + Plugins	❌	✔	Find trustworthy metrics, generate accurate SQL, debug data quality issues, understand data impact	Docs

Discovery & Search

How people and agents find, understand, and navigate assets across the estate.

Feature Name	Core	Cloud	Business Value	Link
140+ Source Connectors with Unified Search	✔	✔	Connect entire data ecosystem	Docs
Ask DataHub AI Agent + Plugins	❌	✔	Find trustworthy data metrics Generate Accurate SQL Debug data quality issues Understand impact of data changes Human-in-the-loop approval for metadata edits	Docs
Agent Registry	❌	✔	Catalog AI agents, skills, tools, and MCP servers with lineage to the data they consume	Docs
Service Catalog	❌	✔	Catalog repositories, services, and APIs as governed entities connected to your data lineage graph	Docs
DataHub Hosted MCP Server	❌	✔	Connect AI tools directly to your data catalog	Docs
Enhanced Usage-Aware Search Ranking	❌	✔	Surface most relevant data first	Docs
Column-Level Lineage & Impact Analysis	✔	✔	Understand data dependencies	Docs
Lineage-Based Propagation	❌	✔	Auto-enrich downstream datasets	Docs
Context Documents	✔	✔	Create & semantically search across unstructured docs	Docs
Import Context Documents from GitHub	✔	✔	Import GitHub repositories as semantically-searchable context documents, editable in DataHub; DataHub Cloud syncs edits back via PRs	Docs
AI Documentation Generation	❌	✔	Auto-document tables & columns	Docs
Logical Models UI	✔	✔	Create and manage logical models from the UI without API or SDK access	Docs
Logical Model Propagation	❌	✔	Propagate tags, terms, documentation & ownership from logical models to their physical assets	Docs
Personalized Home and Asset Views	❌	✔	Customize home page and asset summaries for a personalized data experience	Docs
Multi-Channel Notifications	❌	✔	Stay informed where you work (Email, Slack, & Teams)	Docs

Data Observability

How data health is monitored, alerted on, and resolved when something breaks.

Feature Name	Core	Cloud	Business Value	Link
Quality & Health Status on Asset Profiles	✔	✔	See quality at a glance	Docs
AI Anomaly Detection	❌	✔	Catch issues automatically	Docs
Freshness, Volume, Schema & Column Monitoring, Custom SQL Checks	❌	✔	Ensure timely and correct data	Docs
Data Contracts	✔	✔	Define quality expectations	Docs
Data Health Dashboard	❌	✔	Quality overview at scale	Docs
Notifications for Data Assertions	❌	✔	Real-time quality alerts	Docs
Secure In-VPC Quality Validation	❌	✔	Your data never leaves your network	Docs
Pipeline Circuit Breakers (API)	❌	✔	Validate data quality programmatically before reads or writes	Docs
Data Observability Agent	❌	✔	Identify and resolve monitoring gaps on critical datasets	Docs
Monitoring Rules	❌	✔	Automatically apply monitoring to datasets matching your custom criteria	Docs
Incident Management	✔	✔	Create and track data incidents	Docs

Data Governance

How ownership, vocabulary, compliance, and access are defined and enforced.

Feature Name	Core	Cloud	Business Value	Link
Data Ownership Management	✔	✔	Clear accountability	Docs
Business Glossary	✔	✔	Common data language	Docs
Bi-Directional Metadata Sync	❌	✔	Keep metadata current	Docs
Compliance Forms and Workflow Engine	❌	✔	Track regulatory compliance	Docs
Metadata Tests	❌	✔	Validate governance rules	Docs
Change Proposals: Documentation, Glossary, Tags, Terms, and Data Ownership	❌	✔	Controlled vocabulary changes	Docs
Access Request Workflows	❌	✔	Self-service data access	Docs
Action Workflows	❌	✔	Approval flows beyond access requests (certification, governance, proposals)	Docs

Enterprise & Security

Availability guarantees, network isolation, and access controls for production use.

Feature Name	Core Available	Cloud Available	Business Value
99.5% Uptime SLA	❌	✔	Guaranteed availability
Fine-grained Access Control	❌	✔	Secure by default
AWS PrivateLink Support	❌	✔	Network isolation
IP Address Restrictions	❌	✔	Access control
In-VPC Remote Ingestion Agent	❌	✔	Data security control

Implementation & Support

How teams get deployed, onboarded, and supported day to day.

Feature Name	Core Available	Cloud Available	Business Value
Fully Managed Cloud Deployment	❌	✔	Zero maintenance cloud-hosted instance
Dedicated Customer Success	❌	✔	Expert guidance
Guided Implementation & Onboarding	❌	✔	Smooth rollout
Multi-language Support	✔	✔	Use DataHub in your browser's language: GA: German Beta: Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, French, Italian, Norwegian, Swedish, Hungarian
Private Slack Support Channel	❌	✔	Direct access to experts
Community Support	✔	✔	Peer assistance
OSS Contribution Fast-Track	❌	✔	Community Contribution Support to DataHub Apache 2.0 Project

See DataHub Cloud In Action