Tinybird alternative — Tinybird vs Skippr

Tinybird is managed ClickHouse plus pipes that become HTTP APIs. Ingest is the Events API, a Kafka connector (Confluent, MSK, Redpanda, Event Hubs), S3/GCS, DynamoDB, URL files, and table functions (MySQL, Postgres, Iceberg). Developer Kafka is capped at 5 topics; SaaS and Enterprise are unlimited. Iceberg is a table function and copy-pipe source: you sync lake rows into Tinybird datasources, then materialize and expose endpoints. The January 2026 write-up called Iceberg private beta; the public pricing grid now lists Iceberg table functions on Developer. Tinybird does not document writing Iceberg as the lake. Sinks are Kafka, S3, and GCS (Developer: 3 sink pipes per workspace). CDC is Kafka or a table-function pull, not a Postgres WAL connector. Local CLI exists (tb); production is their cloud. Developer starts at 25 USD/month (S-1/4, 0.25 vCPU, 25 GB). Headline Developer card is 49 USD/month (S-1/2). Overages 0.0002 USD per vCPU-second. Extra storage 0.058 USD/GB. Intra-cloud egress 0.01 USD/GB, inter-cloud 0.10 USD/GB. SaaS and Enterprise are custom. Free tier: 0.25 vCPU, 1k requests/day, 10 GB. This is not Iceberg ∪ WAL you query in one binary.

Skippr is an open Streamhouse you run as one Rust binary. Write skippr.yml (or the same thing in Python), discover, sync. You query live state over Iceberg ∪ WAL, and the history is ordinary Iceberg in your bucket. No Tinybird workspace. ELT into a warehouse is one path, not the product.

Feature	Skippr	Tinybird
Deploy	Single Rust binary, your VPC or on-prem	Tinybird Cloud (shared or dedicated). Local CLI for dev
Schema	In-stream evolution, sibling columns	Datasource schema plus pipes. Iceberg copy is a pull
Storage	Open Iceberg on Parquet you own	Tinybird/ClickHouse storage. Iceberg is a table-function source
CDC	Log-based; fails closed if the dest cannot honour	Kafka connector or Events API. Not Postgres WAL
Query	`skipprd query` on Iceberg ∪ WAL; history in any Iceberg engine	SQL pipes as HTTP APIs on Tinybird storage
Pricing	Free self-hosted engine	Developer from 25 USD/month. SaaS/Enterprise custom.

What Tinybird is good at

ClickHouse SQL turned into an authenticated API without standing a cluster: Kafka in, materialized view, endpoint out. That is the product. Copy pipes from Iceberg are why some app teams keep the lake as source of truth and still serve HTTP endpoints. If the job is "this stream into this API," that is a real product.

Where the job is wider

Tinybird is a managed analytics API. It is not a Streamhouse. There is no Iceberg ∪ WAL. There is no skipprd query on in-flight lake rows. Iceberg rows are copied into Tinybird. Postgres CDC still starts before Kafka. Production is their cloud.

vCPU-seconds and sink-pipe counts are the ops. Skippr will not replace a Tinybird endpoint that already serves the app. Skippr also will not host HTTP APIs. ClickHouse is a separate page.

If the job is "Tinybird APIs we already ship," Tinybird is the narrower tool. If the job is live SQL on Iceberg you run, the workspace was never that.

Getting started

Install skipprd from the install guide, or pip install skippr. The three tabs write the same skippr.yml. Then discover, sync, and query.

YAMLCLIPython

yaml

skippr:
  workspace: analytics
  skipprd_el_storage_mode: local

pipelines:
  orders:
    data_source: data_sources.app_db
    data_sink: data_sinks.lake

data_sources:
  app_db:
    Postgres:
      host: db.internal
      user: skippr_reader
      password: ${APP_DB_PASSWORD}
      database: app
      tables: [orders, customers]
      cdc_mode: snapshot_then_cdc

data_sinks:
  lake:
    AthenaIceberg:
      warehouse: s3://my-iceberg-warehouse/
      glue_database_name: analytics
      athena_workgroup_name: primary
      athena_results_s3_bucket: my-athena-results
      region: us-east-1
    schema_sink: schema_sinks.lake_schema

schema_sinks:
  lake_schema:
    AthenaIceberg:
      warehouse: s3://my-iceberg-warehouse/
      glue_database_name: analytics
      athena_workgroup_name: primary
      athena_results_s3_bucket: my-athena-results
      region: us-east-1

bash

skipprd --workspace analytics --storage-mode local connect data-source postgres \
  --pipeline orders \
  --name app_db \
  --host db.internal \
  --user skippr_reader \
  --password '${APP_DB_PASSWORD}' \
  --database app \
  --tables orders \
  --tables customers \
  --cdc-mode snapshot_then_cdc

skipprd connect data-sink athenaiceberg \
  --pipeline orders \
  --name lake \
  --warehouse s3://my-iceberg-warehouse/ \
  --glue-database-name analytics \
  --athena-workgroup-name primary \
  --athena-results-s3-bucket my-athena-results \
  --region us-east-1

skipprd connect schema-sink athenaiceberg \
  --pipeline orders \
  --name lake_schema

python

from skippr import (
    Config,
    DataSinkAthenaIceberg,
    DataSourcePostgres,
    DataSourcePostgresSourceCdcMode,
    EnvRef,
    LocalStorage,
    Pipeline,
)

cfg = Config().workspace("analytics").storage(LocalStorage())

app_db = cfg.data_source(
    "app_db",
    DataSourcePostgres(
        host="db.internal",
        user="skippr_reader",
        password=EnvRef("APP_DB_PASSWORD"),
        database="app",
        tables=["orders", "customers"],
        cdc_mode=DataSourcePostgresSourceCdcMode.SNAPSHOTTHENCDC,
    ),
)

lake = cfg.data_sink(
    "lake",
    DataSinkAthenaIceberg(
        warehouse="s3://my-iceberg-warehouse/",
        glue_database_name="analytics",
        athena_workgroup_name="primary",
        athena_results_s3_bucket="my-athena-results",
        region="us-east-1",
    ),
    schema_sink="lake_schema",
)

cfg.pipeline("orders", Pipeline(data_source=app_db, data_sink=lake))
cfg.save("skippr.yml")

bash

export APP_DB_PASSWORD='your-postgres-password'
skipprd discover --pipeline orders
skipprd sync --pipeline orders --once
skipprd query "SELECT count(*) FROM analytics.orders"

Which to choose

Choose Tinybird if you want managed ClickHouse SQL as HTTP APIs, and copying Iceberg into that workspace is enough.

Choose Skippr if you want one binary, live SQL on Iceberg ∪ WAL, and files that stay yours. Skippr will not run Tinybird.

Install from Install. Connector and query reference live in Developer Docs. For optional onboarding in your VPC, Enterprise Jumpstart or Contact.

Tinybird alternative — Tinybird vs Skippr ​

What Tinybird is good at ​

Where the job is wider ​

Getting started ​

Which to choose ​

Tinybird alternative — Tinybird vs Skippr

What Tinybird is good at

Where the job is wider

Getting started

Which to choose