What is the dbt Fusion Engine?
dbt has always been about one simple idea: turn messy and disparate SQL procedures and scripts into clean, testable, and repeatable transformations. For years, that’s meant working in dbt Core (the open-source transformation framework) and, for many teams, scaling into dbt Platform (which includes dbt Cloud) for a more managed “data control plane” offering.
The dbt Fusion Engine is the next big evolution in that story. It’s a new engine designed to make dbt faster, more interactive, and more “developer friendly,” while keeping to the same dbt project patterns teams already rely on.
If you’ve heard the buzz and want the plain-English version, here’s what Fusion is, how it compares to dbt Core and dbt Platform, and why it’s an exciting step forward.
The simplest definition of Fusion
Fusion is a next-generation execution and compilation engine for dbt, written in Rust instead of Python. This is the technology that powers the dbt workflow but fully rebuilt for speed and a better developer experience.
Fusion isn’t a replacement for dbt as a concept. It’s dbt’s future engine: designed to shrink the gap between writing transformation code and getting fast, reliable feedback.
Why Fusion matters
As dbt projects grow, teams often hit the same pain points:
- Increasingly slower compilation and longer build times
- Cumbersome “edit, run, wait, repeat” development loops
- Errors that show up late in the workflow instead of early
- A developer experience that feels less modern than other software engineering tools and languages
Fusion is built to reduce these friction points. It aims to make dbt development feel more responsive, more intelligent, and more scalable as organizations add models, developers, and complexity.
Fusion vs dbt Core vs dbt Platform
Here’s the clean comparison.
| dbt Core | The open-source foundation. Flexible, widely adopted, and perfect for teams that want full control over how and where dbt runs. |
| dbt Fusion | The next-generation engine for dbt. Same general workflow, but faster, more modern, and more interactive. Fusion is especially compelling for larger projects and teams that want a tighter developer experience and quicker feedback loops. |
| dbt Platform | dbt in the cloud. dbt Platform offers both Core and Fusion engines in a managed experience that combines orchestration, development, documentation, security, and more in a cloud-native experience. |
Should you switch to Fusion?
Fusion is exciting, but most teams will get the best results by adopting it intentionally.
It’s a great fit if you:
- Have a large or fast-growing dbt project
- Care about improving developer productivity
- Want faster iteration without changing your overall dbt approach
It’s also smart to evaluate:
- How Fusion fits into your existing development, deployment, and CI/CD workflows
- How your team uses core and advanced features like macros and custom materializations
- What a phased rollout looks like before making a change to the default engine
The good news is that Fusion is designed to be a step forward for dbt teams, not a “rip and replace” event!
Where Brooklyn Data fits
Brooklyn Data helps teams get the most out of dbt, whether they’re on Core today, already on dbt Platform, or preparing to take advantage of Fusion. Fusion creates new upside, but the real wins still come from strong foundations: good project structure, solid testing strategy, reliable environments, and workflows that scale cleanly.
As a dbt partner, Brooklyn Data can help you evaluate Fusion readiness, plan adoption without disrupting production, and make sure your team actually benefits from the speed and usability improvements Fusion is designed to deliver.