$1,000 Airbyte bill in a month — am I doing ETL wrong?

Quick pain check 👋

A few years ago I got hit with a $1,000 Airbyte bill in one month —

just for moving 100GB of data. Looked at Fivetran but the pricing

got even scarier at scale. Looked at dlt — fast, but Python-only

for every part of the pipeline.

Felt like there should be a 4th option: managed + lightweight +

clicks-only. So I'm building it (apitap.dev — launching soon).

Pre-launch, so I'd genuinely love real pain stories, not endorsements:

→ Where does your ETL setup bleed time or money the most?

→ Tried the "self-host to save money" route? Worth it?

→ If you could change ONE thing about your current tool, what?

The more painful, the better — helps me build for actual problems

instead of imagined ones.

Thanks 🙏