- Managed Warehouse — we host a ClickHouse warehouse for you and provide built-in event tracking.
- Event Forwarder — you keep your own warehouse, and GrowthBook streams feature and experiment exposure events (plus any custom events you send) into it for you.
- Bring Your Own Warehouse (BYOW) — you connect your existing warehouse with your own event pipeline already feeding it.
Quick decision
Do you already have a data warehouse?- No → Managed Warehouse gets you running quickly with zero infrastructure setup.
- Yes — and I already have feature/experiment events flowing into it → Bring Your Own Warehouse lets you keep your existing pipelines. GrowthBook queries your data directly.
- Yes — but I don’t want to build or maintain the event pipeline myself → Event Forwarder writes feature exposure, experiment exposure, and custom events into dedicated tables in your warehouse for you. (Requires a Pro or Enterprise plan and incurs usage fees. Currently available for BigQuery and Snowflake, with Databricks coming soon.)
Comparison
Choose Managed Warehouse if…
- You don’t have a data warehouse set up yet.
- You want the fastest path from signup to your first experiment result.
- You’re evaluating GrowthBook and want to see the full experience without infrastructure setup.
- Your team is small and you’d rather not manage warehouse infrastructure.
- You want built-in event tracking with automatic enrichment (geo, device, UTM data).
Choose Event Forwarder if…
- You already own a data warehouse (BigQuery or Snowflake today; Databricks soon) but don’t have a production-grade event pipeline writing exposures into it.
- You want feature usage and experiment exposure events captured automatically from GrowthBook SDKs, with the option to send any other custom events via SDK helpers or our Ingestion API.
- You’d like to keep your data in your own warehouse so it can be joined with the rest of your business data.
- You’re on (or willing to upgrade to) the Pro or Enterprise plan and are comfortable with usage-based ingestion pricing.
feature_usage, experiment_views, and a general events table). SDK plugins automatically forward feature/experiment events; everything else goes through our Ingestion API. Events are enriched and streamed into your warehouse in near real-time.
Learn more about Event Forwarder →
Choose Bring Your Own Warehouse if…
- You already have event data flowing into BigQuery, Snowflake, Databricks, Redshift, or another warehouse.
- You need to join experiment data with other business data (revenue, CRM, product usage).
- Your organization has data governance requirements about where data is stored.
- You want full control over your data pipeline and retention policies.
- You’re self-hosting GrowthBook.
Can I switch later?
Yes. You can add additional data sources (Managed Warehouse, Event Forwarder, or BYOW) at any time, and you can use more than one simultaneously. For example, you might start on Managed Warehouse for quick prototyping, then move production experiments to your own warehouse via Event Forwarder once you’re ready.What’s next
- Managed Warehouse setup guide — provision quickly and send your first event
- Event Forwarder — connect your warehouse and let GrowthBook handle event delivery
- Connecting to your data warehouse — step-by-step guides for each supported warehouse
- Metrics and Fact Tables — define what you want to measure in your experiments