Customer Data Platform (CDP)

Part of the worlds-biggest-software-project initiative.

An AI-native, open-source Customer Data Platform that unifies customer profiles, resolves identities, and activates audiences without enterprise lock-in or per-user metering.

The Customer Data Platform (CDP) project aims to deliver a warehouse-native, AI-augmented alternative to commercial CDPs such as Segment, Tealium, and Adobe Real-Time CDP. It is built for marketing technology leads, data engineers, and growth teams who need unified customer profiles, identity resolution, and real-time activation, but who are priced out of — or locked into — incumbent platforms. The goal is to combine the data ownership of open-source tools like RudderStack and Apache Unomi with an AI layer that makes segmentation, identity resolution, and predictive scoring accessible to non-engineers.

Why Customer Data Platform (CDP)?

Commercial CDPs use Monthly Tracking User (MTU) pricing that escalates sharply at scale; Tealium, Adobe, and Salesforce enterprise deployments routinely cost $100k–$500k+/year including implementation.
Existing open-source CDPs (RudderStack, Apache Unomi, Tracardi) are technically strong but lack AI layers and marketer-friendly UIs, leaving a clear gap between developer-grade infrastructure and accessible audience tooling.
Identity resolution today requires data engineers to build and maintain probabilistic matching pipelines; non-engineers have no way to inspect or trust the merges.
Audience segmentation is manual and query-based across every major platform — natural-language segment creation is absent from the category.
Predictive models (churn, LTV, next-best-action) are bolt-on modules or require separate ML infrastructure, never continuously trained on the live profile event stream.

Key Features

Event Collection and Pipeline

Event collection from web, mobile, and server-side sources
Schema validation and data quality controls on ingest
Server-side event processing for enhanced privacy
REST API for event ingestion and querying
Webhook support for real-time triggers

Identity Resolution and Profiles

Real-time identity stitching across anonymous and authenticated sessions
Probabilistic matching with confidence scoring
Customisable ID rules enforcing uniqueness and association logic
Merge conflict detection and resolution
Unified customer profile dashboard

Segmentation and Activation

Audience builder with query interface
Real-time activation to marketing and analytics destinations
Reverse ETL from data warehouse back to operational tools
Multi-channel activation and journey orchestration
Pre-built destination integrations across major platforms

Privacy, Consent, and Compliance

GDPR and CCPA consent tracking per profile
IAB TCF 2.2 consent string propagation to ad tech destinations
Right-to-erasure and data minimisation tooling
Block-by-default privacy rules
Compliance automation and audit trails

Warehouse-Native Architecture

Native integration with Snowflake, BigQuery, Redshift, and PostgreSQL
Profile unification computed in the data warehouse
Event-volume pricing rather than per-contact metering
Self-hosted deployment for full data ownership
API-first design for custom workflows

AI-Native Advantage

Unlike incumbent CDPs that bolt AI onto rule-based cores, this project treats AI as a first-class layer. LLM-assisted identity resolution explains its merge decisions and surfaces confidence scores so non-engineers can audit and override them. Natural-language segmentation lets marketers express queries like "find customers who bought in Q4 but haven't returned" without SQL. Predictive models for churn, LTV, and next-best-action train continuously on the profile event stream rather than living as separate add-on modules.

Tech Stack & Deployment

The platform targets both self-hosted and cloud deployment modes, mirroring the open-source dual-licence pattern established by RudderStack (Apache 2.0). Warehouse-native architecture builds on Snowflake, BigQuery, Redshift, and PostgreSQL. Standards alignment includes CloudEvents (CNCF) for event schema, OpenID Connect / OAuth 2.0 for identity federation, IAB TCF 2.2 for consent propagation, and ISO/IEC 27001 as an enterprise vendor qualification target. SDKs cover web, mobile, and server-side ingestion with a REST API and webhook layer for custom workflows.

Market Context

The CDP market was valued at $9.72 billion in 2025 and is projected to reach $37.11 billion by 2030 at a 30.7% CAGR (MarketsandMarkets, 2025; Grand View Research, 2024). Incumbent pricing ranges from Segment's free tier through mid-market plans of $750–$5,000/month to enterprise contracts of $100k–$500k+/year for Tealium, Adobe Real-Time CDP, and Salesforce Data Cloud. Primary buyers are marketing technology leads, data engineers, VPs of Marketing/Growth, and CIOs at mid-market and enterprise companies, with particular concentration in e-commerce and regulated industries (finance, healthcare).

Project Status

This project is in the research and specification phase.
Contributions, feedback, and domain expertise are welcome.

Contributing

We welcome contributions from developers, domain experts, and potential users. See CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines.

Important: All contributions must be your own original work or clearly attributed open-source material with a compatible licence. Copyright infringement and licence violations will not be tolerated and will result in immediate removal of the offending contribution. If you are unsure whether a piece of code, text, or other material is safe to contribute, open an issue and ask before submitting.

Licence

Licence to be determined. See discussion for context.