Top 12 Fivetran Alternatives: Best ETL Tool

Fivetran is an ELT Platform that replicates data from various SaaS applications and databases into your destination warehouses – Redshift, BigQuery and Snowflake. However, Fivetran isn’t the only data pipeline worth its salt. There are several Fivetran alternatives on the market you can consider for a robust, secure, and efficient data integration tool.

Despite the wide range of connectors, Fivetran’s limited product flexibility, complex pricing model and reliance on DBT for transformations make it a hard choice for companies that want Easy to use ETL platforms and cover various data replication scenarios.

ETL Platform is a core component of the Modern Data Stack and the organization’s data strategy.  In this article, we’ll take you through the 12 best Fivetran alternatives so that you can choose the one that fits your needs the best.

What is Fivetran?

Fivetran is a Cloud-based ETL tool that can help you transform and centralize data to extract new, rich data in minutes. It also routinely keeps up with the API changes. This allows you to analyze data immediately with automatically applied updates for tables, columns, and rows.

Fivetran’s fully managed connectors can move large volumes of data with real-time delivery and low impact. You can integrate and load data to data warehouses like Google BigQuery, Amazon Redshift, etc., using its user-friendly interface, which has a gradual learning curve.

What is Fivetran suitable for?

Fivetran is usually recommended for any near real-time ingestion needs. Given Fivetran’s wide variety of customized connectors, it is straightforward to start working with source-to-target connectors for data loading and extraction.

Fivetran also provides over 50 prebuilt data models to support common analytical scenarios like digital marketing and finance needs.

Fivetran is the way to go when you need a rapid and straightforward method of loading data from external sources to a warehouse. Due to its limited code capabilities and internal transformations, it lacks automation and infrastructure. However, it excels at batch extraction and manages schemas for you.

What are the Drawbacks of using Fivetran?

• Lack of Enterprise Data Management: Fivetran lacks comprehensive data management features that are usually found in tools that are more enterprise-oriented. This includes data virtualization, auto-discovery of data semantics, data quality, and data governance capabilities.
• Limited Data Transformation Support: Fivetran depends on dbt under the hood to tackle complex transformations. These transformations can be used to normalize data into suitable data structures for analytics. Consequently, teams might get annoyed in the process of having to manage multiple tools that can’t be combined into a single tool/interface.
• Limited Support for Historical Data Ingestion: Fivetran follows a source-selective approach while allowing you to sync historical data from your data sources. It only houses support for the same for a few data sources. Hence, teams leveraging Fivetran may feel stuck for a variety of analytics use cases that require rich historical data for decision-making.
• Complex & Hard-to-crack Pricing: Fivetran follows a credit-based consumption pricing model that depends on the number of Monthly Active Rows you leverage. While this may seem simple, predicting the correct price based on MARs can be highly challenging. Fivetran lacks a transparent pricing model.
• Poor Data Flexibility: One of the most significant drawbacks of Fivetran is that it doesn’t allow great control over your data flows. For example, you only have the option to use fixed schemas and not define what Data you want to transfer.

Key Fivetran Alternatives for 2024 

1) Hevo Data

Hevo Data, a SaaS-based No-code Data Pipeline, offers one of the best-in-class Fivetran Alternatives for seamless Data Integration. Hevo’s blazing fast Data Pipelines enable you to move data from over 150+ Data Sources (Including 50+ Free Data Sources) that effortlessly connect with 15+ Destinations. Hevo abstracts away all your pain points with Fivetran. It offers out-of-the-box support for:

• Robust Transformation Capabilities that allow you to transform complex data, both, On-the-Fly and after loading data to your warehouse. 
• With Hevo, you always have granular control over your data. You can select the data you want to ETL/ELT, build custom schemas and move things that matter! 
• Hevo offers support for both ETL & ELT Workloads, enabling you to move the data the way you want!
• Hevo has multiple Data Ingestion modes built-in to the platform that cater to all your Data Needs. You can choose from Log-based, Table-based and even Custom SQL-based Data Ingestions. 
• Hevo has a transparent pricing model based on the volume of data you consume. No extra charge, No hidden costs ~ You only pay for the data you leverage. Hevo’s pricing plans start with a Free plan to get you going without spending a buck!

Get Started with Hevo for Free

Here are a few more features that Hevo brings to your arsenal:

• Secure: Hevo has a fault-tolerant architecture that ensures that the data is handled in a secure, consistent manner with zero data loss.
• Hevo Is Built To Scale: As the number of sources and the volume of your data grows, Hevo scales horizontally, handling millions of records per minute with very little latency.
• Incremental Data Load: Hevo allows the transfer of data that has been modified in real-time. This ensures efficient utilization of bandwidth on both ends.
• Live Support: The Hevo team is available round the clock to extend exceptional support to its customers through chat, email, and support calls.

2) Xplenty

Xplenty is a popular Cloud-based Data Integration platform. It offers a relatively easy-to-use interface and lets you design ETL/ELT-based Data Pipelines. Xplenty supports a wide variety of platforms, ranging over 100+ sources and allows you to load data to a destination of your choice. In addition, it offers drag-and-drop functionalities to let you design and visualise your data pipelines with ease.

Who should use Xplenty?

Xplenty is designed for teams that work with a large number of Data Sources daily. It can help you load a considerable volume of data for complex analysis. In addition, if you’re looking for a Fivetran Alternative to help you visualize your Data Flows better, you may check out Xplenty’s offering.

While Xplenty forms a worthy Fivetran Alternative, it houses its own set of pros and cons:

Pros

• Simple and Straightforward low-code platform.
• Easy to use drag & drop interface.
• Great integration support for a variety of platforms.
• Good Customer Support for users.

Cons

• The Xplenty Workspace lacks customizability. 
• Xplenty provides poor support for error handling. Complex alerts and error messages make it challenging to debug faults. 
• It can be challenging to leverage the platform to its full capabilities without having decent development experience. 

3) Datameer

Datameer, a SaaS-based Data Transformation platform, offers a robust Data Wrangling tool designed to simplify Data Integration & Munging. It allows users to extract, modify & load data into Cloud Data warehouses for advanced analytics. Being a Data Wrangling platform at its core, it offers extensive support for popular data formats such as CSV & JSON.

Who should use Datameer?

Datameer is designed to bridge the gap for Data Engineering teams heavily dependent on Hadoop Clusters. Datameer offers teams a great alternative to leverage thier data without having to invest in and write complex Map-Reduce code. It abstracts the need for having a sizable engineering bandwidth and allows engineers to achieve great things with the power of data.

Similar to other Fivetran Alternatives, Datameer brings in a host of amazing features. Yet, it also carries along a set of cons to be careful about:

Pros

• Low call for programming expertise. The Datameer platform houses an easy-to-use interface.
• Datameer provides robust support for a variety of native connectors.
• It’s designed to have an Excel-like interface, thereby making it easy for users to adapt to the platform.

Cons

• Datameer doesn’t offer out-of-the-box support for a Drill-down functionality.
• In the event of the Hadoop Distribution not being supported, Datameer’s platform tends to encounter bugs that hamper performance. 
• Datameer doesn’t offer well-structured documentation to its users. While the training material is complete, understanding & following the same is challenging.

4) Rivery

Rivery is yet another Fivetran Alternative that offers a SaaS ELT-based Data Integration platform. Rivery is designed to enrich your BI & Analytics processes with rich data. It allows loading data from various data sources and custom API-based platforms into your desired data warehouse. While Rivery lacks the support for on-the-fly transformations, it compensates for it with Post-load Transformations. Being a true ELT Tool, it allows SQL-based transformations in the warehouse.

Who should use Rivery?

If you’re looking for a Fivetran Alternative that can help design conditional tasks to move data to Warehouses, Rivery ETL can be the way to go. With Rivery, you’ll be able to leverage a variety of integrations and product great BI insights using panels from Google Analytics, Google Data Studio, etc.

Pros

• Rivery offers a smooth and straightforward Data Extraction process. 
• Rivery Workflows are easily accessible straight from the platform dashboard.
• It offers robust API support, allowing users to extract data with ease. 

Cons

• Rivery houses a poor error-handling mechanism. The error messages & alerts are difficult to understand, thereby making it challenging to identify the true fault.
• Designing complex ETL Workflows using Rivers (Building Blocks) is difficult. The platform doesn’t have great flexibility to modify or rearrange flows. 

5) Keboola

Keboola, a Fivetran Alternative, offers a Cloud-based Data Platform that houses support for complex ETL operations. With Keboola in place, you can create comprehensive Data Integration workflows involving Data Extraction, Data Cleaning, Enrichment & Warehousing. Keboola also offers a serverless integration of AI & Machine Learning models with rich warehouse data for advanced analytics.

Who should use Keboola?

Keboola offers extensive support for IoT-based initiatives. In case you require leveraging various Data Sources, APIs, and various AI-based models, all in a single project, you should go for Keboola Connections. With IoT projects having similar peculiar requirements, Keboola forms a great Fivetran Alternative in such cases.

Pros

• Keboola offers a pay-as-you-go pricing model. 
• It allows you to leverage data rollbacks in the event of any data failure, ensuring your data remains secure.
• Kebools provides support for both Post & Pre-load Transformations.

Cons

• The user interface is complex, making it challenging to leverage the tool.
• Keboola isn’t able to handle incremental data load, especially with high data volumes. The platforms struggle to deliver data in real time or with speed in such cases. 
• While Keboola allows creating multiple projects, switching between them is a challenge. This directly impacts the overall efficiency of the tool.
• Orchestrations are buggy and often result in errors.

6) Airbyte

Airbyte is a fivetran open source Data Integration/ETL alternative platform that allows you to build Data Pipelines seamlessly. Airbyte runs on top of ready-to-use Docker Containers and offers a host of prebuilt connectors. You can utilise the UI to schedule and monitor Data Pipelines. Leveraging the power of Open Source, Airbyte allows users the flexibility to custom code connectors using a Programming Language of their choice. While it offers the flexibility to build a new connector, you’ll have to invest an Engineering fortune to do the same.

Airbyte follows a self-hosting model and requires you to manually set up the entire platform on top of your data centres. While a self-hosted model offers great granular accessibility, it raises significant concerns of high maintenance & data security challenges.

Who should use Airbyte?

Airbyte can be the go-to tool for data teams that want complete control over building each component of thier Data Pipelines. Additionally, Data Engineers and teams that are comfortable depending on community support for resolving issues and allocating bandwidth to maintain the pipeline can go for Airbyte.

Airbyte, the Open-source Fivetran Alternative has the following pros and cons:

Pros

• Airbyte offers an easy-to-use and simple UI.
• Airbyte provides the flexibility to custom-code connectors.
• It has the support of a budding community of open-source developers.
• Airbyte provides a host of prebuilt connectors.

Cons

• Airbyte requires high maintenance.
• Data Security can be a significant concern owing to the lack of compulsion to follow compliances.
• High dependence on the developer community can result in unforeseen delays.
• Open source platforms are a “Work in Progress”; hence often provide a half-baked product.

7) Adverity

Adverity is one of the most popular alternatives to fivetran. It is an intelligent Data Collection & Analytics platform designed for Marketers. It forms one of the best Fivetran Alternatives for data-driven Marketers that allows them to quickly move data and make smarter decisions. It allows transforming siloed data into actionable insights, thereby enabling you to maximize your chances of high ROIs for Marketing Expenditures. 

Who should use Adverity?

Adverity is the answer for Marketing Organizations that want to take control of their data architecture, all without having a specialized Analytics/Engineering team. It allows you to do away with hours of tedious manual work in Excel and creates a flexible and scalable BI practice.

Adverity’s data collection Fivetran Alternative has the following pros & cons:

Pros

• Adverity offers excellent customer service. It allows users to leverage the platform as power users, irrespective of thier technical skills.
• Good support for Data Connectors allows unifying data from multiple sources. 

Cons

• Adverity doesn’t offer support for designing custom API connectors.
• It houses a steep learning curve for users, thereby making it difficult for users to leverage the platform quickly.
• Dashboards and the primary UI of the platform lack personalization and customization features. 

8) Informatica

Numerous solutions designed by Informatica are geared toward effective Data Integrations. However, Informatica PowerCenter is the company’s flagship product. Informatica PowerCenter is one of the most popular Fivetran Alternatives available in the market. Its enormous success as an ETL Tool has resulted in the brand often known as PowerCenter. Informatica’s ETL Tool powers the data integration for various companies, industries, and government agencies,

Pros

• Informatica allows you to create a pipeline in a fairly simple way. You can use the Mapping & Workflow section for the same.
• It houses a robust debugging mode, allowing you to effectively identify and resolve problems.
• Highly scalable product.

Cons

• ETL solutions provided by Informatica are expensive. These are more suitable for enterprise customers willing to invest heavily in the tool.
• Powercenter offers poor ETL Job scheduling capabilities.
• Its on-premise nature makes it heavy software to install and leverage. Hence, you’d require a significant engineering bandwidth to install the same.

9) Astera

Astera Software offers a suite of high-performing yet user-friendly Data Extraction, Data Integration, Data Warehousing and Electronic Data Exchange solutions. Astera’s products are popularly praised for their user-friendly design and cutting-edge functionality. It offers a Fivetran Alternative that is equally usable by developers and non-developers. Hence, it allows business users to spend less time maintaining data and more time utilizing it.

Who should use Astera?

Astera’s ETL Tools are designed to simplify the life of Financial Analysts by connecting with various Finance Data Sources such as Stripe, Quickbooks, etc. These offer a crucial Data Integration component to eliminate the manual unification of data and reports from various sources. Thus, it helps generate a single integrated view of “cash register” systems.

Astera’s Fivetran Alternative comes with the following pros & cons:

Pros

• Astera has a great customer support team that is readily available to answer your queries or issues. 
• Astera delivers frequent updates for thier platforms, ensuring they offer the best in class features and high data security. 
• It makes keeping track of EDIs easy and simple.
• It houses an easy-to-use UI.

Cons

• Astera follows a strict license-based approach. Hence, as a customer, you may encounter challenges with using the platform across systems. 
• Astera doesn’t offer comprehensive documentation.
• Support provided for Data Logging and Error Handling isn’t up to the mark.
• Various essential features are exclusive to the Centerprise Edition.

10) Streamsets

Streamsets is another cutting-edge Fivetran Alternative that allows for creating intelligent Data Pipelines specifically for your DataOps teams. You can leverage these, both in Hybrid & Multi-cloud infrastructures. Streamsets was founded by a former Cloudera & Informatica Product leader in 2015. Streamsets offers support for automating workflows as much as possible. It emphasises the “what” of the data rather than the “how” of the Data Pipeline implementation.

Pros

• Streamsets provides a simple canvas (UI) for creating pipelines.
• It includes support for both Streaming & Batch Data Pipelines.
• It offers a decent out-of-the-box capability for Scheduling jobs.

Cons

• The logging process supported by Streamsets is quite complex and difficult to leverage. 
• It has a steep learning curve.
• Streamsets cannot scale up automatically when working with Heavy loads.

11) Matillion

Matillion is one of the most popular Fivetran competitors. The tool offers a versatile data platform that caters to both code-centric and code-averse users. With over 100 ready-to-use connectors, it simplifies the integration process, allowing for quick and efficient data synchronization. Additionally, for those who prefer a more hands-on approach, there is the flexibility to craft custom integrations. The platform adeptly manages data integration and ETL (Extract, Transform, Load) operations, making it a comprehensive solution for your data workflow needs.

Who Should Use Matillion?

Matillion is ideal for data engineers, BI developers, and data analysts working in organizations that utilize cloud data warehouses. It is especially beneficial for teams looking for a fast, scalable, and collaborative tool to build sophisticated data integration and transformation pipelines in the cloud.

Pros

• Matillion is designed for cloud data warehouses, enabling high-performance data transformations by leveraging the power of the cloud.
• Its intuitive, browser-based drag-and-drop interface makes it accessible for users of varying skill levels, from technical experts to business analysts.
• Users can start developing ETL jobs within minutes of setup, thanks to its easy-to-use interface and pre-built connectors.

Cons

• Matillion’s focus on cloud platforms means it may not be the best fit for organizations with significant on-premise data infrastructure.
• While its pay-per-use model is advantageous for some, it can become costly for large-scale data operations compared to flat-rate solutions.
• While Matillion is user-friendly, fully leveraging its more sophisticated functionalities and customizations may require a learning curve.

12) Talend

Talend is an open-source software platform that offers comprehensive data integration and data management solutions. It also provides Stitch, enabling users to perform ELT, ETL, and reverse ETL processes with precision and efficiency. Talend supports more than 40 connectors, making it a versatile platform catering to diverse data management requirements. The platform has gained widespread adoption among leading brands, including Toyota, Lenovo, Domino’s, and eBay, due to its proven track record of delivering results.

Who Should Use Talend?

Talend is particularly beneficial for those looking to streamline their data processes, improve data quality, and leverage big data for insights. Companies in sectors like information technology, services, finance, healthcare, and retail, which deal with complex data integration challenges, will find Talend’s solutions especially useful.

Pros

• Talend offers more than 1000 pre-built connectors, making it easy to integrate a wide range of data sources and targets.
• Its graphical user interface simplifies the design and execution of data integration jobs, enabling both technical and non-technical users to efficiently work with data.
• Being open-source, Talend provides a cost-effective solution for data integration with the flexibility to scale as business needs grow.

Cons

• Handling very large datasets can sometimes challenge Talend, requiring optimizations or additional resources.
• Deploying code from local environments to Talend Cloud can be cumbersome and time-consuming.
• The Talend Studio application can consume a significant amount of memory, which may affect performance on less powerful machines.

For more in-depth comparisons

• Hevo vs. Fivetran
• Fivetran vs. Matillion vs. Hevo Data

Conclusion

This blog introduced you to Fivetran along with the salient features that it offers. It also provided you with a comprehensive list of the top 12 Fivetran Alternatives that you can use in 2024.

With the data volumes increasing exponentially, it’s becoming essential for organizations to centralize data. Having a Source of Truth allows businesses to carry out comprehensive analyses purely based on enriched data from all of their sources. While SSOT offers excellent value, building one is no small feat. To do so, you need to invest a significant portion of your engineering bandwidth to Integrate data from all sources, Clean & Transform it, and finally, Load it to a Cloud Data Warehouse. All of these challenges can be comfortably solved by a Cloud-based ETL tool such as Hevo Data.  

Visit our Website to Explore Hevo

Hevo Data, a No-code Data Pipeline provides you with a consistent and reliable solution to manage data transfer between a variety of sources and a wide variety of Desired Destinations, with a few clicks. Hevo with its strong integration with 150+ sources (including 50+ free sources) that connect  with over 15+ Destinations. It also allows transform & enrich your data to make it analysis-ready so that you can focus on your key business needs and perform insightful analysis using.

Want to take Hevo for a spin? Sign Up for a 14-day free trial and experience the feature-rich Hevo suite first hand. You can also have a look at the unbeatable pricing that will help you choose the right plan for your business needs.

Share your experience of learning about Top 12 Fivetran Alternatives! Let us know in the comments section below!