Fivetran Pricing Model Update: What’s Changing and How It Affects Users

If you use Fivetran for data ingestion, you should check your billing before March 1st. They are changing how they charge for monthly active rows (MAR), which may result in higher bills for many users. Let’s have a look at how the Fivetran pricing model will change in the coming month.

What’s Changing?

Starting March 1, 2025, Fivetran will change its pricing structure, moving from an account-wide monthly active rows calculation model to a per-connector pricing model. Previously, customers benefited from a decreasing cost per million MARs when adding more connectors, as discounts were applied across the entire account.

Let’s understand this with a simple example. Imagine you run a food courier service and partner with multiple restaurants.

• Right now, you negotiate bulk pricing across all restaurants, and you get a discount because you bring in many orders.
• But now, the restaurants have decided each location will charge you separately—no more group discounts.
• Suddenly, your costs increase because your orders are spread across multiple places.

This is precisely what’s happening with Fivetran. If your data is spread across multiple connectors, your per-connector pricing will increase even though your total MAR has remained the same.

With the new model:

• MAR will be calculated at the individual connector level rather than across the whole account.
• Bulk discounts will only apply per connector, eliminating cost advantages for customers with multiple connectors.
• Each connector is priced independently, making cost optimization more difficult and further reducing pricing transparency.
• The Starter and Private Deployment plans are no longer available after March 1. The available plans are as follows:
  • Free
  • Standard
  • Enterprise
  • Business Critical

Fivetran offers a Platform Connector that tracks MAR per table, but it doesn’t provide cost calculations. Users have to manually estimate expenses by checking the dashboard.

How Will This Affect You?

1. Higher Costs for Multi-Connector Users

• If your data stack relies on multiple connectors, your total costs will likely increase since discounts no longer apply at the account level.
• Under the old model, adding connectors reduced the per-million MAR cost—this benefit is now gone.

2. It’s Harder to Predict Costs

• Since each connector is priced separately, predicting costs upfront becomes more complex, making the pricing even more opaque. 
• The inability to estimate expenses before receiving the bill could create budgeting challenges.

3. Managing Data Pipelines Gets More Complex

• Companies using multiple data sources (like SaaS apps, databases, and APIs) will have to rethink their strategy.
• This may push teams to combine multiple tools or even build custom solutions to save costs.

Having explored Fivetran’s latest pricing update, let’s rewind to examine the previous model and uncover why many users are now seeking more cost-effective, value-driven options.

What Did the Older Fivetran Mar Pricing Model Look Like?

Previously, Fivetran used a consumption-based pricing model, meaning customers were charged based on the amount of data flowing through the platform. It sounded fair and easy, but wasn’t that simple to understand.

The Core Metric for Pricing Calculation: MAR

Although Fivetran has moved to a connector-based pricing model from account-based, it still calculates monthly spending using the concept of MAR. MAR is calculated as the number of distinct Primary Keys transported through the Fivetran product by an account in a given billing period. Fivetran tracks the total MAR and uses that number to calculate your bill. For example, a distinct Primary Key synced 10 times during a Billing Period will count as one MAR. However, the historical MAR associated with the initial sync for each new connector added is excluded. 

What Were the Various Pricing Plans That Fivetran Provided?

Now that you understand the concept of MAR, let’s look at the different plans Fivetran provided.

Fivetran had five pricing models—Free, Starter, Standard, Enterprise, and Business Critical. Here is a detailed explanation of what each plan included.

Feature	Free	Starter	Standard	Enterprise	Business Critical
Best For	For individuals, automating ELT for small volumes of data.	Small businesses or teams with simple data needs.	Mid-sized businesses with moderate data volumes and slightly more complex workflows.	Large organizations with stringent security and compliance needs.	Designed for enterprise companies that need the highest data protection and compliance levels.
Users	Unlimited	10	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited
Usage Limit	Up to 0.5M MAR	NA	NA	NA	NA
Sync Frequency	15-minutes	1- Hour	15-minutes	1-minute	1-minute
Connectors	400+	400+ connectors, excluding Database connectors	400+ connectors, along with Database connectors.	400+ connectors, including the enterprise database connectors(Oracle and all High-Volume Agent connectors)	All the connectors that are included in Enterprise plan.
Database Connectors	✅		✅	✅	✅
Enterprise Database Connectors				✅	✅
24/7 global email support	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅
1-Hour Support Response				✅	✅
Core Service SLA			✅	✅	✅
Data Delivery SLA.				✅	✅

Why Does Fivetran Pricing Feel Like Solving a Puzzle?

The USP of Fivetran’s Pricing is MAR, and ironically, that’s their pain point as well. Why so? MARs are calculated based on Unique Primary Keys in your data and fluctuate based on how much your data changes in a month. A slow month might keep your costs low, but a busy month where your data scales can cause an unexpected spike. Therefore, without precise insights into how your data behaves monthly, predicting the MARs you will generate is impossible. That’s just the tip of the iceberg. Let’s see what other factors can contribute to Fivetran’s complex, confusing, and expensive pricing model. 

• It has a steep learning curve, and concepts like MAR and MAR thresholds can be complex for technical and non-technical users to understand. 
• Different sources and use cases can drastically affect the number of active rows, making it harder to establish a cost baseline.
• Features like database and enterprise database connectors are not provided in starter pricing models and require you to purchase expensive plans.
• Fivetran’s pricing model is not just about MAR. Additional costs can pop up based on specific use cases, making the total cost hard to predict. A few additional costs that can incur a hefty bill are:
  • Connector-specific fee: The number of MARs changes drastically based on the connector you choose, and certain connectors come with additional charges. 
  • Discrepancies in Billed Amount: Customers on G2 have often reported discrepancies in the actual usage and the amount that Fivetran billed them for. 
  • Fivetran charges extra for retaining historical data beyond a certain period. While this feature is helpful for compliance and reporting, it adds another layer to the cost structure.
  • Additional cost of HVR: Fivetran doesn’t have streaming capabilities in their SaaS deployment. If you need database replication and streaming capabilities, you need to have an on-premise HVR setup. 
• Customers have often complained on G2 about limited transparency, and Fivetran fails to provide an intuitive tool to help users simulate MAR usage scenarios and estimate future costs.

It feels like a maze that drains your wallet, doesn’t it?

Looking for an Alternative That Is Cheaper Than Your Current Bill?

Yes, you heard it right. If Fivetran’s pricing feels like a puzzle that’s both confusing and expensive, it might be time to consider a better alternative—Hevo Data. Hevo provides a better ROI and can save you up to 40% on your current plan. How? Well, let me break it down for you. 

• Unlike Fivetran’s MAR-based pricing, Hevo has a transparent, tier-based pricing model that helps you avoid any surprises in your bill. 
• With Fivetran, some premium connectors and features like dbt transformations come with additional costs. Hevo, on the other hand, bundles all its connectors in all its paid plans without costing extra. 
• Hevo provides auto-schema management and allows manual overrides if necessary without charging extra. 
• Hevo doesn’t charge for every little thing. There are no hidden costs for data retention. You get clear pricing upfront, making it easy to plan your budget.
• As your business grows, so does your data. Fivetran cost can skyrocket with usage, making it difficult to scale efficiently. On the other hand, Hevo manages costs with its flat-rate pricing tiers that grow incrementally. For example, 100 million events in Fivetran will cost you around $5205 monthly, whereas Hevo will only cost you $1759. 

With Hevo, you pay for peace of mind, not just for a tool. Hevo is the smart, reliable, and cost-effective option for businesses that require heavy-duty data integration without making holes in the wallet. Ready to say goodbye to all that confusion and hello to saving money? Hevo’s here to help.

Here’s a graphical representation of how Hevo’s transparent, tier-based pricing compares against Fivetran’s complex, expensive pricing model.

1. For DB Sources:

2. For SaaS Sources:

3. For Both DB + SaaS Sources:

Note that:

• These graphs are not based on absolute numbers and are subject to various assumptions.
• I have compared the prices for Hevo’s Professional plan and Fivetran’s Starter plan.  

As you can see through these graphs, Hevo’s best pricing plan is compared to Fivetran’s Starter plan(basic without most of the necessary features) and is still more cost-effective. 

Overview of Hevo vs Fivetran Pricing Model

Feature
Pricing Model	Connector based	Tier-based, transparent and predictable
Free Plan	Limited and restrictive	Robust and startup-friendly
Cost Transparency	Complex and variable	Clear and Transparent
Scalability	Ideal for enterprises, it can get very expensive as data volume increases	Flexible for SMBs and startups, it scales efficiently with growing data volumes.
Connector Fees	Additional charges for some	No additional fee, all connectors are included in most paid tiers

So, Is Fivetran Worth It?

The pricing complexity of Fivetran is undeniable, but that does not mean it is a bad platform. The new pricing model can be cost-effective and flexible for large enterprises with stable data needs. However, the pricing structure can feel like a constant challenge for small and medium-sized businesses or those with unpredictable data loads.

An alternative pricing model, such as Hevo’s tiered, reliable, and transparent structure, may be the better choice if you prefer simplicity and predictable costs. Hevo also provides transparent pricing and removes most of the pain points associated with Fivetran’s pricing system.

In a nutshell, it is up to you to determine the right platform based on your data needs, budget, and tolerance for complexity. To try Hevo’s feature-rich platform and explore more about its competitive pricing, Sign up for a 14-day free trial. 

FAQs on Fivetran’s Pricing Model