What would you pick—speed or flexibility?
Selecting Matillion over Talend, or vice versa, is really about what matters most to your team and your data environment. If you want something that “just works” in the cloud, Matillion is a clear winner. It’s built for teams who want to set up data pipelines quickly, use a drag-and-drop interface, and not worry about managing servers or writing a lot of code. Matillion is all about getting your data into cloud warehouses fast, with as little hassle as possible.
Talend, on the other hand, is the tool you reach for when your data world is a bit messier. Maybe you have some data in the cloud, some on-premises, and you need lots of connectors and strong data quality checks. Talend’s open-source roots give you tons of flexibility and control, and it’s trusted by big companies with complex needs.
Table of Contents
Matillion vs Talend vs Hevo: Overview Comparison
Use Case / Feature
Matillion | Talend | Hevo Data | |
Data Warehouse Integration | Cloud DWH (Snowflake, Redshift, BigQuery, Synapse) ✅ | Broad DWH, on-prem & cloud (Snowflake, Redshift) ✅ | Cloud DWH (Snowflake, BigQuery, Redshift) ✅ |
Database Replication | Batch only ✅ | Batch & near real-time (with CDC add-on) ✅ | Real-time CDC & batch ✅ |
Operational Integration | Batch, micro-batch | Batch, micro-batch, real-time (enterprise) ✅ | Real-time, batch, micro-batch ✅ |
ETL/ELT | Visual ETL/ELT, SQL/Python transforms | Advanced ETL, code-heavy, ELT support | No-code ETL/ELT, visual transforms ✅ |
Data Migration | Schema evolution, basic cleaning | Intelligent schema inference & evolution ✅ | Auto schema mapping & evolution ✅ |
Streaming/Real-time | ❌ | Partial (enterprise, CDC) | Native streaming, CDC, real-time pipelines ✅ |
Reverse ETL | ❌ | ❌ | Partial (via destinations) ✅ |
AI/ML Integration | Limited | Advanced (ML components, data prep) ✅ | Limited |
Connectors
Connector Feature | Matillion | Talend | Hevo Data |
Number of Connectors | 150+ | 1000+ | 150+ (60+ free sources) |
Streaming Connectors | ❌ | Partial (CDC, Kafka) | Kafka, Kinesis, Pub/Sub, CDC ✅ |
Custom Connectors | Python/SQL, REST API | Java/custom code, SDK | API/Webhook, REST API |
Connector Requests | Slow, via support | Encouraged, responsive | Fast, responsive ✅ |
Core Features
Core Feature | Matillion | Talend | Hevo Data |
Batch & Streaming | Batch only | Batch, some streaming (CDC) | Batch & streaming |
Transformation | Visual + code (SQL/Python) | Code-heavy (Java, scripting) | Visual + code (Python, visual) |
Workflow Automation | Orchestration, scheduling | Advanced orchestration/triggers | Automated, managed pipelines ✅ |
Monitoring & Alerts | Basic, manual setup | Advanced, integrated | Real-time, automated alerts ✅ |
Data Lineage | Visual, basic | Advanced, full lineage ✅ | Visual, basic |
Error Handling | Manual, alerts | Automated, alerts | Auto-retry, error notifications ✅ |
Data Quality | Basic checks | Advanced profiling, cleansing ✅ | Advanced, built-in validation ✅ |
Schema Drift Handling | Basic | Advanced, automated ✅ | Automated, real-time ✅ |
Abilities
Ability | Matillion | Talend | Hevo Data |
Performance (Latency) | Minutes (batch) | Sub-minute (with CDC) | Sub-second (real-time) ✅ |
Reliability | High | Enterprise-grade | High, auto-retry ✅ |
Scalability | Good, cloud-native | Enterprise-grade, highly scalable | Auto-scaling, elastic ✅ |
Ease of Use | Visual, easy, low-code/no-code | Technical, steep learning curve | No-code, intuitive UI ✅ |
Best Fit For | Technical teams, cloud DWH | Enterprises, complex hybrid needs | Non-technical, real-time sync ✅ |
Security
Security Feature | Matillion | Talend | Hevo Data |
SOC 2 | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
GDPR Compliance | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
HIPAA Compliance | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ |
Encryption | At rest & in-motion | At rest & in-motion | At rest & in-motion |
RBAC/SSO | RBAC, SSO (enterprise) | RBAC, SSO, MFA | RBAC, SSO, MFA |
Cost
Cost Factor | Matillion | Talend | Hevo Data |
Pricing Transparency | Clear, usage-based 💲💲 | Opaque, tiered, custom quotes 💲💲💲 | Transparent, volume-based 💲 |
Free Trial | ✅ | ✅ (limited) | ✅ |
Admin Costs | Some admin/troubleshooting | Higher (complex product) | Low (fully managed) ✅ |
Data Engineering Costs | Simplified dbt, visual | High (code-heavy, complex) | Low (no-code, automated) ✅ |
Admin & Support
Support Feature | Matillion | Talend | Hevo Data |
Support & SLA | 24/7 (paid) | Enterprise only | 24/7 all plans ✅ |
Documentation | Good, up-to-date | Extensive, technical | User-friendly, up-to-date ✅ |
Community | Growing, active | Large, active | Active, responsive |
For more tabular comparisons like this, you can check out blogs on Fivetran vs Segment vs Hevo and Fivetran vs Alooma vs Hevo.
What is Matillion?
G2 Rating: 4.4/5(81)
Gartner Rating: 4.5/5(172)
Matillion is a cloud-based ETL solution focused on simplifying the modern data team when integrating and transforming their data. Matillion is a powerful scalable platform which works quite seamlessly to integrate with any cloud data warehouse and can efficiently transfer data from both on-premises systems and cloud applications. It is best suited for data teams that can simplify their processes, improve the accuracy of data, and accelerate insights into production, all while reducing operational costs.
Key Features of Matillion:
- Cloud Optimized: It runs wonderfully with cloud data warehouses, including the likes of Snowflake and Redshift.
- Intuitive UI: Ease of drag-and-drop interface to set up the ETL process.
- Efficient Transformation: Powerful, built-in tools for complex data transformations.
Matillion Pros:
- Super easy to use. Even if you’re not a coding expert, you can build data pipelines.
- Comes with lots of ready-made connectors for popular cloud platforms and databases.
- Built for the cloud, so it works really well with AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud.
- You can get started quickly and set up your data flows fast.
- Their customer support is helpful, and there’s a friendly user community.
Matillion Cons:
- Mainly works in the cloud. It doesn’t offer much for on-premises or mixed setups.
- Costs can go up quickly as you use more data or add more users.
- Not the best choice if you need really advanced or custom data transformations.
- Some features from the older server version aren’t available in the cloud version.
- Might struggle with very large or super complex data jobs.
Providing a high-quality ETL solution can be a difficult task if you have a large volume of data. Hevo Data‘s automated, No-code platform empowers you with everything you need to have for a smooth data replication experience.
Check out what makes Hevo amazing:
- Fully Managed: It requires no management and maintenance as Hevo is a fully automated platform.
- Data Transformation: It provides a simple interface to perfect, modify, and enrich the data you want to transfer.
- Real-Time: Hevo offers real-time data migration. So, your data is always ready for analysis.
- Schema Management: Hevo can automatically detect the schema of the incoming data and map it to the destination schema.
- Scalable Infrastructure: Hevo has in-built integrations that can help you scale your data infrastructure as required.
- Live Support: Hevo team is available round the clock to extend exceptional support to its customers through chat, email, and support calls.
What is Talend?
G2 Rating: 4(63)
Gartner Rating: 4.2/5(108)
Talend is an integrated data management platform that provides a range of tools for data integration, quality, and governance. Owned by Qlik, Talend offers flexibility in cloud, multi-cloud, on-premises, and hybrid environments to ensure accessible and trusted data for analytics. By automating complex data workflows Talend allows businesses to reduce manual tasks as much as possible and minimize potential errors while speeding up time-to-insight.
Key Features:
- Data management: It offers data integration, quality, and governance on one platform.
- Connectors: It offers various pre-configured connectors that provide wide connector support, which gives easy and unproblematic access to the data.
- Flexible Deployment: The platform can either be installed in on-premises, cloud, or hybrid environments.
Talend Pros:
- Open-source, so you can customize it a lot and even use community add-ons.
- Great tools for making sure your data is clean and high quality.
- Works with almost any data source, whether it’s in the cloud or on your own servers.
- Can handle big, enterprise-level projects and lots of data.
- Offers a full set of tools, including ETL, data migration, and master data management.
Talend Cons:
- Pricing for the enterprise version can get complicated and expensive.
- Takes more time to learn, especially if you’re new to these kinds of tools.
- It can slow down with extremely large or complex data jobs unless you fine-tune it.
- The free version doesn’t include all the advanced features you might want.
Matillion vs Talend: In-depth Feature & Use Case Comparison
1. Connector Coverage & Integrations
Matillion offers around 150+ connectors, with a strong focus on cloud data warehouses and popular enterprise applications. While their library covers most business-critical systems, adding new or niche integrations often requires manual setup or custom development. This means you get flexibility, but your team will need to handle more of the configuration and ongoing maintenance.
Talend, on the other hand, boasts one of the 1000+ connector libraries in the industry, supporting a huge range of cloud and on-premises sources, including legacy databases, ERP systems, and big data platforms. Talend’s connectors are highly customizable and can be extended with code, making them a great fit for organizations with complex, hybrid environments.
My vote goes to Talend. A user on G2 said, “easy to set up and simple UI component to create automated data integration flow. It perfectly meets all our integration needs concerning all our different data sources, as well as for the production of our Datamarts. ” shows how Talend’s connector accessibility significantly outperforms Matillion, as you need to set up or customize connectors yourself.
2. Transformation Capabilities
Matillion shines when it comes to data transformation. It provides a visual, drag-and-drop interface for building complex workflows, plus support for SQL, Python, and even Java. This makes it easy to design, manage, and automate transformations directly within your cloud data warehouse.
Talend is known for its highly customizable transformation engine. You can build sophisticated logic using Java, SQL, or Talend’s own graphical tools. Talend is especially strong for enterprises that need to enforce strict data quality, validation, and governance rules as part of their pipelines.
My vote goes to Matillion. G2 Reviews such as “Matillion makes it easy to drag and drop components and generate SQL statements to transform your data. There are lots of built-in connectors, so it is not too difficult to add new sources to your data warehouse.” shows how Matillion significantly outperforms Talend more suitable for powerful and customizable but needs more coding and technical skills.
3. Ease of Use & Interface
Matillion offers a modern, intuitive interface with drag-and-drop components, making it accessible for analysts and engineers alike. The learning curve is moderately easy for basic workflows, but more advanced technical skills are required for customizations.
Talend is more technical from the get-go. While it provides graphical tools, working with Talend often requires familiarity with Java or scripting, especially for complex tasks. This can make onboarding slower for non-technical users.
Verdict: If ease of use is your top priority, Matillion is the winner. Talend is better suited for teams with strong technical skills who need maximum flexibility.
My vote goes to Matillion. G2 reviews like “easy to drag and drop component and generate SQL statements to transform your data” highlight how Matillion’s drag-and-drop features help beginners get started quickly as compared to Talend’s complex and coding-based technical setups.
4. Automation & Maintenance
Matillion automates many routine tasks, but some maintenance-like updating connectors or managing job failures still requires manual intervention. Monitoring and alerting are built in, but you’ll need to keep an eye on things as your pipelines grow.
Talend provides robust automation features, including job scheduling, monitoring, and automated error handling. However, because Talend pipelines can get very complex, ongoing maintenance can be resource-intensive, especially in large enterprise environments.
My vote goes to Matillion. G2 reviews such as “drag-and-drop functionally efficiently processes and transforms data from various sources and loaded into cloud storage“ showcase how Matillion is simpler to maintain for most cloud-native workloads, while Talend is more powerful but can demand more hands-on management as complexity increases.
5. Customization & Flexibility
Matillion allows for custom scripting (Python, SQL, Java) and flexible workflow design, but is primarily optimized for cloud data workflows. Custom connectors and advanced logic are possible, but often require some engineering effort.
Talend is built for customization. You can extend almost every part of the platform with code, custom components, and plugins. This makes Talend a favorite for organizations with unique, non-standard requirements or hybrid data landscapes.
My vote goes to Talend. G2 reviews “create custom components in Talend that can be exported to other developers or saved in a repository”. Note that Talend lets you create custom components that can be exported or saved in a repository, making it ideal for unique or complex data needs. In comparison, Matillion often requires technical help for advanced changes, making Talend the more flexible option.
6. Pricing & Cost Structure
Matillion’s pricing model is a subscription/credit-based pricing model, starting around $1,000/month. Pricing is tied to usage and cloud platform, and there’s a 14-day free trial to get started. For most organizations, costs are predictable, but can rise as data volumes increase.
Talend’s pricing model is a free open-source version, with paid cloud plans starting at about $1,000 per user per month. Enterprise features, support, and advanced connectors are only available on higher tiers, so costs can add up for large teams or complex needs.
Here, I feel it completely depends on your needs. Talend is the preferred choice because of its free tier, but its enterprise-grade features come at a premium. And this is where Matillion’s pricing is straightforward and scales with usage, making it easier to predict costs.
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Why Choose Hevo Data over Matillion vs Talend?
When evaluating Hevo Data alongside Matillion and Talend, Hevo emerges as the top choice for modern data teams. How? Hevo Data’s intuitive no-code platform, real-time processing, and seamless scalability go beyond basic data integration. It offers a serverless platform with many connectors across different industries, making it easy to bring in data without technical hassle. This helps teams focus on using data instead of managing complex setups.
While Matillion and Talend are customizable and good at processing data, Hevo stands out with its real-time syncing and automatic data quality checks. This means your data stays up-to-date and clean without extra work. If your business needs fast, reliable data integration with minimal effort, Hevo is the best choice. It combines speed, flexibility, and simplicity to help you get the most from your data quickly and easily.
You can check out our blog on Hevo vs Matillion for a more detailed comparison.
Sign up for a 14-day free trial and experience the feature-rich Hevo suite firsthand. Also, check out our unbeatable pricing to choose the best plan for your organization.
FAQs
1. What language does Matillion use?
Matillion mostly uses SQL to transform data, so users familiar with SQL-based data manipulation will find this work easy. It also includes Python and Bash scripts to accomplish more complex, customized transformations within the workflow.
2. Which company owns Talend?
Talend is owned by Qlik; Qlik acquired Talend in May 2023. It expanded Qlik’s data integration and analytics capabilities.
3. Is Matillion open-source?
No, Matillion is not open source; it is a proprietary ETL tool built specifically for cloud data integration that is primarily designed from an enterprise-grade perspective with strong support features.