AWS Glue is a serverless ETL solution that helps organizations move data into enterprise-class data warehouses. It provides close integration with other AWS services, which appeals to businesses already invested significantly in AWS.
If you are looking for a replacement for AWS Glue, this guide will walk you through the top 5 AWS Glue alternatives.
Who should use AWS Glue?
AWS Glue performs data processing functions like Data Extraction, Data Transformation, and Data Loading to organize enterprise data. This is helpful for organizations that manage large amounts of data. AWS Glue is specifically designed for companies that execute ETL jobs on a serverless platform based on Apache Spark.
What to look for in an AWS Glue Alternative?
- Traditional types of database queries designed for use with relational databases are not well supported by AWS Glue. So you might need to consider an option that supports traditional database queries.
- Teams that use AWS Glue need to have a solid understanding of Apache Spark. If you do not have an engineering team that is well-versed in Apache Spark, then you need to consider other options for your ETL needs.
- Full syncs are incapable of providing timely, i.e. real-time, updates. They take a long time, and hence incremental syncs are necessary because it extracts only the latest changes made. Since all data is initially staged on S3 in AWS Glue, it has no option for incremental sync from your data source. To perform real-time ETL jobs, you need to consider another alternative.
- AWS Glue is only compatible with services hosted on AWS. If your organization’s sources are not hosted on AWS, then you might require the assistance of a third-party ETL service.
We have made a list of alternatives based on several categories, including integration and deployment, service and support, etc.
1. Hevo
Hevo is a data pipeline platform that enables you to easily replicate data from all your sources to the destination of your choice, run transformations for analytics, and deliver operational intelligence to business tools.
Hevo is easy to use even for non-technical users as it is a no-code data pipeline. You can save time and effort because it is fully automated and requires virtually zero maintenance.
You can scale your data infrastructure as required because the platform supports 150+ ready-to-use integrations along with 40+ free sources.
Hevo has a very intuitive UI to make setting up a pipeline easier for you.
Hevo also provides pre-load transformation, meaning you can transform your data multiple ways before loading it to the destination.
Hevo has a very transparent pricing model with no hidden costs. You can try out Hevo’s 14-day free trial to see if it fits your needs.
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2. Informatica
Informatica is a software development company that provides products for data integration based on ETL architecture. It offers data integration software and services to various businesses, industries, and government organizations, such as telecommunications, health care, financial services, and insurance. It offers multiple features like data masking, data quality, replica, virtualization, master data management, etc.
It is simple and quick to share large amounts of data, and there is no delay. You can easily replicate information across load servers and cloud servers in a short amount of time.
Its monitoring feature is beneficial for keeping track of job progress and providing information about the job’s status and problems if there is any failure.
During the initial setup stages, the deployment and configuration processes take significant time and are slightly complicated to use.
Although scheduling options are available for workflow or jobs, they are limited and can handle only a limited number of scheduled jobs. The lookup transformation on large tables significantly uses more memory and CPU than on smaller tables.
The pricing for Informatica is cheaper than AWS Glue but still more expensive than other solutions. The base version of Integration Cloud starts at $2,000 per month. The pricing of add-on tiers is undisclosed.
3. Alteryx
The Alteryx platform is an analytics automation tool that can assist with data collection, preparation, and blending. It can make use of this data to speed up processes, and it is also able to provide actionable business insights.
It requires no coding knowledge, as it is a drag-and-drop tool.
The Alteryx community is an excellent resource for you to consult to obtain answers and advice from industry professionals.
Alteryx provides its own proprietary format, i.e., data that is ordered and stored according to a particular encoding scheme designed by the company, which is not disclosed. Hence, exporting your results to a different visualization program like Tableau or Microsoft Excel is not possible.
Alteryx is a little expensive, with its designer package starting at $5195. They provide a free trial for one month too.
4. Stitch
Stitch is an open-source ETL service that connects various data sources and replicates the data into preferred destinations.
It is relatively easy to use as no coding knowledge is required to move data from sources to destinations in Stitch. It has an excellent user interface and a friendly GUI and is fast.
In contrast to the other ETL tools, Stitch does not allow you to select a ready-made dashboard; instead, it requires you to integrate your data into one of the open data warehouses you choose as a destination. It is also challenging to navigate through the inventories.
Stitch is comparatively cheaper than AWS Glue, especially for smaller organizations as they can choose from a range of prices. Starting from 100$ up to 1250$ depending on your needs, Stitch offers a wide range of pricing plans.
5. Matillion
Matillion offers cloud-native platforms with a concentration on ELT operations and data analytics service offerings. Matillion’s platforms are hosted in the cloud.
It is built to support various data warehouses, such as Snowflake and BigQuery, and provides automatic scaling in environments containing clusters.
Although low-code and no-code options are available for building data pipelines, becoming proficient in using this ELT platform takes time and effort.
Since it is an ELT platform, every single one of your data transformations must occur within the data warehouse itself. Hence, you can load data quickly.
Because you are charged based on the number of users utilizing the platform and the number of projects saved, the pricing can shift significantly. Pricing is available in the form of Credits, with prices starting at $2.00 per credit. When running Matillion ETL instances, Matillion Credits are needed to pay for the consumption of Virtual Core hours. One Matillion Credit is equivalent to one hour of use of the Virtual Core. There is also an option for annual pricing.
Since you are looking for an alternative to AWS Glue, you should consider Matillion because it has a more manageable learning curve.
Final Thoughts
The various alternatives to AWS Glue on the market serve multiple distinct functions, despite their shared resemblance. Some people may be looking for options that support traditional database queries, or a tool which doesn’t require prior Spark knowledge etc. in an AWS Glue alternative. There are alternatives available for each of these aspects of the situation.
We hope this article will assist you in finding an alternative to AWS Glue that will meet all of your requirements. The following is a list of all the different options discussed in this article:
- Hevo
- Informatica
- Alteryx
- Stitch
- Matillion
Centralize your data with Hevo to effectively measure what matters because your sole focus should be delighting your customers.
You can use the 14-day free trial to evaluate if Hevo fits your needs. 1000+ companies say it does.
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Sharon is a data science enthusiast with a passion for data, software architecture, and writing technical content. She has experience writing articles on diverse topics related to data integration and infrastructure.