Fivetran vs SAP Data Services

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Our analysts compared Fivetran vs SAP Data Services based on data from our 400+ point analysis of ETL Tools, user reviews and our own crowdsourced data from our free software selection platform.

Product Basics

Fivetran is a cloud-native data extraction tool that simplifies and streamlines the data analysis process with a zero-maintenance pipeline that ensures expedient, transparent delivery of data from source to warehouse. Built to empower analysts, it allows users to accelerate analytics and achieve faster time-to-insights without the need for complex engineering, promoting more efficient data-driven decision-making for users of all technical skill levels.

Suitable for small to large companies, it is a public-cloud hosted SaaS available through annual subscriptions, paid via invoice. Pricing is volume based with three tiers of plans, in ascending order of offerings and cost: Starter, Standard and Enterprise.

Pros
  • Easy to use interface
  • Connects to many data sources
  • Fast and reliable data pipelines
  • Centralized data management
  • Scalable for large data volumes
Cons
  • Limited customizability
  • Can be expensive for complex needs
  • Not ideal for real-time data
  • Limited support for data transformations
  • Learning curve for advanced features
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Formerly known as BusinessObjects Data Services (BODS), it’s part of the information management layer of SAP’s Business Technology Platform. With a focus on data quality, it extracts, transforms and loads all data types to enterprise interfaces.

Dashboards enable visual analytics and display the impact of data quality issues on downstream workflows. Auto documentation allows teams to write dataflow information and add comments for collaboration. An intuitive UI and Unicode compliance provide localization across more than 190 countries. Data security is ensured with AES 128-bit encryption.

Pros:
  • Robust transformations
  • Scalable for large volumes
  • Tight SAP integration
  • Visual job design
  • Centralized governance
Cons:
  • High cost and licensing
  • Steep learning curve
  • Limited open source
  • SAP ecosystem dependence
  • Complex job maintenance
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$55 Monthly
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Tailored to your specific needs
$10,000 Annually
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Tailored to your specific needs
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Product Assistance

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Product Insights

  • Five-Minute Setup: The platform boasts a zero-maintenance configuration process that can have users up and running in 10 clicks.
  • Data Simplified: Users can simplify their data stack with streamlined data extraction and preparation processes, allowing for more accurate and efficient access to analytics.
  • Optimized Loading: Automatic updates reduce data entry tasks and ensure real-time accuracy across storage facilities. The platform also reduces workloads on cloud data warehouses by putting the brunt of demand on their servers instead of the warehouses’. 
  • Centralize Data: The solution helps users to extract data from disparate sources and load it into their data warehouse to create a single, cohesive source of truth in the cloud.
  • Flexibility: Standing apart from many traditional data tools, Fivetran utilizes ELT (extract, load, transform) over ETL (extract, transform and load). By flipping the last two steps of the process and postponing data transformation, it ensures that stored data won’t be compromised by transformations, allowing users to perform analysis more deliberately and securely.
  • Smooth Integrations: Integration with other systems is intuitive and smooth with this platform. Its seamless data sync allows users to draw data from their CRM, ERP or other business solutions as well as a range of cloud data sources, allowing for real-time monitoring.
  • Data Security: The system has advanced security features and is compliant with PCI, HIPAA, GDPR and SOC 2 standards. It also encrypts data in motion and at rest, purging data after every sync. 
  • Built to Scale: The platform helps users navigate a world of exponential data growth, with instantly scalable cloud resources, optimized processes and pricing plans that keep up with companies as they grow. 
  • Free Trial: Interested buyers can receive a free 14-day trial of the platform to test connectors and features by signing up on the vendor’s website. Users can add up to two sources and set up an unlimited number of connectors for those sources, pointing to one destination. Users interested in adding more sources or destinations can contact the Fivetran sales team for more information.
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  • Maximize ROI: Streamline processes and maximize efficiency. Access data where it’s stored, load and move it while ensuring optimal speed and performance. Unlock contextual insights by transforming data. 
  • Source Disparate Data: Draws data from files, XML, relational databases, web services and mainframes. Connects to big data, cloud and NoSQL systems including Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud Platform, Microsoft Azure Marketplace, SAP Cloud Platform, Vertica, MongoDB, Apache Spark on Apache Hive, Teradata and Hadoop. Aggregates unstructured data like text from Adobe PDFs, Microsoft Word, Outlook, Excel and more. 
  • Deploy Anywhere: Implement on-premise, in the cloud or go hybrid. Move existing content and assets to and from SAP Data Intelligence Cloud and use them across the enterprise. 
  • Permissions Management: Uses the Central Management Server (CMS) for users’ accounts and permissions management. Add and remove team members’ rights and manage access to repositories on a per individual basis. 
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  • Data Connectivity: The solution has data connectors for 100 sources, with the option for users to create their own data connector to APIs not yet natively supported. It directly pulls information from cloud applications. Users can also upload or email files into a cloud storage service and have that data loaded into their warehouse. The system reflects changes made to live files such as Google Sheets.
  • Extract Data: The solution connects natively to over 100 SaaS sources, automatically extracting information from those sources after an admin has granted the tool access through OAuth. The system normalizes, cleanses and standardizes data before loading.
  • Data Sync: Upon connection, the system performs a historical sync. From there, instead of arduously reloading full data dumps from APIs and databases, the solution optimizes loadings by incrementally updating data sources in batches, with data load time configurable as frequently as five minutes and as infrequent as every 24 hours.
  • Load into Cloud Data Warehouses: Fivetran supports modem cloud warehouses like BigQuery, Snowflake, Azure and Redshift.
  • Transform Data: The platform preps data, normalizing schemas from APIs, so that it can be analyzed instantly. Transformations always happen in the warehouse so that the raw data is always available alongside the transformed data; data will never be lost and the transformations can be edited and run again on the raw data.
  • Alerts: The system notifies users if there are delays or issues in any step of the process.
  • Dashboards: Users interact with the platform via dashboards that display information about ELT processes in a visual, easy-to-digest format.
  • System Logs: The solution maintains transparency with granular system logs of every sync that users can cross-reference in their own logging system.
  • Metadata Management: A suite of policies and procedures allows users to manage the data which describes other data such as file size, date of data creation, tags, titles, authors, etc.
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  • Optimize Performance: Pushes down entire processing workflows into the source or target system for the best throughput. Partitions the data and processes it in parallel, fully independent streams. 
  • Process Unstructured Data: Reveal data relationships and interactions – the who, what, when and how of text. Unlock unstructured text data insights through natural-language processing. Understand the meaning and context of information, not just the words. 
  • Merge Datasets: Merges multiple incoming datasets into one output entity with the same schema as the incoming dataset. Performs the SQL UNION ALL operation through merge transform. 
  • Maintain Data Quality: Gain employees’ and clients’ trust with reliable, accurate, unique data. Enforce data quality standards in real time and perform quality checks before analyzing and integrating data. Embed data duplication checks into workflows and systems. See beyond errors and inconsistencies to uncover a single version of the truth. 
    • Data Profiling: Cleanse and standardize data like names, addresses, emails, phone numbers and dates. Ensure consistency of key reference data used across the organization. 
    • Master Data Management: Integrates with SAP NetWeaver MDM to provide more cleansing and matching capabilities. 
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Product Ranking

#7

among all
ETL Tools

#29

among all
ETL Tools

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Analyst Rating Summary

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Platform Capabilities
Platform Security
Metadata Management
Data Transformation
Data Sources and Targets Connectivity
Data Delivery
Data Transformation
Performance and Scalability
Platform Capabilities
Platform Security

Analyst Ratings for Functional Requirements Customize This Data Customize This Data

Fivetran
SAP Data Services
+ Add Product + Add Product
Data Delivery Data Quality Data Sources And Targets Connectivity Data Transformation Metadata Management Platform Capabilities Workflow Management 86 75 93 94 96 100 81 100 92 89 100 93 100 96 0 25 50 75 100
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Analyst Ratings for Technical Requirements Customize This Data Customize This Data

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User Sentiment Summary

Excellent User Sentiment 28 reviews
Great User Sentiment 112 reviews
92%
of users recommend this product

Fivetran has a 'excellent' User Satisfaction Rating of 92% when considering 28 user reviews from 2 recognized software review sites.

80%
of users recommend this product

SAP Data Services has a 'great' User Satisfaction Rating of 80% when considering 112 user reviews from 3 recognized software review sites.

n/a
3.9 (31)
4.64 (14)
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4.6 (14)
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4.1 (54)
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4.0 (27)

Awards

Fivetran stands above the rest by achieving an ‘Excellent’ rating as a User Favorite.

User Favorite Award

SelectHub research analysts have evaluated SAP Data Services and concluded it earns best-in-class honors for Data Transformation.

Data Transformation Award

Synopsis of User Ratings and Reviews

Effortless Data Integration: Connects to hundreds of data sources with pre-built connectors and minimal setup.
Automated Data Pipelines: Schedules and runs data transfers reliably, freeing up time for analysis.
Centralized Data Management: Provides a single source of truth for all your data, simplifying reporting and decision-making.
Scalable for Growth: Handles large data volumes with ease, adapting to your evolving needs.
Improved Data Visibility: Makes data readily available for everyone in your organization, fostering data-driven decision-making.
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Robust Data Transformations: Handles complex data cleansing, manipulation, and enrichment tasks with a wide range of built-in functions, ensuring data quality and accuracy for downstream analytics.
Tight SAP Integration: Seamlessly connects and transforms data within the SAP ecosystem, simplifying data flows and reducing integration complexity for SAP-centric organizations.
Scalable for Large Volumes: Efficiently handles high data volumes with parallel processing, data partitioning, and optimization techniques, ensuring smooth performance for growing data needs.
Visual Job Design: Intuitive drag-and-drop interface simplifies job creation and maintenance, making data integration accessible even for users with less technical expertise.
Centralized Governance: Provides centralized control and monitoring of data flows, ensuring data consistency, lineage tracking, and adherence to compliance regulations.
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Limited Customizability: Relies on pre-built connectors, making complex data pipelines or transformations challenging.
Costly for Advanced Needs: Pricing scales with data volume and complexity, becoming expensive for intricate ETL processes.
Batch-Oriented Transfers: Focuses on scheduled data refreshes, not ideal for real-time needs or low-latency pipelines.
Basic Data Transformations: Offers limited built-in transformations, requiring additional tools for complex data manipulation.
Advanced Feature Learning Curve: Mastering custom connectors, scripting, or other advanced features requires technical expertise.
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High Cost and Licensing: Requires separate licensing fees on top of existing SAP licenses, with costs scaling based on features, user licenses, and deployment options. Can be expensive compared to open-source or alternative data integration tools.
Steep Learning Curve: Mastering the visual job design and complex data transformations can require significant training and experience, especially for users unfamiliar with the platform.
Limited Open Source: Relies heavily on proprietary SAP technologies and lacks extensive open-source integrations, potentially restricting customization and community support compared to more open platforms.
SAP Ecosystem Dependence: Tight integration with the SAP ecosystem can limit flexibility and increase costs for organizations using other data sources or platforms.
Complex Job Maintenance: Managing and maintaining complex data flows with numerous transformations and dependencies can be challenging, requiring specialized expertise.
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Users praise Fivetran for its ease of use and effortless data integration. "Setting up connectors is straightforward," one reviewer comments, "like plugging in appliances." This plug-and-play simplicity sets it apart from competitors like Stitch, often lauded for its flexibility but criticized for a steeper learning curve. However, Fivetran's strength in pre-built connectors comes at a cost: limited customizability. While users love its "seamless data movement," another user points out it's "not ideal for complex transformations," requiring additional tools that negate its initial ease. This lack of advanced ETL capabilities puts it behind platforms like Informatica PowerCenter, but at a fraction of the cost. Ultimately, Fivetran shines for its user-friendly approach and reliable data pipelines, perfect for businesses prioritizing simplicity and scalability. But for complex data manipulation or real-time needs, users might find themselves yearning for the power and flexibility of other ETL solutions.

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User reviews of SAP Data Services paint a contrasting picture. Proponents praise its robust data transformations, seamless SAP integration, and scalability for handling large data volumes. The visual job design and centralized governance features further attract organizations needing intuitive data flow creation and efficient data lineage management. Additionally, SAP Data Services shines in SAP-centric environments, simplifying data movement within existing infrastructure. However, critics point to its high cost and complex licensing as major drawbacks, making it less compelling for organizations on a budget or using diverse data sources. The steep learning curve and limited open-source compatibility can also be hurdles, requiring dedicated training and potentially restricting customization options. Compared to open-source alternatives like Talend or Apache Airflow, SAP Data Services offers less flexibility and community support. Additionally, its tight dependence on the SAP ecosystem can add complexities and raise costs for organizations not fully invested in SAP solutions. Ultimately, SAP Data Services excels in data transformation, scalability, and seamless SAP integration, making it a powerful choice for SAP-centric organizations with complex data needs and the resources to invest in its capabilities. However, its high cost, limited open source, and SAP dependence make it less suitable for budget-conscious organizations or those seeking greater platform flexibility and broader community support.

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