Fivetran and Stitch Data are two of the top contenders in the great ETL tool debate. But both platforms have their own sets of advantages and drawbacks. Choosing the right ETL platform for your business depends on several factors unique to your company, such as the types of data you need to analyze and the business intelligence (BI) you expect to glean from it.

Which of these ETL/ELT platforms is the right option to add to your data stack?

The five key differences between Fivetran vs. Stitch Data are:

  • Fivetran is a cloud-based automated platform that can easily move data into and out of multiple cloud platforms.
  • Stitch helps companies replicate datasets within cloud-based data warehouses through a fully managed service.
  • Fivetran offers free access for organizations requiring 500,000 or fewer connections each month.
  • Stitch receives poor reviews for customer support access and reliability.
  • While Fivetran is near real-time updates, Stitch offers only batch-based updates.

In this post, you’ll learn what companies typically use Fivetran and Stitch Data for, which benefits and features should be considered, and how to choose which ETL or ELT platform’s functionality is best for your use case.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Extract, Transform, Load (ETL) and Extract, Load, Transform (ELT) tools offer significant advantages for companies with large datasets. Data management, analytics, integration, and quality are enhanced and efficiency is improved through automated processes. Plus, these data integration tools are easily scalable, can track historical data, and help organizations and data teams maintain regulatory compliance through improved data security. 

In the Fivetran vs. Stitch Data debate:

  • Fivetran is a cloud-based automated platform that can easily move data into and out of multiple cloud platforms.
  • Stitch helps companies replicate datasets within cloud-based data warehouses through a fully managed service.

Choosing between ELT/ETL solution providers like Fivetran vs. Stitch can be challenging because it’s not exactly an apples-to-apples comparison. Organizations need to identify priorities and objectively review organizational goals. Based on your various types of datasets, your typical business scenarios, and the metrics most important to you, the outcome of the comparison process informs which ETL tool is best.

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Overview of Fivetran

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Fivetran Dashboard (Image credit: https://fivetran.com/static-assets-docs/_next/static/media/ald-landing-page.dd0f3851.png )

Rating: 4.2/5 (G2)

Fivetran, a cloud-based data integration platform, performs well for any business that pulls data from a source for loading into its central data warehouse.

Fivetran doesn’t demand extensive coding skills for organizations simply extracting data from a source and loading it into a different source. However, users who need to transform that data need some basic knowledge of SQL. If your organization doesn’t employ coding specialists or data engineers, you can choose a pre-built SQL Fivetran option.

If your organization requires 500,000 connections or fewer each month, Fivetran offers free access. For large organizations, however, this is most likely not a feasible option, so Fivetran lets new users test any of the platform’s subscription plans on a free trial. Fivetran doesn’t publish its pricing but, Fivetran reviews reveal that pricing is based on consumption (scaling down as usage increases), but with more data lines come higher fees. In other words, months with extensive data makes Fivetran a difficult option for organizations that need a solid budget allocation for data integration.

In comparing Fivetran vs. Stitch Data, Fivetran could be a good option if:

  • You have data transformation already covered.
  • You only load data into a warehouse (Fivetran won’t work with data lakes).
  • You don’t have complicated pipelines to analyze.

In Fivetran’s favor: The platform offers hundreds of out-of-the-box data integration connectors.

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Overview of Stitch Data

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Stitch Data Dashboard (Image credit: https://images.ctfassets.net/k49d63tr8kcn/6emkogZCCX6pVXGApDIGMR/b37d088b4026f37547664c4a1eb42faa/hubspot-replication-summary.png)

Rating: 4.5/5 (G2)

Stitch Data by Talend, an ELT solution with more than 100 data connectors, works well for companies of any size and with various data types. This data integration solution supports many data governance frameworks such as SOC 2, as well as GDPR and HIPAA, European and American data privacy and security regulations, respectively.

In the Fivetran vs. Stitch Data toolkit debate, Fivetran provides users with access to a REST API. Stitch doesn’t offer this feature. Instead, Stitch integrates with other data integration tools using Stitch Connect. But, in regard to pricing, Stitch still wins this round: Stitch subscribers enjoy a Standard plan for $100 per month that supports 5 million monthly active rows and even allows users to scale up when needed. 

Advanced subscriptions are $1,250 per month and subscribers on the Premium plan pay $2,500 per month. Standard plan subscribers have the option to pay monthly or annually, but Advanced and Premium plans have only the annual payment option.

One of the only drawbacks of Standard subscriptions is that subscribers don’t receive the same level of Customer Support attention as Advanced and Premium subscribers, and Premium users receive the highest priority attention.

Contrary to Fivetran, Stitch is an ELT tool. With Stitch, users extract and load their data first, then Stitch transforms that data within the data warehouse or lake. Fivetran is an ETL solution, so users (albeit with some basic coding skills) can extract and transform data before loading it into the data warehouse of their choice.

Fivetran vs. Stitch Data vs. Integrate.io Comparison Overview

Fivetran

Stitch

Integrate.io

Key features:

  • Data extraction

  • Data cleaning

  • Data transformation

  • Data sync

  • Cloud native

  • Fully managed

  • Automatic and continuous pipeline updates

  • Selective replication

  • Easy data transformation

  • Simple workflow creation

  • REST API

  • Data security and compliance

Pre-built connectors:

  • 450+

  • 140+

  • 150+

Customer Support:

  • General support portal

  • Live status page

  • Feature requests portal

  • Standard: Live Chat Support and an online portal

  • Advanced: Gold Level support

  • Premium: Platinum Level support

  • Live chat support

  • Telephone

  • Documentation

  • Webinars

Plans and Pricing:

  • Free: Free-forever plan (restricted to 500,000 or fewer lines)

  • Starter: Not published

  • Standard: Not published

  • Enterprise: Not published

  • *Standard: $100/month, paid monthly or annually

  • *Advanced: $1,200/mo, paid annually

  • *Premium: $2,500/mo, paid annually

 

*All plans offer a free 14-day trial with no credit card required.

  • Starter: $15,000/yr; $2,000 per each additional connector

  • Professional: $25,000/yr; $2,000 per each additional connector

  • Enterprise: Not published; additional connector fees not published

 

Fivetran vs. Stitch vs. Integrate.io: Key Features

Fivetran

  • Data integration capabilities
  • Data warehousing and storage options
    • Cloud data warehouses
    • Databases
    • Online data platforms
    • Data lakes
  • Ease of use and user interface
    • Seamlessly automated data flow
    • Connectors are easy to set up
    • Custom connector creation is user’s responsibility and not user-friendly
  • Customization and flexibility
    • If using custom connectors, there’s really no limit on customization.
    • Whether using out-of-the-box or custom connectors, Fivetran only offers full sync.
    • No selective sync available.
  • Automation and scheduling
    • Fully automated
    • Data sources become normalized schemas

Stitch Data

  • Data integration capabilities
    • Databases
    • SaaS applications
  • Data warehousing and storage options
    • Cloud-based
  • Ease of use and user interface
    • ETL processes are simple
    • Users say the Transformation process is a little lackluster
  • Customization and flexibility
    • Easy to use and intuitive user interface
    • Some users cite an in-depth learning curve without basic data integration knowledge
  • Automation and scheduling

Integrate.io

  • Data integration capabilities
    • Connect data from more than 200 various sources, including a Salesforce to Salesforce connection
    • Data sources served include public and private cloud servers and on-premise infrastructures
    • Data is fully transformed and cleansed before it’s sent to your data warehouse or data lake
    • Data modeling and data architecture needs are simplified
  • Ease of Use and User Interface
    • Automated, low- to no-code interface
    • Easy setup, user-friendly dashboard
  • Customization and flexibility
    • Drag-and-drop interface lets you:
    • Customize parameters for your API(s)
    • Create definitions for data fields
    • Name data headers
    • Integrate with hundreds of pre-built connectors or create your own API
  • Automation and scheduling
    • Set your own key to enable data pipeline consolidations, or merges
    • Set the frequency of each endpoint’s connection
    • Schedule every extraction, transformation, and load according to connector and frequency required

Performance Analysis: Fivetran vs. Stitch vs. Integrate.io

Data Processing Speed

  • Fivetran: near real-time
  • Stitch: Step-by-step batch processing; not real time
  • Integrate.io: Batch processing and real-time processing
  • Stitch is the slowest in the performance department, Fivetran is a step ahead with near real-time processing, but Integrate.io comes out on top for choice: batch processing or real-time.

Reliability and Uptime

Scalability

 

Fivetran vs. Stitch vs. Integrate.io: Pricing and Plans

Comparison of pricing structures

  • Fivetran: Four plans; Lowest tier is free; pricing for other plans not published.
  • Stitch: Three plans; $100/mo, $1200/mo, and $2500/mo.
  • Integrate.io: Three plans; $15,000/yr, $25,000/yr, and Enterprise plan not published.

Different plans and what they offer

  • Fivetran plans: Fivetran plans depend on consumption. Fivetran offers free access to organizations requiring 500,000 connections (or fewer) per month.
  • Stitch plans: Standard subscribers pay $100/mo on a monthly or annual basis; other plans must pay annually.
  • Integrate.io plans: All plans offer a set number of connectors; additional connectors cost $2000 on Starter and Professional plans; Additional connector fee not published for Enterprise accounts.

Cost-effectiveness for various business sizes

  • Fivetran is right for organizations without a data engineering team and that require heavy ETL services.
  • Stitch is a good option for businesses that have simple projects or teams able to write their own coding.
  • Integrate.io is best for organizations with little to no coding experience that need an out-of-the-box solution for all data integration requirements.

 

Strengths and Weaknesses: Fivetran vs. Stitch vs. Integrate.io

Fivetran

  • Strengths:
    • +Near real time Data replication
    • +Basic standardization
    • +Availability of a wide variety of ingestion plugins
  • Weaknesses:
    • -View based ingestion from RDBMS
    • -Detailed Logging
    • -API support

Stitch Data

  • Strengths:
    • +Automate data ingestion
    • +Easy integration with many sources
    • +Not as expensive as Fivetran
  • Weaknesses:
    • -not user friendly
    • -Better error messages so you can determine what the problem is

Integrate.io

  • Strengths:
    • +customer service
    • +simplified user experience
    • +hundreds of pre-built out-of-the-box connectors
    • +An API lets you build your own connectors
  • Weaknesses:
    • -error logs are often not detailed enough to see where the issue occurred

 

Fivetran vs. Stitch Data vs. Integrate.io: Use Cases and Industry Applications

Fivetran, Stitch Data, and Integrate.io are trusted data integration solutions for some of today’s largest companies.

Fivetran

Fivetran has been instrumental helping companies save on engineering hours and cut down on ingestion and reporting times.

  • Typical use cases for Fivetran:
    • Analyzing operational data from multiple databases
    • Joining website data to transactional data
    • Central data hub

Stitch Data

Stitch Data has helped companies obtain better business intelligence (BI) information and get to market faster.

  • Common applications of Stitch Data:
    • Analytics structure
    • Improve business intelligence insights
    • Faster time-to-market

Integrate.io

Major businesses trust Integrate.io’s ETL, reverse ETL, and robust reporting capabilities. For example, CommonLit saves 22 days of engineering resources annually and RaiseMe doesn’t consume any engineering resources since partnering with Integrate.io.

  • Typical use cases and common applications of Integrate.io:
    • Automated order processing
    • Inventory management
    • Customer data synching
    • Obtaining business intelligence from data-heavy organizations
  • Industry-specific suitability
    • Fivetran: technology, machine learning, analytics
    • Stitch Data: retail
    • Integrate.io: Typically retail and ecommerce, but any industry that relies on detailed Business Intelligence (BI) analyses

 

Fivetran vs. Stitch vs. Integrate.io: Customer Support and Community

Comparison of customer support services

  • Fivetran offers a general support portal, real-time status page, and a portal for feature requests.
  • Stitch customer support depends on your plan tier. Standard users have access to live chat and a support portal, but Advanced and Premium users have Gold and Platinum support, respectively. Stitch doesn’t publish what’s included in either Gold- or Platinum-level support or how this support differs among other subscription levels.
  • Integrate.io offers users support through live chat and by telephone, as well as user documentation, webinars, and other learning materials.

Customer reviews and feedback

Fivetran vs. Stitch vs. Integrate.io: Which Is Best for You?

The data integration solution that’s right for you depends on your budget, use case, and other requirements.

Fivetran may not be right for budget-conscious organizations with heavy data flow because Fivetran’s fees are based on consumption. If you have minimal data, this could work. But for some organizations, data consumption fluctuates from month to month. Scale up into higher volumes, and you could be met with impractical fees.

Stitch offers minimal customer support unless you’re on a premium plan. Like Fivetran, your fees are a direct result of your data extraction and load weights. Venture into higher data transfers, and some businesses find Stitch outright unaffordable.

Integrate.io, on the other hand, presents its connectors with flat monthly fees. Your rate isn’t calculated based on your data volume or processing power required. This flat-rate pricing model helps businesses stay on a predictable budget.

Integrate.io Could Be the ETL Solution You’ve Been Looking For

Ready to see for yourself how Integrate.io can help you unsilo your data? Schedule an intro call and one of our ETL professionals will help you sign up for your free 14-day trial. 

After you’ve signed up, you can start building your first data pipeline! Schedule your ETL Trial Setup Meeting and we’ll assign your own personal data expert to walk you through how to make the most of your free, live demo.

Prefer to fly solo and learn as you go? Jump right in! If you get stuck, you can send us an email or review our Getting Started docs.