Fivetran vs. Matillion for ETL: A Detailed Comparison

As data becomes more complex and spreads across various sources and touchpoints, it is becoming increasingly difficult to combine it at the speed required by the business. Data teams usually use ETL tools to integrate data into a unified view. Thankfully, these ETL tools are also evolving along with the data needs.

Today, there are a plethora of options available in the market, that choosing the right one can be a little tricky. Two established ETL tools in the market are Fivetran and Matillion.

This blog will help users evaluate their pricing, features, integrations, support, and feasibility. Also, it will give you another alternative to both the solutions that you might find helpful.

What is Fivetran?

Fivetran is that was launched in 2012 out of Y Combinator. It took its inspiration from Fortran, a coding language developed in 1954 by John Backus. Fivetran operates as a single platform, offering data movement, transformation, and governance features. It’s fully managed on the cloud and allows users to set up and manage their data pipelines easily.

The tool comes with a range of pre-built connectors to streamline data integration and operates on a usage-based pricing model. Customers pay monthly for each MAR (monthly active row) in use.

What is Matillion?

Matillion is also a cloud ETL tool. It was founded in 2011 in Manchester, UK. Matillion focuses on simplifying data integration and business intelligence. Matillion’s ETL offering focuses on robust transformations and connectivity. Not only do users have access to pre-built connectors, but they can also access community connectors and create their own.

A distinguishing feature of Matillion is that it can run on major cloud platforms such as Amazon, Google Cloud Provider, and Microsoft Azure. It uses a credit model with three tiers: basic, advanced, and enterprise.

Fivetran Vs. Matillion: Pricing

Fivetran

Fivetran charges users based on active rows, where each active row is counted once a month. There are 4 tiers:

• Free
• Starter
• Standard
• Enterprise

It offers a free tier for low data volumes, which provides limited features for 500,000 MARs. Higher tiers allow unlimited users and API access, with users getting priority support, enterprise connectors, and advanced security in the Enterprise.

Matillion

Unlike Fivetran, Matillion uses progressive per-credit pricing with 3 tiers:

• Basic ($2/credit)
• Advanced ($2.5/credit)
• Enterprise ($2.7/credit)

The credits consumed are dependent on vCore usage per hour. For every 1 hour of vCore use, 1 credit is used.

The basic tier offers limited connectors, users, and security. Enterprise customers receive CDC pipelines, unlimited users, mission-critical support, auto-documentation, and more.

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Fivetran Vs. Matillion: Services

Fivetran

Fivetran is purely an ELT product. For extraction, Fivetran has an extensive library of ready-made connectors. Users can find connectors based on connector type and features. In terms of replication, Fivetran supports SaaS, streaming, file, database, and SAP.

It uses dbt Core for custom transformations alongside its native library. Major data warehouses, such as Redshift and Snowflake, support these models.

To streamline efficiency, Fivetran automatically switches between full and incremental loads. It helps users automate the entire ETL process. It also provides auditing, schema drift handling, and incident handling.

Matillion

Matillion boasts a wide range of connectors to cloud sources and destinations. While the number of pre-built connectors is limited compared to Fivetran, the availability of community connectors and quick custom ones makes up for it.

Users can build no/low-code pipelines based on experience and resources.

The company supports various data integration initiatives:

• ETL/ELT
• Reverse ETL
• Data replication
• CDC

Verdict: Both tools have robust ETL features. While Fivetran has more pre-built connectors, Matillion has community connectors, offering more flexibility in making custom options. Both tools provide a minimum code approach to building data pipelines.

Fivetran Vs. Matillion: Support

Fivetran

Fivetran provides the usual SaaS support features: FAQs and support tickets. They also have a status page to provide a real-time service functionality check.

Fivetran has a support rating of 7.9/10 on G2 and 4.4/5 on Gartner.

Matillion

Matillion has a dedicated support subdomain for submitting tickets. The subdomain also comes with example cases and a knowledge base. Users can also join a community for more information and tips.

Matillion has a support rating of 8.8/10 on G2 and 4.3/10 on Gartner.

Astera provides industry-leading support with a robust ETL and ELT platform. Try it for 14 days – totally free.

Fivetran Vs. Matillion: Ease of Use

Fivetran

Fivetran has a user-friendly, drag-and-drop web interface that makes it easy to operate. It uses a no-code approach to ELT. The large number of connectors and cloud deployment make it easy to load and manage data. It also has role-based access, versioning, and other collaboration features.

It has an 8.9/10 ease of use rating on G2.

Matillion

Matillion offers both no-code and low-code development. This makes it accessible to both developers and business users. Like other ETL tools, it also has a drag-and-drop GUI for creating mappings and pipelines. Mattilion also provides Git integration, version control, and role-based access for improved collaboration. Their strong documentation further helps teams use the product more effectively.

It has a 9.3/10 ease of use rating on G2.

Fivetran Vs. Matillion: Architecture

Fivetran

Hosted on AWS and Google Cloud, Fivetran is a fully managed SaaS focused on efficient Extract-Load processes. It fetches data from the user’s local environment, manages it on its cloud, and then pushes it to the customer’s cloud – keeping the 3 separate. Other core features of its design are:

• Incremental loading
• Idempotence
• Schema drift handling

Matillion

Matillion’s supports 3 architecture types:

• Single node: All components of Matillion run on a single VM.
• Single node & RDS: All nodes are on a single virtual machine, but the database runs on a separate Redshift instance.
• Clustered: Multiple VMs are used for the nodes.

Data is never pushed out of the cloud to an external server, keeping data sensitivity in mind. The focus is on carrying out transformations through the power of the cloud warehouse. Users can access the ETL client on Amazon EC2, Google Cloud, and Microsoft Azure.

Fivetran Vs. Matillion: Deployment

Fivetran

While Fivetran mainly works fully managed on the cloud, it also offers self-deployment options. It can be deployed on-premises – users can host it on a VM or air-gapped. Hybrid deployment is also an option. This setup provides users with added flexibility. Small teams can choose the cloud option, while large corporations with strict security requirements can choose self-hosting.

Matillion

Users can deploy Matillion in 3 ways through the web interface:

• Using Environments (a target data warehouse)
• Using Multiple Projects (each project has one Environment)
• Using Multiple Instances (each Matillion VM is one Instance)

There are also other deployment options through their REST API.

Comparison Summary

Astera – A Better Way to ETL

Astera provides a simple yet powerful way to manage your data. It offers a no-code solution for creating enterprise-level ETL and ELT pipelines in a drag-and-drop interface. In short, it empowers both technical and non-technical teams to automate data management.

Astera provides:

• A drag-and-drop interface for building ETL/ELT pipelines.
• Connectors for all major databases.
• OData connectivity.
• Automation.
• No-code, in-built transformations.
• Data quality rules.
• Change Data Capture.

Astera  is built-on industrial strength engine and can easily process large volumes of data. It has a Top Rated certification on Trustradius and multiple Fortune 500 clients.

Astera is also an industry leader in User Support, boasting customer support excellence awards from leading publications like TrustRadius and G2.

In terms of pricing, Astera has a flexible approach – users can choose and pay for the exact modules they need. So, no overpaying for features that are not required. Try out Astera for free with a 14-day trial, or get in touch with us for a free demo!