Data pipeline tools facilitate the extraction, transformation, and transfer of data from one location to another. These tools help businesses save time and effort by automating processes and providing more efficiency and high-quality data.
While these data pipeline tools are necessary for most businesses to achieve and sustain growth, choosing the right data pipeline tool can be a challenge with so many options available on the market.
It’s vital to carefully evaluate available options and consider the pros and cons of each before making a final decision. By choosing the right data pipeline tool, you can ensure that your pipeline is efficient, effective, and well-suited to your needs.
Through this post, we will provide a review and comparison of 10 of the best data pipeline tools for 2024. By the end of this guide, you’ll have a comprehensive understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of each tool and be well-equipped to make an informed decision about which one is right for you.
This guide reviews 10 best Data pipeline tools:
- Estuary Flow
- Hevo
- Fivetran
- Arcion
- StreamSets
- Stitch
- Apache Airflow
- Astera Centerprise
- Keboola
- Integrate.io
10 Best Data Pipeline Tools Of 2024 You Should Consider
Let’s examine each of the top 10 data pipeline tools for 2024 in greater detail.
1. Estuary Flow
Estuary Flow is the top pick for the best data pipeline tool of 2024. Our comprehensive data integration platform offers a wide range of features and capabilities, making it suitable for a variety of data integration tasks.
One of the key strengths of Flow is its powerful real-time ELT (extract, load, and transform) capabilities. The platform combines the connector-based architecture and ease-of-use of familiar ELT providers with the near-instant data transfer of a streaming broker. Unlike other real-time solutions, Flow includes a GUI-based web application, allowing you to build and manage data pipelines without the need for code.
Flow’s real-time functionality is built on a unique streaming broker, Gazette, that solves some of the common pain points of other popular streaming systems.
Estuary Flow can be used to build analytical as well as operational pipelines (sometimes called “reverse ETL“). The platform supports dozens of connectors, making it easy to connect to a wide range of data sources and destinations. This makes Flow a highly flexible and scalable solution to handle data integration tasks of all sizes and complexity levels.
Pros And Cons Of Estuary Flow
| Pros | Cons |
| Combines the capabilities of ELT, ETL, and streaming tools. | Newer, less-established tool than some of the other options. |
| It includes a GUI-based web application for building and managing data pipelines. | |
| The platform is flexible and scalable, making it suitable for all. | |
| Estuary includes features for data governance and security for sensitive data. |
Pricing
Estuary offers three pricing plans:
- Open-Source (Free): It includes access to all of Estuary’s features and offers CDC from databases & 150+ APIs.
- Cloud ($0.75/GB): Cloud-hosted Flow with 99% uptime SLA. Comes with a 30-day free trial.
- Enterprise (Custom pricing): Offers provisioned servers with 24/7 hands-on support.
2. Hevo
Hevo is a real-time data pipeline tool that offers a range of features and capabilities for building and managing data pipelines. It is designed to be user-friendly to quickly load data from all of your sources into the data warehouse, making it a good choice for businesses that are new to data integration.
One of the key features of Hevo is its support for real-time data streaming, built on Apache Kafka. This allows you to process data in real time as it is generated, making it a great choice for businesses that need to work with large volumes of data. Hevo also includes a visual workflow builder and supports over 100 data sources and destinations, making it easy to connect to and integrate data from a wide range of sources.
Hevo also includes tools for data governance and security. The platform includes features like data masking and encryption, as well as support for compliance with GDPR and other privacy regulations. This makes Hevo a reliable and secure solution for businesses that need to ensure the integrity and compliance of their data.
Pros And Cons Of Hevo
| Pros | Cons |
| Quick and easy setup with just a few clicks. | High CPU usage may be an issue. |
| Ability to create ETL processes without coding. | |
| Smooth data integration experience. | |
| Offers outstanding customer support. |
Pricing
Hevo offers three pricing options for its data integration platform:
- Free: Limited to 1 million free events per month with free initial load, 50+ connectors, and unlimited models.
- Starter ($239/mo): Offers 150+ connectors, on-demand events, and 12 hours of support SLA.
- Business (Custom Pricing): HIPAA compliance with a dedicated data architect and dedicated account manager.
3. Fivetran
The third pick on our list is the Fivetran data pipeline tool that helps automate data integration. It provides fully managed extract, transfer, and load (ETL) pipelines that require minimal maintenance. With Fivetran, you can use data mapping to connect their data sources and destinations. This tool is compatible with many types of incoming data sources and data warehouses.
Fivetran is a fully managed data integration tool that simplifies and streamlines the process of connecting data sources and destinations. With its scalable platform and ability to support SQL modeling and incremental batch updates, it helps you to reduce technical debt and get data pipelines up and running quickly.
Fivetran is designed for data engineers, data scientists, data analysts, and other technical professionals. It is well-suited for companies that plan to have their technical users utilize the tool.
Pros And Cons Of Fivetran
| Pros | Cons |
| Supports streaming data services and unstructured data. | No option to migrate data, schema, and queries to other platforms. |
| Custom code can be used to fully control the data pipeline. | No real-time data support. |
| Automated data pipelines and defined schemas and ERDs enable fast analysis. | |
| Simple and user-friendly interface. |
Pricing
Fivetran offers a pay-as-you-go model with four tiers:
- Starter (Custom Pricing): Offers 1-hour syncs and 200+ fully-managed connectors for applications and sources.
- Starter Select (Custom Pricing): Provided up to 0.5 million monthly active rows.
- Standard (Custom Pricing): Unlimited users with 15-minute syncs.
- Enterprise (Custom Pricing): Offer enterprise database connectors and 5-minute syncs.
4. Arcion
Arcion is a data pipeline tool that enables organizations to replicate data and transactions across multiple data platforms without writing code. Its ultra-modern technology allows you to overcome the limitations of traditional ELT software and experience the benefits of next-generation technology.
Arcion’s data integration platform offers a fully managed change data capture (CDC) service for high-volume, real-time data replication without any coding required. Its CDC features include automatic schema conversation, flexible deployment, and end-to-end replication with zero-data loss architecture for consistent and reliable data transfer.
The platform’s distributed, highly parallel architecture allows for fast and scalable data replication, and the cloud version offers autoscaling and high availability for easy management. With Arcion, you can easily streamline the entire data pipeline and reduce downtime.
Pros And Cons Of Arcion
| Pros | Cons |
| Uses next-generation data processing technology that works fast | Limited support for non-database systems. |
| Offers a wide range of connectors and integration | |
| User-friendly and easy to set-up |
Pricing
Arcion offers a pay-as-you-go pricing model for self-hosted and cloud deployment models. The exact price will depend on the specific needs of the business and the volume of data that needs to be processed. The platform is designed to be scalable, so businesses can start with a smaller package and scale up as their needs.
5. StreamSets
StreamSets is another data pipeline platform that was established in San Francisco in 2014 and has developed a reputation as a leading provider of data integration solutions.
It offers a range of features and capabilities for building and managing data pipelines. StreamSets is the only data pipeline tool that offers a single design experience for all design patterns, resulting in 10 times greater developer productivity.
In addition, StreamSets smart data pipelines are resilient to change, leading to 80% fewer breakages. The platform also provides a single pane for managing and monitoring all pipelines across hybrid and cloud architectures, eliminating blind spots and control gaps.
Pros And Cons Of StreamSets
| Pros | Cons |
| Automatic data drift handling. | Integration with Spark functions can be challenging. |
| Hybrid and multi-cloud deployment. | Data flow pauses when settings are updated. |
| Quick and easy setup. | |
| Efficient at handling both streaming and record-based data. |
Pricing
StreamSets offers two pricing plans:
- Professional ($1000/month): Offers 50 published pipelines and 5 users with 99.9% uptime SLA.
- Enterprise (Custom Pricing): Unlimited users and published pipelines with 24/7 Gold Support.
6. Stitch
Stitch is a powerful and flexible data pipeline platform that is designed to help businesses easily connect, transfer, and integrate data from a wide range of sources in the form of useful raw data. The platform is cloud-based and open-sourced and allows data replication into cloud data warehouses, making it easy to use and customize.
With its support for a large number of sources and destinations, as well as its open-source toolkit for building custom sources, Stitch is a highly transparent and flexible platform for managing data pipelines. Whether you are looking to build simple or complex data pipelines, Stitch has the capabilities you need to get the job done.
The platform includes features such as data masking and encryption, as well as support for compliance with GDPR and other privacy regulations. This makes Stitch a reliable and secure solution for businesses that need to protect their sensitive data.
Pros And Cons Of Stitch
| Pros | Cons |
| Easy to integrate with a variety of other sources. | Limited customer support. |
| The platform is affordably priced and includes advanced features. | Pricing model doesn’t scale well. |
| Stitch makes it easy to replicate relational databases. | |
| Provides real-time evaluation of user experience through data pipelines. |
Pricing
Stitch has three pricing plans:
- Standard (Starts at $100/mo): Basic features that are best suited for beginners.
- Advanced ($1250/mo): Advanced features for more control and extensibility of data pipelines.
- Premium ($2500/mo): For high data volumes. Ideal for companies that need top security and compliance.
All three plans come with a free 14-day trial for you to evaluate the platform and determine if it meets your needs.
7. Apache Airflow
Apache Airflow is a highly versatile and strong data integration platform designed to help businesses automate and manage the execution of their data pipelines. The platform is open-source and uses Python for SQL to programmatically author, schedule, and monitor data pipelines.
Airflow was originally developed at Airbnb in 2014 and was later accepted into the Apache Software Foundation’s Incubator Program in 2016. In 2019, it was announced as a top-level Apache project. With over 140 integration and strong community support, Apache Airflow is widely used as a data orchestration solution by businesses around the world.
While it doesn’t offer pre-built data pipeline components like many of the other options on this list, Airflow is a great choice if you need to orchestrate pipelines you code yourself.
Apache Airflow’s intuitive interface makes it easy to monitor and manage data pipelines. To help you visualize the scheduling and execution of your pipelines, the platform includes a variety of tools and features, including:
- Graphs
- Tree views
- Code views
- Gantt charts
With its rich, actionable context menu, you can easily access detailed information about individual task instances and take action as needed.
Pros And Cons Of Apache Airflow
| Pros | Cons |
| Simplifies the maintenance of automation. | Only supports Python. |
| Can notify users of any issues that arise. | Requires you to hand-code your data pipelines. |
| If scripts fail, Apache Airflow can automatically attempt a retry. |
Pricing
Apache Airflow is a free and open-source data integration platform that is licensed under the Apache License 2.0. This means that you can use, modify, and distribute the platform without incurring any additional costs.
8. Astera Centerprise
Astera Centerprise is a comprehensive data integration platform that provides a complete suite of data management solutions. The platform includes tools for data integration, transformation, quality, and profiling to make it easy for users to handle a wide range of integration scenarios.
With over 25 years of experience in the industry, Astera Centerprise has a proven track record of providing robust, affordable, and high-performance solutions to 1000 companies and enterprises. Its advanced capabilities allow businesses to overcome even the most complex data management challenges and achieve their goals.
Pros And Cons Of Astera Centerprise
| Pros | Cons |
| It is a zero-code platform that allows users to easily build data integrations without writing code | Some users have reported bugs while using the platform |
| It features a drag-and-drop mapping interface that makes it easy to set up data integrations. | |
| Users can preview data before processing to ensure that it is correct. |
Pricing
Astera Centerprise offers trial options for you to test out the platform and see if it meets your needs. This trial period allows you to get a feel for the platform and its capabilities before committing to a purchase. In addition to its trial option, Astera Centerprise also offers customized quotes based on the specific needs and requirements of each business.
9. Keboola
Keboola is a modern data platform founded in 2018 that simplifies and speeds up data engineering to help companies get more value from their data operation. Keboola connection is a comprehensive data integration platform that is designed to serve the needs of enterprises and small to medium-sized businesses. The platform offers a range of end-to-end solutions that are specifically tailored for web applications.
Among its key features is support for ETL processes, as well as tools for managing metadata and integrating data from multiple sources. Keboola Connection also includes support for web services to make it easy for businesses to connect and integrate data from a wide range of sources and destinations.
Pros And Cons Of Keboola
| Pros | Cons |
| Offers a one-stop shop for data extraction, modeling, and storage. | Specific data types in storage can be confusing for new users. |
| Utilizes advanced security techniques to protect your data. | Slightly expensive for some users. |
| The platform has more than 130 extractor components that can automate data collection. |
Pricing
Keboola offers two plans:
- Free Tier: Unlimited ETL/ELT workflows with 200+ data connectors.
- Enterprise Plan (Custom Pricing): For more comprehensive data management solutions and price depends on the usage.
10. Integrate.io
Integrate.io is a cloud-based platform that helps businesses seamlessly integrate, process, and prepare data for analytics. All companies can utilize the platform because it is made to be user-friendly and does not require coding expertise or technical knowledge.
With Integrate.io, businesses can easily connect to various data stores and utilize built-in data transformation tools without the need for additional hardware or software investment. The platform is scalable, allowing businesses to grow and adapt their data operations as needed.
Pros And Cons Of Integrate.io
| Pros | Cons |
| Coding and jargon-free environment, making it easy to use for non-technical users. | Limited integration options compared to others. |
| Scalable platform that can handle large amounts of data. | Some users reported issues with stability. |
| Offers immediate connectivity to various data stores. |
Pricing
Integrate.io offers a free trial, after which pricing is based on usage. You can choose from the Standard Plan, the Professional plan, and the Enterprise plan. Custom pricing can be requested.
Key Considerations When Choosing a Data Pipeline Tool
Selecting the right data pipeline tool is important for efficient data management. Here's what to consider:
- Scalability: Ensure the tool can handle your current data volume and accommodate future growth. Look for tools that can scale horizontally or vertically as needed.
- Ease of Use: Consider your team's technical expertise. Some tools require coding knowledge, while others offer intuitive visual interfaces.
- Data Sources & Destinations: Verify that the tool supports the specific systems and platforms you use (databases, cloud services, applications, etc.).
- Real-Time vs. Batch Processing: Do you need real-time data streaming or is batch processing sufficient? Choose a tool aligned with your requirements.
- Data Transformation Capabilities: Does the tool offer robust ETL/ELT features? How flexible is it for complex data transformations?
- Pricing: Analyze different pricing models (usage-based, per-user, flat fees) and choose one that fits your budget and usage patterns.
- Security & Compliance: If you handle sensitive data, prioritize tools with strong security measures (encryption, data masking) and compliance certifications (GDPR, HIPAA, etc.).
- Customer Support: Consider the level of support offered by the vendor, especially if you anticipate needing assistance during implementation or usage.
By carefully evaluating these factors, you can find a data pipeline tool that aligns with your organization's specific needs and empowers you to harness the full potential of your data.
Conclusion
Several data pipeline tools are available in the market, each with unique features and capabilities. We have reviewed 10 of the best options for 2024 and after thorough analysis, our top pick is Estuary because of its robust features and ability to handle data drift automatically
The final decision on which data pipeline tool to use will ultimately depend on your business needs and use case. We recommended evaluating each option and choosing the best fit for your requirements. Remember to consider pricing, customer support, features, and ease of use.
If you’re interested in seeing if Estuary is the best option for your data management needs, you can get in touch or start your free trial.
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