Alation Data Catalog Reviews

Name: Alation Data Catalog
Brand: Alation
Rating: 3.8 (12 reviews)

Vendor: Alation

3.8 out of 5

12 reviews
71% willing to recommend

1,079 followers

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What is Alation Data Catalog?

Alation pioneered the data catalog market and is now leading its evolution into a platform for a broad range of data intelligence solutions including data search & discovery, data governance, lineage, stewardship, analytics, and digital transformation.

Get the Alation Data Catalog Buyer's Guide and find out what your peers are saying about Alation Data Catalog, Informatica Intelligent Data Management Cloud (IDMC), Microsoft Purview Data Governance and more!

Alation Data Catalog is the #2 ranked solution in top Metadata Management solutions and #7 ranked solution in Data Governance tools. PeerSpot users give Alation Data Catalog an average rating of 7.6 out of 10. Alation Data Catalog is most commonly compared to Informatica Intelligent Data Management Cloud (IDMC): Alation Data Catalog vs Informatica Intelligent Data Management Cloud (IDMC). Alation Data Catalog is popular among the large enterprise segment, accounting for 71% of users researching this solution on PeerSpot. The top industry researching this solution are professionals from a financial services firm, accounting for 18% of all views.

Helped 849,686 peers since 2012

Featured Alation Data Catalog reviews

Brahma Lam

Developer at CVS Health

The tool's metadata cataloging is the most valuable feature. The tool's domain model needs to be changed. Alation Data Catalog is stable. The solution is scalable. Alation Data Catalog's deployment is easy. I rate it a nine out of ten. Deployment takes only two to three hours to complete.…

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John Gilbert

Data Governance Manager at Cbus

Alation Data Catalog doesn't support end-to-end lineage. By that, I mean the ability to trace the movement of data from when it first comes into our organization to where it's consumed. Along the way, the data is stored in different places, transformed, aggregated, etc. The journey can be quite a long one from the perspective of a single piece of data, so we needed to track the lineage, and it didn't work as expected. It worked in parts, but it wasn't end-to-end. And we've had to rely on some workarounds to overcome some issues and still not where we want it to be. We understand that there's a lot of functionality coming up that we'll just have to wait for. When we purchased the tool, we knew that Alation was innovating and would be releasing new features and functionality every quarter. We were more excited than we would be about a stable product that puts out one update per year. And we knew we would find areas where Data Catalog either couldn't support a use case or we had to do a workaround. That has been the case, but Alation has been fairly quick to show us where these fixes or features will come out on their product roadmap. We've only had to rely on them a couple of times to provide workarounds for alternative solutions or options. However, that might be more tactical in nature rather than getting to what we want to do. There have been points where we haven't been able to do exactly what we want to do, but we've always been able to work around these issues or wait until the features have been made available. That lineage would be an excellent example where it didn't support our requirements out of the box from day one. But it's been a journey where we've understood what they've released, how it worked, what doesn't work, what's coming up, and when we'll be able to kick that off again.

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reviewer1693698

Senior Data Governance Specialist at a insurance company with 10,001+ employees

It has a really great capability to connect pieces of information and people to build out a graph or an ecosystem of the data that's being used; whether it's the system, the people, or the artifacts that are being generated with the data. It's important to us because one of our key pain points for our data scientist is understanding the context and the data. It builds that context natively into the tool so that's served up to you. You don't have to go looking for that contextual information that you need about data. Alation's active data governance, as opposed to command and control style data governance, is the way of the future. That's the approach that we have shifted to over the past few years, really trying to use a more adaptive governance approach. Where we're reacting to what the business is telling us we need, instead of trying to dictate how things should be done. It sits nicely with their analyst-focused product.

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Alation Data Catalog mindshare

Product category:

As of May 2025, the mindshare of Alation Data Catalog in the Data Governance category stands at 5.9%, down from 10.7% compared to the previous year, according to calculations based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Data Governance

PeerResearch reports based on Alation Data Catalog reviews

Type	Title	Date
Category	Data Governance	May 1, 2025	Download
Product	Reviews, tips, and advice from real users	May 1, 2025	Download
Comparison	Alation Data Catalog vs Microsoft Purview Data Governance	May 1, 2025	Download
Comparison	Alation Data Catalog vs Informatica Intelligent Data Management Cloud (IDMC)	May 1, 2025	Download
Comparison	Alation Data Catalog vs Collibra Governance	May 1, 2025	Download

Title	Rating	Mindshare	Recommending
Informatica Intelligent Data Management Cloud (IDMC)	3.9	6.2%	93%	182 interviews Add to research
Microsoft Purview Data Governance	3.8	23.2%	84%	58 interviews Add to research

Valuable Features

Alation Data Catalog offers a robust connection of data elements and users, enhancing understanding and trust in data. Its user-friendly interface simplifies navigation. Notable features include active data governance, SQL query publication, easy onboarding and security, communication via messenger, workflow automation, and cloud integration. Users appreciate metadata tagging and data integration capabilities. Customizable templates and an API facilitate detailed knowledge access. Automatic crawling and indexing of data sources on-prem or in the cloud are standout features.

"Alation Data Catalog was very useful for sharing SQL queries easily in a platform."
"The most valuable feature is cloud integration."
"Alation Data Catalog provides a nice interface for connecting to the database, querying the data, and working on it."

Room for Improvement

Alation Data Catalog requires enhancements in end-to-end data lineage and data governance. Users find the interface challenging and integration with tools like Power BI limited. Data quality features and data observability are needed improvements. There is difficulty connecting to databases, and workarounds are often necessary. Other platforms offer more features, and a visualization tool for data quality is suggested. Customizing the domain model and improving connector setup and support are also points of concern.

"Alation Data Catalog is not user-friendly for business users. Its user experience is comparable to a Wikipedia page, lacking good visualization."
"Data observability within Alation would be incredibly helpful for addressing these challenges"
"Although the solution performs far better in terms of data cataloging, its data governance capabilities need improvement."

Pricing

Enterprise users report that Alation Data Catalog's pricing can be high, especially with different user types and additional app costs like governance. Understanding Alation's diverse pricing models, including potential currency variations, is crucial. A three-year contract is recommended for maximizing value, often yielding better pricing than annual agreements. Discounts may be accessible, particularly at fiscal year-end targets. Overall, the solution is considered moderately expensive compared to market competitors, with pricing rated around eight out of ten.

"I don't have all the details on the pricing side, but the solution was more expensive than originally expected."
"The platform is moderately expensive compared to the other competitors in the market."
"The solution is a little expensive."

Popular Use Cases

Organizations primarily use Alation Data Catalog for metadata management, data governance, and sharing data classifications. It supports data analysts, architects, and engineers by enabling robust data literacy and usability. Users focus on creating business glossaries, establishing data lineage, and implementing data quality rules. It's also used for querying databases, managing data ownership, and federating assets across projects. Challenges like integrating Power BI custom pages are addressed with agile development and collaboration.

Service and Support

Alation support receives positive remarks for being proactive and improving over the past three years. Users note quick responses for complex issues, though simple issues may see delays. Excellent documentation aids in technical queries. Coordinating across time zones can be challenging, but responses remain timely. Some users find it difficult to locate knowledgeable personnel, especially for lineage-related support. Innovation leads to occasional technical challenges, which support handles effectively.

Deployment

Users found Alation Data Catalog's initial setup easy and straightforward, though timeframes varied depending on company-specific prerequisites and remote work challenges. Some completed it within hours, while others required weeks for installation and configuration. The user interface was highlighted for simplicity, with infrastructure requiring minimal resources. Progress was steady, with maintenance involving regular updates and team collaboration. Participants appreciated the structured approach, highlighting efficient navigation, configuration, and setup processes.

Scalability

Alation Data Catalog is largely scalable, with users noting a positive experience in terms of user capacity. Enterprises with hundreds of users find the cloud service facilitates infrastructure management. There is a need for dedicated staff to promote user adoption. Current versions are easier to scale, although earlier versions had challenges. Migration to cloud infrastructure could improve. Recommended for cost-conscious companies, its integration across departments is ongoing, with varying degrees of usage.

Stability

Alation Data Catalog is recognized widely for its stability. Many users have not encountered downtime or reliability issues, emphasizing solid infrastructure. Regular version upgrades require restarts, but this does not affect stability. Some have rated it eight out of ten due to occasional outages, possibly linked to on-premises deployment, and some note stability concerns, rating it six out of ten. Overall, Alation Data Catalog is considered to maintain good stability by most experiences.

These insights are based on the in-depth reviews provided by peers to help you make a better buying decision.

Download our Alation Data Catalog Buyer's Guide for additional reliable information.

Review data by company size

By reviewers

By visitors reading reviews

Top industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

18%

Computer Software Company

10%

Government

Manufacturing Company

Healthcare Company

Insurance Company

Retailer

Construction Company

Energy/Utilities Company

Educational Organization

Non Profit

Real Estate/Law Firm

University

Legal Firm

Comms Service Provider

Wholesaler/Distributor

Media Company

Logistics Company

Consumer Goods Company

Transportation Company

Pharma/Biotech Company

Outsourcing Company

Recreational Facilities/Services Company

Hospitality Company

Engineering Company

Performing Arts

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Learn more about Alation Data Catalog

Thanks to its powerful Behavioral Analysis Engine, inbuilt collaboration capabilities, and open interfaces, Alation combines machine learning with human insight to successfully tackle even the most demanding challenges in data and metadata management. With Alation, analysts are empowered to search, query and collaborate on their data to achieve faster, more accurate insights.

Trusted by 400+ enterprises worldwide like Salesforce, Nasdaq, LinkedIn, Finnair, and Cisco.

Alation Data Catalog was previously known as Alation.