My task involves extracting data from a source, performing necessary transformations, and subsequently loading the data into a target destination, which happens to be Azure SQL Database.
Senior Consultant at Veraqor
Seamless cloud-based data integration providing a versatile platform with scalable data processing, diverse data connectors, and comprehensive monitoring and management capabilities
Pros and Cons
- "The most valuable aspect is the copy capability."
- "Currently, smaller businesses face a disadvantage in terms of pricing, and reducing costs could address this issue."
What is our primary use case?
How has it helped my organization?
The company is experiencing significant benefits as one of our customers is successfully implementing the solution we provide. We offer support to the customer in utilizing Azure Data Factory, and their satisfaction level is quite high.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable aspect is the copy capability.
What needs improvement?
Implementing a standard pricing model at a more affordable rate could make it accessible to a larger number of companies. Currently, smaller businesses face a disadvantage in terms of pricing, and reducing costs could address this issue.
Buyer's Guide
Azure Data Factory
August 2026
Learn what your peers think about Azure Data Factory. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: August 2026.
910,564 professionals have used our research since 2012.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been working with it for more than six months.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The stability is quite satisfactory. I would rate it nine out of ten.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It provides impressive scalability. There are a total of eight switches currently in use. I would rate it nine out of ten.
How are customer service and support?
Technical support is available for all products, and you can reach them without any hassle. They offer assistance through various channels and are proficient in addressing technical issues, ensuring the highest level of support. I would rate it nine out of ten.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
In the past, we used Oracle Data Integrator.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup has been smooth and without any difficulties.
What about the implementation team?
Deployment time is contingent on the volume of data. If there are millions of records to process, it will understandably take a significant amount of time. Conversely, for smaller datasets, the deployment can be relatively quick, often within a matter of minutes to reach the destination. In the cloud deployment process, the initial step involves defining the instance. Subsequently, in the copy activity, we specify both the source and destination. Following this, communication with the destination takes place. This process constitutes the necessary steps for deployment, and we proceed accordingly. Due to the cloud system being provided by Microsoft, they handle the maintenance of the servers.
What was our ROI?
The routing value is quite impressive, especially considering that we successfully implemented it for one of our clients, and they expressed satisfaction. For our latest projects, we've acquired additional customers who also require this product for their setups. I would rate it eight out of ten.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
While I can't specify the actual cost, I believe it is reasonably priced and comparable to similar products.
What other advice do I have?
I would recommend considering this solution because, from my perspective, it is not overly expensive. The pricing seems reasonable, making it a viable option to explore. Overall, I would rate it nine out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
CIO, Director at Prosys Infotech Private Limited
Easy to deploy, good support, and scalable
Pros and Cons
- "We have been using drivers to connect to various data sets and consume data."
- "We require Azure Data Factory to be able to connect to Google Analytics."
What is our primary use case?
The primary use case is to connect to various different data sets and do an EAT into our data warehouse.
What is most valuable?
We have been using drivers to connect to various data sets and consume data. The solution gives everything under one roof, which is an important feature.
What needs improvement?
We require Azure Data Factory to be able to connect to Google Analytics.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using the solution for two years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The solution is stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The solution is scalable.
How are customer service and support?
We had a few technical calls with the Microsoft technical support team for some issues that we were facing, which they helped us resolve.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is straightforward and the team is able to deploy between six and seven days.
What about the implementation team?
The implementation was completed in-house.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The cost is based on the amount of data sets that we are ingesting. The more data we ingest the more we pay.
What other advice do I have?
I give the solution a nine out of ten. We have been happy with all the customer implementations, and the customers are satisfied with the ADF pipelines. We are also currently examining the Synapse pipelines, which are likely similar.
We have six developers using the solution in our organization.
People should use the solution for two reasons. Firstly, we can switch off any data pipelines we set up to save costs. Secondly, there are several connectors available in one place, including most standard connectors.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Microsoft Azure
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Buyer's Guide
Azure Data Factory
August 2026
Learn what your peers think about Azure Data Factory. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: August 2026.
910,564 professionals have used our research since 2012.
CEO - Founder / Principal Data Scientist / Principal AI Architect at Kanayma LLC
Provides great consistency that has made implementations less buggy and less complex
Pros and Cons
- "The function of the solution is great."
- "Lacks a decent UI that would give us a view of the kinds of requests that come in."
What is our primary use case?
We use this solution to quickly instantiate certain components in Azure with the aim of having consistent use of certain components and objects. It provides one point of reference rather than having the need to replicate points of references, and then having to keep them in sync.
How has it helped my organization?
It has helped our company by providing consistency. For example, by making sure that the way certain objects and components are defined is consistent throughout every step. If things change at any point, they should be reflected at all points. It's the consistency that makes implementations less buggy and less complex.
What is most valuable?
The function is the central point of reference and the most valuable thing about Data Factory.
What needs improvement?
I'd like to see videos on YouTube or the Microsoft site with more detailed implementations. The solution lacks a decent UI that allows us to see what kinds of requests are for what objects and how the population of objects is being requested and compared. Right now we have to look at logs to get an idea of what types of calls the data factory receives in what sequence, for example. It would be nice to be able to see it graphically because we currently have to interpret the logs and then create a graphical representation to have an idea of what's going on. In general, it could be simplified and made more user-friendly.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using this solution for six months.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
This solution is stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
There are thousands of users so the solution is scalable.
How are customer service and support?
The customer service is excellent.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I previously used a combination of solutions to achieve the same end. Data Factory simplifies things which is why we switched to it.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was complex. The deployment was carried out in-house and we had around 10 people involved in the implementation.
What was our ROI?
In terms of time and effort savings, we have a return on our investment.
What other advice do I have?
It's important to have a good data model before you start using the solution; an idea of the types of data architecture, data objects and components in order to use them. Because of the lack of more user-friendly interfaces, especially for the people debugging the system, I rate this solution eight out of 10.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Head of Digital Engineering, Management Consultant at Stax Inc.
Easy to set up, has a pipeline feature and built-in security, and allows you to connect to different sources
Pros and Cons
- "The feature I found most helpful in Azure Data Factory is the pipeline feature, including being able to connect to different sources. Azure Data Factory also has built-in security, which is another valuable feature."
- "Areas for improvement in Azure Data Factory include connectivity and integration. When you use integration runtime, whenever there's a failure, the backup process in Azure Data Factory takes time, so this is another area for improvement."
What is our primary use case?
As a management consultancy company, we help our clients deploy Azure Data Factory or any other cloud-based solution depending on data integration needs. Regarding how we use Azure Data Factory within our company, we are on the Microsoft Stack, so we use the solution primarily for data warehousing and integration.
What is most valuable?
The feature I found most helpful in Azure Data Factory is the pipeline feature, including being able to connect to different sources.
I also found running Python codes whenever you need to valuable in Azure Data Factory, especially for certain features of the solution, such as data integrations, aggregations, and manipulations.
Azure Data Factory also has built-in security, which is another valuable feature.
I also like that you get access to the whole Azure suite through Azure Data Factory, so the overall architecture design, defining security and access, role-based access management, etc. It's helpful to have the whole suite when designing applications.
What needs improvement?
Areas for improvement in Azure Data Factory include connectivity and integration.
When you use integration runtime, whenever there's a failure, the backup process in Azure Data Factory takes time, so this is another area for improvement.
Database support in the solution also has room for improvement because Azure Data Factory only currently supports MS SQL and Postgres. I want to see it supporting other databases.
If you want to connect the solution from on-premises to the cloud, you will have to go with a VPN or a pretty expensive route connection. A VPN connection might not work most of the time because you have to download a client and install it, so an interim solution for secure access from on-premise locations to the cloud is what I want to see in Azure Data Factory.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using Azure Data Factory for about a year now.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Azure Data Factory is very stable, so it's a four out of five for me. In some instances, the solution failed, but I wouldn't wholly blame Azure Data Factory because my company connected to some on-premise databases in some cases. Sometimes, you'll get errors from self-hosted integration, faulty connections, or the on-premise server is down, so my rating for stability is a four.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Scalability-wise, Azure Data Factory is a four out of five because Microsoft is still developing certain tiers, which means you can't upgrade an older skill or tier. In contrast, the more modern, newer tiers could be upgraded easily. Rarely will you get stuck in one platform where you have completely destroyed that container and then fit a new container. Most of the time, Azure Data Factory is pretty easy to scale.
How are customer service and support?
We haven't used Microsoft support directly because whenever we have issues with Azure Data Factory, we can find resolutions through their online documentation.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We're using both Azure Data Factory and SSIS.
We had several in-house solutions, but we moved to Azure Data Factory because it was straightforward. From a deployment standpoint, the solution comes with different services, so we didn't have to worry about separate hardware or infrastructure for networking, security, etc.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup for Azure Data Factory was easy, so I'd rate the setup a four out of five.
The implementation strategy was looking into what my organization needed overall, then planning and direct deployment. My company first did a test, a dummy version, then a UAT with stakeholders before going into production.
It took about two months to complete the deployment for Azure Data Factory.
What about the implementation team?
An in-house team, the digital data engineering team, deployed Azure Data Factory.
What was our ROI?
We're still computing the ROI from Azure Data Factory. It's too early to comment on that.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
My company is on a monthly subscription for Azure Data Factory, but it's more of a pay-as-you-go model where your monthly invoice depends on how many resources you use.
On a scale of one to five, pricing for Azure Data Factory is a four.
It's just the usage fees my company pays monthly. No support fees because my company didn't need support from Microsoft.
If you're not using core Microsoft products, the cost could be slightly higher, for example, when using a Postgres database versus an MS SQL database.
What other advice do I have?
My company uses Azure Data Factory, SSIS, and for a few other instances, Salesforce.
My company currently has about fifty Azure Data Factory users, but not directly exposed to the solution compared to the developers; for example, members of corporate management and other teams apart from the development team are exposed to Azure Data Factory.
Shortly, there could be about two hundred users of Azure Data Factory within the company.
The developer team working directly on Azure Data Factory comprises ten individuals.
For the maintenance of the solution, my company has two to three staff, but it could reach up to eight or ten for the entire product. It's a mix of engineers and business analysts who handle Azure Data Factory maintenance.
I'd rate Azure Data Factory as eight out of ten.
My company is an end user of Azure.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Microsoft Azure
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Experienced Consultant at Bluetab
You can create your own pipeline in your space and reuse those creations.
Pros and Cons
- "I like how you can create your own pipeline in your space and reuse those creations. You can collaborate with other people who want to use your code."
- "DataStage is easier to learn than Data Factory because it's more visual. Data Factory has some drag-and-drop options, but it's not as intuitive as DataStage. It would be better if they added more drag-and-drop features. You can start using DataStage without knowing the code. You don't need to learn how the code works before using the solution."
- "DataStage is easier to learn than Data Factory because it's more visual."
What is our primary use case?
My clients use Data Factory to exchange information between the on-premises environment and the cloud. Data Factory moves the data, and we use other solutions like Databricks to transform and clean up the data. My teams typically consist of three or four data engineers.
What is most valuable?
I like how you can create your own pipeline in your space and reuse those creations. You can collaborate with other people who want to use your code.
What needs improvement?
DataStage is easier to learn than Data Factory because it's more visual. Data Factory has some drag-and-drop options, but it's not as intuitive as DataStage. It would be better if they added more drag-and-drop features. You can start using DataStage without knowing the code. You don't need to learn how the code works before using the solution.
I think the communication about the ADA's would be interesting to see in the platform. How to interact with those kind of information and use it on your pipelines.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have used Data Factory for eight months.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I have never experienced downtime with Data Factory.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It isn't that expensive to scale Data Factory up. My client can ask for more resources on the tool, and paying more is never an issue.
How are customer service and support?
I rate Azure support seven or eight out of 10. There is room for improvement. Sometimes, you don't know where the errors originate. You have to send a ticket to Azure, and they take two or three days to respond. The issue may resolve itself by then. The problem is fixed, but you don't know how to prevent it or what to do if it happens in the future.
The data transfer has stopped a few times for unknown reasons. We don't know if the resources are insufficient or if there is a problem with the platform. By the time we hear back from Microsoft, the issue has been resolved.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
How was the initial setup?
Data Factory is effortless to set up.
What other advice do I have?
I rate Azure Data Factory nine out of 10. When implementing Data Factory, you should document where you are building so you can pass that information. Sometimes you build something for a specific purpose, but you can use that information for other solutions. If you have a community where you are building things, you can reuse them on the platform, so don't need to build everything from scratch.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Microsoft Azure
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. Partner
Practice Head, Data & Analytics at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Beneficial guides, scales well, and helpful support
Pros and Cons
- "The most valuable feature of Azure Data Factory is the core features that help you through the whole Azure pipeline or value chain."
- "Azure Data Factory can improve the transformation features. You have to do a lot of transformation activities. This is something that is just not fully covered. Additionally, the integration could improve for other tools, such as Azure Data Catalog."
What is our primary use case?
Azure Data Factory can be deployed on the cloud and hybrid cloud. There have been very few deployments on private clouds.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable feature of Azure Data Factory is the core features that help you through the whole Azure pipeline or value chain.
Across the whole field of use, from accepting the ingestion and real-time SaaS ingestion for which we often use other components. These areas have been instrumental across the board.
What needs improvement?
Azure Data Factory can improve the transformation features. You have to do a lot of transformation activities. This is something that is just not fully covered. Additionally, the integration could improve for other tools, such as Azure Data Catalog.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Azure Data Factory for approximately four years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The stability of Azure Data Factory is good.
I rate the scalability of Azure Data Factory a seven out of ten.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Azure Data Factory is scalable. The solution can move up and be aligned to resources or scaled down.
We have a lot of customers using the solution, approximately 100.
How are customer service and support?
The support from Azure Data Factory is very good. There are some improvements needed.
I rate the support from Azure Data Factory a four out of five.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I have previously used Informatica. When comparing Informatica to Azure Data Factory, Informatica is a bit behind.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup of Azure Data Factory is not complex if you know what you are doing. If you do not know the technology you will have a problem.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Azure Data Factory gives better value for the price than other solutions such as Informatica.
What other advice do I have?
I recommend this solution to others.
I rate Azure Data Factory an eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. Partner
Chief Executive Officer at Intellinexus
Very stable and easy to complete end-to-end integration
Pros and Cons
- "For developers that are very accustomed to the Microsoft development studio, it's very easy for them to complete end-to-end data integration."
- "The initial setup is not very straightforward."
What is most valuable?
For developers that are very accustomed to the Microsoft development studio, it's very easy for them to complete end-to-end data integration.
What needs improvement?
One of the features that still is in development is data privacy to the cloud side of the SAP integration.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Azure Data Factory for 3 years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I rate the stability a 9 out of 10.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
6 developers are using the solution at present.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is not very straightforward. I rate it a seven out of ten.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The pricing is a bit on the higher end.
What other advice do I have?
Overall, I rate the solution an 8 out of 10.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Senior Software Developer at a insurance company with 10,001+ employees
A cloud-based data integration service that allows you to create data-driven workflows in the cloud for orchestrating
Pros and Cons
- "For me, it was that there are dedicated connectors for different targets or sources, different data sources. For example, there is direct connector to Salesforce, Oracle Service Cloud, etcetera, and that was really helpful."
- "It's a good idea to take a Microsoft course. Because they are really helpful when you start from your journey with Data Factory."
What is our primary use case?
I'm not sure how much information I can provide regarding to some kind of security of my company, but I can tell you that we were migrating integrations from from platform to the other, and the other platform was error data factory.
What is most valuable?
For me, it was that there are dedicated connectors for different targets or sources, different data sources. For example, there is direct connector to Salesforce, Oracle Service Cloud, etcetera, and that was really helpful.
What needs improvement?
It's a good idea to take a Microsoft course. Because they are really helpful when you start from your journey with Data Factory.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Azure Data Factory for one year.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The solution doesn't have stability issues.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It is easy to scale.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is straightforward. Deployment is automatic and takes few minutes.
What other advice do I have?
Overall, I would rate it an eight out of ten.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
BI Technical Development Lead at a energy/utilities company with 10,001+ employees
A solution that is ideal for individuals or teams looking to extract, transform, and load data into a database
Pros and Cons
- "Feature-wise, one of the most valuable ones is the data flows introduced recently in the solution."
- "Currently, our company requires a monitoring tool, and that isn't available in Azure Data Factory."
What is our primary use case?
Our company uses the solution to extract, transform, and load the data into the database.
What is most valuable?
Feature-wise, one of the most valuable ones is the data flows introduced recently in the solution.
What needs improvement?
Currently, our company requires a monitoring tool, and that isn't available in Azure Data Factory. Although the platform displays which pipelines are running, it doesn't offer a monitoring tool that allows for the sequential execution of pipelines and the ability to visualize end-to-end data flow. As such, this feature is currently missing from the platform.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Azure Data Factory for more than six years. Also, I am an end-user of the solution, and I initially used to work on Azure Data Factory V1. Now, I have switched to Azure Data Factory V2.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is a stable solution. Stability-wise, I rate the solution an eight or nine out of ten.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Scalability-wise, I rate the solution a seven or eight out of ten. So, scalability can be improved. Also, there are around 150 people in my company using the solution. Moreover, we use the solution daily in our company.
How are customer service and support?
I rate the technical support between eight to nine out of ten.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Previously, I was using Informatica. My company wanted to shift to a solution that could be deployed on the cloud, so we chose Azure Data Factory.
How was the initial setup?
The solution's initial setup process was easy. On a scale where one is difficult and ten is easy, I rate the initial setup process an eight out of ten. The solution is deployed on the cloud.
Since multiple projects are going on in my organization, there is no uniformity in the time taken to deploy the solution in our company. However, I can say that it only takes a few days to carry out the deployment process.
Our organization has multiple project teams, so each team carries out its deployment process.
To give an average, I would consider that if there are fifty ongoing projects in our company, and if we consider a person from each project, fifty people are needed for the deployment and maintenance process.
What about the implementation team?
The solution's implementation process was done with our in-house team's help.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I cannot comment on the pricing parts since our company's admin team handles it.
What other advice do I have?
Those who want to move to a cloud platform can choose Azure Data Factory since it is the best tool. Since certain improvements are required in the solution, I rate the overall solution an eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Private Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Microsoft Azure
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Director of Business Intelligence Analytics at The Gibraltar Group - Insurance Services
Lots of features and easy data collection but needs more integrations
Pros and Cons
- "It makes it easy to collect data from different sources."
- "Sometimes I need to do some coding, and I'd like to avoid that. I'd like no-code integrations."
What is our primary use case?
We primarily use the solution for data warehousing. I'm integrating data from multiple sources.
How has it helped my organization?
I have a team helping me out from India. It helps manage the data and collect everything from sources.
What is most valuable?
The product has a lot of features.
It makes it easy to collect data from different sources.
The solution offers good integration with pretty much any system.
I like that it is cloud-based.
What needs improvement?
Sometimes when I run some jobs, I have issues with the log flow. I want to see where the data goes. I want to see the data stream.
I'd like more integrations with other APIs. Sometimes I need to do some coding, and I'd like to avoid that. I'd like no-code integrations.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using the solution for four or five years.
What other advice do I have?
I'm using the solution as an end-user.
We are using the latest version of the solution.
I'd rate the solution seven out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Microsoft Azure
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
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Updated: August 2026
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