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Alation Data Catalog vs BigID vs Informatica Intelligent Data Management Cloud (IDMC) comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the Data Governance category, the mindshare of Alation Data Catalog is 5.6%, down from 9.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of BigID is 7.5%, up from 6.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Informatica Intelligent Data Management Cloud (IDMC) is 6.0%, down from 8.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Data Governance
 

Featured Reviews

Brahma Lam - PeerSpot reviewer
Has metadata cataloging features but needs changes in domain model
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.…
Ankita Sabale - PeerSpot reviewer
Predefined classifiers in place support sensitive data scanning effectively
BigID does not currently support Kerberos authentication for DataStax. On the user interface, analyzing true and false positives can be challenging, as I can only view 2,000 characters at a time. When tagging scan results, all objects get tagged without the option to untag specific ones. This requires reverting changes through MongoDB, which can result in data loss.
Saikat Ghosh - PeerSpot reviewer
Match and merge functionality is still the best but cloud version needs more functionality
There are various areas for improvement in IDMC. Enhancements on basic data management functionality and the UI front, such as multiple templates and improved grid views, would be beneficial. Bulk data management features could be improved from the UI perspective to get to the level of the on prem versions of Informatica MDM. The tool needs to mature but missing small but important features, like restricted dynamic attributes functionality, data inheritance rules in master hierachies, identifiers not being passed in jobs is a drawback.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"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."
"The most valuable features of Alation Data Catalog are the simplicity in onboarding data sources, the security in securing the data sources, and the way the various users of Alation Data Catalog communicate with each other through a messenger."
"We can customize templates based on our use cases."
"Alation Data Catalog's best feature is the SQL query publication."
"The tool's metadata cataloging is the most valuable feature."
"The platform's most valuable features are workflow automation, automated business metadata tagging, technical metadata tagging, and data integration with data quality tools or platforms."
"The solution is used to query MySQL clients and store data and documentation."
"The most valuable feature of BigID is its large number of classifiers, which allow us to scan for specific data such as SSN numbers."
"I like BigID's in-depth discovery and scanning capabilities, especially for unstructured data. This feature is a standout compared to competitors. The tool's data classification capabilities are impressive. It offers custom classifiers and a blend of regular exploration and artificial intelligence, making it a next-generation solution. This enhances data security, and its security posture management is straightforward and user-friendly."
"The features that I have found most valuable are the user experience, the credentialing, and that BigID is user friendly. Additionally, you can deploy to several other Microsoft platforms and you can use it for other things, like a bigger element or a report."
"BigID offers different scan types for data discovery. The most powerful one is the full scan, which scans both data and metadata. However, the metadata scan is faster in comparison."
"BigID has one of the best technical support teams."
"The most valuable feature of BigID is its large number of classifiers, which allow us to scan for specific data such as SSN numbers."
"It provides a unified view across different databases and supports a wide range of data source types, including cloud and on-premises systems."
"Data classification is highly effective due to its automatic capabilities."
"Offers data lineage feature"
"It is a scalable product."
"​The tool manually checks on applying business rules and helps to implement them."
"It has improved our organization because it has made our data more reliable. Data is the most important asset these days, and in order to trust your data, you need these tools to make sure that your data is clean and reliable."
"I give the stability a ten out of ten."
"The most valuable feature is data discovery. This is the most exciting feature for all of the banks."
"I have rated the stability a ten out of ten due to a high level of satisfaction."
"It is a very stable solution. I rate its stability a ten out of ten...It is a scalable solution...Informatica Axon's technical support is good."
 

Cons

"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."
"Alation Data Catalog is not user-friendly for business users. Its user experience is comparable to a Wikipedia page, lacking good visualization."
"Alation Data Catalog needs to develop a lot in terms of data governance and would be improved with a built-in interactive data quality solution."
"I know that this has been on their roadmap and they're working on it, but as a whole, there's an untapped reservoir of capabilities within their article features that could be used and built upon."
"Alation Data Catalog does not provide end-to-end data lineage."
"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."
"We have had issues setting up the connectors and getting Alation's support team to resolve issues."
"The challenge we encountered was with data connection across multiple databases. We struggled with configuring the data connection successfully. However, with the assistance of dynamic teams, we resolved this issue."
"The tool currently lacks security features."
"There are some shortcomings when it comes to Calvirus authentication, which is not yet supported by BigID."
"More classifications about different states are needed"
"BigID is expensive. I prefer McAfee."
"I want them to focus on data mapping, assessment, automation workflow, and privacy incident management."
"I want them to focus on data mapping, assessment, automation workflow, and privacy incident management. The privacy tools have not been widely used, and they have not invested much in privacy code privacy tools."
"BigID needs improvement in terms of automation."
"The product interface could be improved to be more intuitive."
"I would like to see more functionality added so that it is a bit closer to how much you can do with Informatica PowerCenter."
"The vendor should have more training resources: online classes, free tutorial videos, etc."
"The cloud version of Axon is far behind the on-prem, and many of my clients want to go fully to the cloud. However, Axon has to be an on-prem installation. I would like to see their cloud products catch up with their on-prem capabilities."
"Informatica Axon does not provide complete transparency about the level of detailing you need and the logic used in ETL."
"If I compare it with other MDM solutions in the market, one thing that can definitely be improved is automation to help with the configuration. Currently, when we are creating any staging of base object tables, all the columns have to be configured manually in the Informatica Hub Console. A lot of tables and different kinds of business columns have to be configured manually. There should be an automated process for this, especially in the Dev environment. When people are creating tables and columns from scratch, if there is a backend automated process for that, it would be really helpful. In Stibo, a similar feature is there wherein you can tag attributes to certain objects. It would be helpful if Informatica also provides a similar option. It would reduce the manual effort. It could be that such a feature is already there, but I am not aware of it."
"The stability and the integration of the solution have room for improvement."
"The tool could be improved in terms of ease of use, particularly for those without technical expertise. Understanding and extracting data from the table-based structure requires some SQL knowledge and technical skills. Additionally, while Informatica MDM has moved towards a cloud-based MDM with a UI similar to Reltio, I haven't used it, so I can't comment on its effectiveness."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The platform is moderately expensive compared to the other competitors in the market."
"I don't have all the details on the pricing side, but the solution was more expensive than originally expected."
"A three-year agreement is better than a one-year rolling 12-month agreement from a price point of view. I'd recommend looking at a three-year deal because you can't stand up a catalog and produce value in 12 months."
"The solution is a little expensive."
"The pricing depends. If you have thousands of data sources to connect and manage, and you struggled with an MDM package in the past, you'll find BigID valuable and even cheap. But if you're a small business, it's probably not the right tool for you."
"The product is expensive, but so are all competitor tools"
"The solution is not licensed per user but rather based on capacity. For instance, organizations with large amounts of data, such as 50 GB or more, are the ones that typically qualify for BigID."
"The solution is expensive."
"I think that BigID's pricing is very reasonable."
"We are quite happy with the licensing model."
"I rate Informatica MDM's price a six on a scale of one to ten, where one is a low price, and ten is a high price."
"Cost-wise, I think it is on the higher side, and that is why we are looking for some better options. Licensing costs are huge compared to other players in the market and for my company."
"I rate the product's pricing a seven on a scale of one to ten, where one is the lowest price and ten is the highest price."
"The pricing is quite flexible."
"We saw an ROI. We have been able to get data from various sources and consolidate it into a data lake, which is helping us in data analytics."
"Informatica MDM is very expensive. Apart from licensing fees, they have broken down their products into multiple products, and they charge for each and every product. If the data is huge, they charge for the data. At times, we have to use third party services for data cleaning, and they charge for that as well."
"The platform has a premium cost. I rate the pricing as seven out of ten."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
17%
Computer Software Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Government
7%
Financial Services Firm
25%
Computer Software Company
9%
Insurance Company
8%
Manufacturing Company
6%
Financial Services Firm
16%
Computer Software Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Insurance Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Alation Data Catalog?
The platform's most valuable features are workflow automation, automated business metadata tagging, technical metadat...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Alation Data Catalog?
The price difference between Alation Data Catalog and Collibra was not significant. Collibra is a little bit expensiv...
What needs improvement with Alation Data Catalog?
Alation Data Catalog is not user-friendly for business users. Its user experience is comparable to a Wikipedia page, ...
What do you like most about BigID?
I like BigID's in-depth discovery and scanning capabilities, especially for unstructured data. This feature is a stan...
What needs improvement with BigID?
BigID does not currently support Kerberos authentication for DataStax. On the user interface, analyzing true and fals...
What is your primary use case for BigID?
BigID is part of our data governance project. We onboard data sources in our environment and scan for specific sensit...
How does Azure Data Factory compare with Informatica Cloud Data Integration?
Azure Data Factory is a solid product offering many transformation functions; It has pre-load and post-load transfor...
Which Informatica product would you choose - PowerCenter or Cloud Data Integration?
Complex transformations can easily be achieved using PowerCenter, which has all the features and tools to establish a...
What are the biggest benefits of using Informatica Cloud Data Integration?
When it comes to cloud data integration, this solution can provide you with multiple benefits, including: Overhead r...
 

Also Known As

Alation
No data available
ActiveVOS, Active Endpoints, BPM, Address Verification, Persistent Data Masking, Cloud Test Data Management, PIM, , Enterprise Data Catalog, Data Integration Hub, Cloud Data Integration, Data Quality, Cloud API and App Integration
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Salesforce, Snowflake, Citrix, eBay, TripAdvisor, Albertsons, Nasdaq, Pfizer, LinkedIn, Finnair.
Home Depot, Grant Thornton LLP, Cimpress, Fidelity Investments
The Travel Company, Carbonite
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft, Informatica, Collibra and others in Data Governance. Updated: July 2025.
865,164 professionals have used our research since 2012.