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Alation Data Catalog vs Collibra Catalog comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 3, 2025

Review summaries and opinions

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

Categories and Ranking

Alation Data Catalog
Ranking in Metadata Management
2nd
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
12
Ranking in other categories
Data Governance (7th)
Collibra Catalog
Ranking in Metadata Management
3rd
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
11
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the Metadata Management category, the mindshare of Alation Data Catalog is 15.2%, down from 20.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Collibra Catalog is 11.3%, up from 10.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Metadata Management
 

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.…
Tejbir Singh - PeerSpot reviewer
Facilitates data quality monitoring and AI governance with a complete suite of tools
When I initially started with Collibra, it was just a data cataloging platform with governance workflows around it. Now they have acquired a lot of other tools, or they have merged or acquired different platforms. It is a complete suite of tools for managing data. We can monitor data quality and take actions on the profiling results obtained by running data quality checks. Collibra helps catalog data assets, monitor the health of data assets, and take necessary actions. If we find data quality issues, it also provides a medium to capture those issues and how to remediate them. The workflows allow the creation of custom workflows based on needs. The newest addition in their tool suite is AI governance, which allows cataloging all AI models currently deployed or even in the pre-production stage. It helps document model meanings and the risks involved, thus managing all risks related to AI deployments.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Given the relatively low level of maturity, Alation's most relevant feature at the moment is a user interface that's easy to navigate, which helps us find and understand the data. So while Alation has a lot more functionality, our pain point right now is being able to easily find, understand, and trust the information to use it."
"The solution's most valuable feature is the ALLIE AI feature."
"Alation Data Catalog provides a nice interface for connecting to the database, querying the data, and working on it."
"The solution is used to query MySQL clients and store data and documentation."
"We had some of our data science engineers, who had built out some cloud-based data and data products for users. They were spending a lot of their time, up to 30 to 35% of their time, answering questions about the data and helping people understand how to use it. Once they were able to document that information within Alation, they were only focusing on around 5% of the high-value questions that really couldn't be solved through the catalog itself. It freed them up to be more productive, it made their end-users more productive, and it made the adoption rate of their data products rise more quickly because people were able to get to using them."
"Alation Data Catalog's best feature is the SQL query publication."
"Alation Data Catalog was very useful for sharing SQL queries easily in a platform."
"We can customize templates based on our use cases."
"We have had no complaints about the stability."
"Using lineage and Collibra Catalog has helped me overall improve the trust and transparency regarding data origin and transformation."
"The most valuable features of Collibra Catalog are its customizability and ease of use."
"Gartner identifies Collibra Catalog as the leader, which aligns with our observations."
"The workflows allow the creation of custom workflows based on needs."
"Except for data quality, everything is perfect."
"Collibra Catalog has significantly enhanced data governance and compliance for our team, primarily through its valuable feature of endpoint lineage enabling visual representation of the data."
"Collibra Catalog is simple to use and user-friendly for those who are not technically inclined since it is easy to find while also easy to see data lineage diagrams."
 

Cons

"The product's data governance features need improvement."
"Alation Data Catalog is not user-friendly for business users. Its user experience is comparable to a Wikipedia page, lacking good visualization."
"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."
"Although the solution performs far better in terms of data cataloging, its data governance capabilities need improvement."
"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."
"The interface is not user-friendly."
"It would be good if the tool could show the output from the records while querying."
"We have had issues setting up the connectors and getting Alation's support team to resolve issues."
"More automation and artificial intelligence involvement are necessary. Reducing required employee involvement and enhancing ease of use are vital."
"The tool's overall functionalities need to improve since, nowadays, many tools, from a business perspective, are easy to use."
"If the price is a bit reduced, that would be better."
"In Collibra Catalog, the main area that has room for improvement is the search functionality. It should be more natural language oriented instead of searching for exact names."
"I'd like to see more integration with other reporting sources."
"Collibra Catalog could improve its automation to increase the efficiency of the software."
"There is an issue with Collibra Catalog's pricing model, especially for organizations with many databases, as the initial package comes with a limited number of connectors."
"If it can become more user-intuitive and work on integrating with communication platforms like Slack or Teams, it would significantly help business users."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."
"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."
"I think they can bring a few more features and align better with other quality products."
"Collibra Catalog is fairly priced - I would rate their pricing seven out of ten."
"Collibra offers a per-user licensing model."
"The product is highly priced compared to other vendors."
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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
31%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Computer Software Company
7%
Government
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 metadata tagging, and data integration with data quality tools or platforms.
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 expensive than Alation, but I presented the benefits of having that platform, so that li...
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, lacking good visualization. In a fast-paced world, we need to grasp information ...
What do you like most about Collibra Catalog?
The data lineage capability is valuable as it shows how different sources are connected and how data flows, which is crucial for projects like migrations. Moreover, data lineage visualization in C...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Collibra Catalog?
Pricing is not under my purview as I am an architect. The platform team handles the licensing aspects.
What needs improvement with Collibra Catalog?
I have utilized the sophisticated search capability in Collibra Catalog, and it can be improved by implementing more natural language search capabilities. Currently, we need to enter the asset name...
 

Also Known As

Alation
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Salesforce, Snowflake, Citrix, eBay, TripAdvisor, Albertsons, Nasdaq, Pfizer, LinkedIn, Finnair.
AXA XL, DNB, Adobe, PMI, Holland America Line, UC Davis Health, Cox Automotive
Find out what your peers are saying about Alation Data Catalog vs. Collibra Catalog and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.
865,295 professionals have used our research since 2012.