Try our new research platform with insights from 80,000+ expert users

Alation Data Catalog vs Collibra Governance 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 May 2025, in the Data Governance category, the mindshare of Alation Data Catalog is 5.9%, down from 10.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Collibra Governance is 9.8%, down from 12.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Informatica Intelligent Data Management Cloud (IDMC) is 6.2%, down from 9.3% 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.…
DeepakArora - PeerSpot reviewer
Enhancing data management with user-friendly features but needs better documentation
We are a customer of Collibra. Collibra Governance is applied in our data management workflows by creating all the business functions separately, maintaining the data sources of those KPIs and everything separately on those businesses Collibra Governance provides ease of use. The portal is…
Raj Sethupathi - PeerSpot reviewer
Offers profiling and address standardization but can be complicated
Informatica Data Quality has its data warehouse, primarily using Oracle and some SQL databases. You need a database to host the data. The cleansed version of the data is stored in the data warehouse. It integrates with PowerCenter and other Informatica tools. The integration details can be complex, but a regional setup is involved in this process. Profiling smaller datasets, such as 10,000-50,000 records, worked fine. However, unexpected issues could arise with larger datasets, such as thousands of records or more, especially with tables containing many columns. Handling tables with fifty or more columns can be challenging, even in Excel. A mismatch in data types could cause the entire system to crash. Continual enhancements are being made to address these issues, which can be unique to specific industries like finance and healthcare.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The solution is used to query MySQL clients and store data and documentation."
"Alation Data Catalog was very useful for sharing SQL queries easily in a platform."
"Alation Data Catalog provides a nice interface for connecting to the database, querying the data, and working on it."
"The most valuable feature is cloud integration."
"The solution's most valuable feature is the ALLIE AI feature."
"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."
"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."
"The most valuable feature is the discovery process for the data catalog because we get it in a visual format as a way to understand and classify it."
"The solution's most valuable feature is data cataloging."
"We use the solution's Data Stewardship part."
"It is user-friendly."
"It's incredibly easy to use."
"The most important feature in Collibra Governance is the ability to gather data or a collection of data into one repository. If a client creates a repository at his place, then it will get updated to the cloud automatically."
"Provides a good view of the data and how it's being utilized, as well as calibration quality."
"The beauty of the solution is that you can customize it quite a bit."
"I like the fact that you can find almost any product connection that you need and the list is always expanding."
"We have a lot of integrations, and it's very easy to create integrations. They have a lot of connectors."
"The most valuable feature of Informatica Axon is features, interfaces, and data mapping. It represents clusters nicely."
"Data integration is the most valuable feature. The ability to connect to any of the sources and enterprise applications makes our lives easier."
"It has become an easy way to exchange information through any cloud application."
"The tool does give a good ROI."
"The product's most valuable feature is the ability to select the data flow and lineage."
"It is quite easy to use and flexible."
 

Cons

"The interface is not user-friendly."
"We have had issues setting up the connectors and getting Alation's support team to resolve issues."
"The product's data governance features 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."
"Data observability within Alation would be incredibly helpful for addressing these challenges"
"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 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 does not provide end-to-end data lineage."
"There are certain processes that involve a lot of manual work, specifically when searching for attributes assignment. It would be better if we could do this via APIs."
"The technical support could be better."
"When you have a huge amount of hierarchical data to manage, the solution's performance tends to decrease."
"It would be better if there was a way to import all data and metadata in an automatic way in one block form."
"The UI is good if you happen to be an administrator and are familiar with the technical side of the administration. If you're a business user, the UI is not good. It is hard to learn. It is hard for those who are administering it to teach to end-users and it can take hours of training to do it. Because it is difficult and non-intuitive, business users resist using it. It is a battle to get them on board and to keep them engaged because of the UI."
"When we are doing discovery for unstructured data sources, I would suggest a quality report of the data that would indicate what was unable to process."
"Pricing policy of the product is an area with certain shortcomings that needs improvement."
"The solution's metadata management is pretty novice and could be improved."
"The GUI needs to be a little more user-friendly and appealing."
"The biggest challenge I see is the IDE's for the cloud and automization are different."
"Although we are very satisfied with the design of the UI, executing tasks with it can be difficult."
"Certain applications are not being synced with the ION."
"The configuration process is pretty lengthy and challenging and could be made easier to understand."
"The cloud version of the Informatica, it's a very substandard product. They might say it's enterprise-ready but it's not at all ready. They need to add more features, such as improved data replication features. If you look at other tools, such as Matillion they are now cloud-native and flexible. Additionally, Informatica Cloud Data Integration should have a good migration strategy from Informatica PowerCenter to Informatica Cloud Data Integration."
"The customer servive and support could be faster. There is a slow turnaround."
"In terms of what could be improved, they need to create a rules repository. Business rules for the attributes that you have, keeping them in that central repository, and governance of them is something which Axon is lacking a bit. The Informatica Data Quality tool actually caters to that, so that's probably why they have not built that up in the Axon, but it is definitely something that can be built in to this product, as well."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."
"I don't have all the details on the pricing side, but the solution was more expensive than originally expected."
"The solution is a little expensive."
"The platform is moderately expensive compared to the other competitors in the market."
"There are different levels of licenses. For example, some users can only do read-only licenses, and others have the stewardship license where they can give access to users."
"Collibra Governance is extremely expensive"
"It is substantial, and we do pay yearly."
"I think it is on a yearly basis, but I'm not involved with the pricing session, so I have no idea. There are several licenses for different models. You get one license per product, but a lot of features are controlled separately through different licenses. So, as and when you want to use a feature, you have to procure the license for that feature."
"Collibra is a bit expensive."
"I am not so much aware of price details. Initially, there was an add-on NuSoft license to use the DVC connector that NuSoft gives to create integrations, but Collibra is now phasing out of it slowly. Collibra is cutting ties with them is what we have been led to believe, and we have started developing on Spring Boot, which is open source."
"Collibra Governance is an expensive solution."
"I think they have a trust issue. I did not like the way they recently went through the process. They were like, "Finish this SOW first, only then will we sign the other SOW." Or, "Finish this code." I didn't like that much."
"I rate the product's pricing a nine on a scale of one to ten, where one is low price, and ten is high price."
"The pricing is high compared to other tools on the market."
"The product has a high price point."
"Informatica Axon is expensive."
"Informatica MDM's price could be lower."
"Its pricing model can be improved."
"The product is very expensive"
"It is expensive. That's probably the biggest drawback. The business has heartache paying the license, but that's mainly because they don't realize what value it brings. The key thing about the MDM solution is that it is in the backend, and no one sees what it is actually doing. You don't know it is a problem until it is not there."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Data Governance solutions are best for your needs.
851,042 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
18%
Computer Software Company
10%
Government
8%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
20%
Computer Software Company
13%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Insurance Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
17%
Computer Software Company
12%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Insurance Company
6%
 

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?
I don't have all the details on the pricing side, but the solution was more expensive than originally expected. On a ...
What needs improvement with Alation Data Catalog?
When issues arise, two key concerns arise. First, how can we perform root cause analysis faster? Second, how can we o...
What do you like most about Collibra Governance?
We use the solution's Data Stewardship part.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Collibra Governance?
The price is average, and it provides good value for the money.
What needs improvement with Collibra Governance?
Collibra lacks the capability to read Python or R scripts, which is essential for data transformations in our pipelin...
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
Collibra
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.
Ministry of Economy Science and Innovation, Aspen Insurance, Barry Callebaut, Colt
The Travel Company, Carbonite
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft, Informatica, Collibra and others in Data Governance. Updated: May 2025.
851,042 professionals have used our research since 2012.