Alation Data Catalog vs SAS Data Management vs erwin Data Intelligence by Quest comparison

Alation and erwin by Quest are both solutions in the Data Governance category. Alation is ranked #7 with an average rating of 7.4, while erwin by Quest is ranked #16 with an average rating of 7.5. Alation holds a 5.8% mindshare in DG, compared to erwin by Quest’s 2.0% mindshare. Additionally, 71% of Alation users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of erwin by Quest users who would recommend it.

Alation Data Catalog

Read 12 Alation Data Catalog reviews

5,708 Views
5,137 Comparison Views

71% willing to recommend

erwin Data Intelligence by ...

Read 18 erwin Data Intelligence by Quest reviews

3,167 Views
3,167 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

SAS Data Management

Read 17 SAS Data Management reviews

1,539 Views
400 Comparison Views

87% willing to recommend

Alation Data Catalog

erwin Data Intelligence by ...

SAS Data Management

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Alation Data Catalog, erwin Data Intelligence by Quest, and SAS Data Management based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft, Informatica, Collibra and others in Data Governance.

To learn more, read our detailed Data Governance Report (Updated: June 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Data Governance

June 2025

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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 July 2025, in the Data Governance category, the mindshare of Alation Data Catalog is 5.8%, down from 9.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of erwin Data Intelligence by Quest is 2.0%, down from 2.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SAS Data Management is 0.9%, up from 0.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Data Governance

Featured Reviews

Brahma Lam

Developer at CVS Health

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.…

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Roy Pollack

Advisor Application Architect at CPS Energy

The solution provides more profound insights into legacy data movements, lineages, and definitions in the short term.

We have loaded over 300,000 attributes and more than 1000 mappings. The performance is slow, depending on the lineage or search. This is supposed to be fixed in the later versions, but we haven't upgraded yet. The integration with various metadata sources, including erwin Data Modeler, isn't smooth in the current version. It took some experimentation to get things working. We hope this is improved in the newer version. The initial version we used felt awkward because Erwin implemented features from other companies into their offering.

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Vivek Trivedi

Head finance transformation at Ahli United Bank Ksc

Has robust data governance capabilities and efficient financial alerting features

The platform's robust data governance capabilities ensure strong compliance with regulatory standards. Our dedicated data governance team is responsible for setting policies and monitoring data access and usage. Additionally, we have a Data Protection Officer (DPO) and an independent InfoSec team that work together to enforce these policies. This multi-layered approach ensures that data governance is effectively managed and compliant with all necessary regulations. It is integrated with SQL and Power BI servers for executive management dashboard reporting. This integration supports comprehensive data analysis and reporting needs, which was a key factor in our decision. The value of using vCenter lies in its comprehensive data infrastructure management. It significantly enhances our reporting, day-to-day decision-making, and analytics capabilities. Integrating SaaS with vCenter adds value by streamlining key functions and improving overall organizational efficiency. The solution can be considered expensive, particularly due to infrastructure, maintenance, and ownership costs. The long-term savings and efficiencies gained from using vCenter can justify the investment for large organizations. However, the high costs might not be justifiable for smaller organizations with less data and fewer resources. Conducting a thorough cost-benefit analysis based on the organization's specific needs and scale is recommended. I rate it an eight.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The solution's most valuable feature is the ALLIE AI feature."

"The most valuable feature is cloud integration."

"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."

"The solution is used to query MySQL clients and store data and documentation."

"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 tool's metadata cataloging is the most valuable feature."

"Alation Data Catalog was very useful for sharing SQL queries easily in a platform."

"Alation Data Catalog's best feature is the SQL query publication."

More Alation Data Catalog pros

"Data Intelligence has provided more profound insights into legacy data movements, lineages, and definitions in the short term. We have linked three critical layers of data, providing us with an end-to-end lineage at the column level."

"They have just the most marvelous reports called mind maps, where whatever you are focused on sits in the middle. They have this wonderful graphic spiderweb that spreads out from there where you can see this thing mapped to other logical bits or physical bits and who's the steward of it. It's very cool and available to your business teams through a portal."

"Overall, DI's data cataloging, data literacy, and automation have helped our decision-makers because when a source wants to change something, we immediately know what the impact is going to be downstream."

"We always know where our data is, and anybody can look that up, whether they're a business person who doesn't know anything about Informatica, or a developer who knows everything about creating data movement jobs in Informatica, but who does not understand the business terminology or the data that is being used in the tool."

"There is a wide range of widgets that enables the user to find the proper information quickly. The presentation of information is something very valuable."

"The biggest impact for us is that erwin generates DDL extremely quickly. We're able to pull in metadata, map it to a target, generate DDL to create the tables, and generate SSIS packages. Previously, especially going back 10 to 15 years ago, hundreds of hours had to be spent to manually perform these tasks. This solution completely automates it and gets it 90% done. We can then pass it off to a developer to create the items in SSIS."

"It is a central place for everybody to start any ETL data pipeline builds. This tool is being heavily used, plus it's heavily integrated with all the ETL data pipeline design and build processes. Nobody can bypass these processes and do something without going through this tool."

"The data management is, obviously, key in understanding where the data is and what the data is. And the governance can be done at multiple levels. You have the governance of the code sets versus the governance of the business terms and the definitions of those business terms. You have the governance of the business data models and how those business data models are driving the physical implementation of the actual databases. And, of course, you have the governance of the mapping to make sure that source-to-target mapping is done and is being shared across the company."

More erwin Data Intelligence by Quest pros

"I am impressed with the tool's ability to customize."

"The solution is very stable. We haven't faced any issues with glitches or bugs. We haven't had any crashes."

"The tool is reliable, quick, and powerful."

"I find the solution to be very stable."

"This is an established product with powerful data analysis and varied options for user entry points."

"The platform's robust data governance capabilities ensure strong compliance with regulatory standards."

"If you compare it to SQL, the memory and development times are very quick."

"Its robustness is valuable. It is a full-fledged suite. We have a data warehouse model, and there are also a lot of data quality management tools. The repository and all other tools are there. So, it is a full package in terms of reporting tools."

More SAS Data Management pros

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."

"It would be good if the tool could show the output from the records while querying."

"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 product's data governance features need improvement."

"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."

"The interface is not user-friendly."

"Alation Data Catalog does not provide end-to-end data lineage."

"Alation Data Catalog is not user-friendly for business users. Its user experience is comparable to a Wikipedia page, lacking good visualization."

More Alation Data Catalog cons

"The SDK behind this entire product needs improvement. The company really should focus more on this because we were finding some inconsistencies on the LDK level. Everything worked fine from the UI perspective, but when we started doing some deep automation scripts going through multiple API calls inside the tool, then only some pieces of it work or it would not return the exact data it was supposed to do."

"The fact that I sometimes have to go in and out of different applications, even though it's all part of the whole erwin suite, perhaps means it could be architected a little bit better. I think they do have some ideas for improvements there."

"The metadata ingestion is very nice because of the ability to automate it. It would be nice to be able to do this ingestion, or set it up, from one place, instead of having to set it up separately for every data asset that is ingested."

"There was a huge learning curve, and I'd been in software development for most of my career. The application itself, and how it runs menus and screens when you can modify and code, is complex. I have found that kind of cumbersome."

"One big improvement we would like to see would be the workflow integration of codeset mapping with the erwin source to target mapping. That's a bit clunky for us. The two often seem to be in conflict with one another. Codeset mappings that are used within the source to target mappings are difficult to manage because they get locked."

"There may be some opportunities for improvement in terms of the user interface to make it a little bit more intuitive. They have made some good progress. Originally, when we started, we were on version 9 or 10. Over the last couple of releases, I've seen some improvements that they have made, but there might be a few other additional areas in UI where they can make some enhancements."

"The solution's Arabic language processing is limited. The results are limited when you use the interface in Arabic."

"There are a lot of little things like moving between read screens and edit screens. Those little human interface type of programming pieces will need to mature a bit to make it easier to get to where you want to go to put the stuff in."

More erwin Data Intelligence by Quest cons

"I would like the tool to include the ability to automate the modifications of the integrations."

"We implemented it a while ago, and we are trying to improve the data delivery performance. We are looking into how to get faster and automated reporting. We would need better designs and workflows."

"One problem is accessing the data using a solution other than SAS. The SAS data, which we create in the SAS, cannot be accessed by other tools. We can't open those data in other applications. So we need to have that application in place."

"Very little needs to improve but perhaps a nicer graphic interface and remaining competetive in the growing field of data analytics."

"There is significant room for improvement, especially with regard to using a hybrid approach that involves both CAS and persistent storage."

"Integration and cloud migration are areas where we see potential for improvement."

"We find we often have to go back and re-train users when there are changes made to the solution because the changes are not intuitive."

"With SAS Data Management, you have to purchase an external driver, configure all of the tables for all of the data that you will extract from Salesforce. It's not a straightforward process."

More SAS Data Management cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution is a little expensive."

"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 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."

"The licensing cost was very affordable at the time of purchase. It has since been taken over by erwin, then Quest. The tool has gotten a bit more costly, but they are adding more features very quickly."

"You buy a seat license for your portal. We have 100 seats for the portal, then you buy just the development licenses for the people who are going to put the data in."

"The solution is aggressively priced."

"The price is reasonable, and a subscription is required."

"The whole suite, not just the DI but the modeling software, the harvester, Mapping Manager — everything we have — is about $100,000 a year for our renewals. That works out to each module being something like $8,000 to $10,000."

"The price is too high."

"We operate on a yearly subscription and because it is an enterprise license we only have one. It is not dependent on the number of users."

"erwin's pricing was cheaper than its competitors."

More erwin Data Intelligence by Quest pricing and cost advice

"While it is even free for personal use on the cloud, it can be expensive for desktop installations and enterprise use."

"The licensing model for vCenter is a perpetual license with yearly payments."

"The solution is expensive."

"The tool is a bit expensive."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

17%

Computer Software Company

11%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Computer Software Company

25%

Financial Services Firm

12%

Government

Insurance Company

Financial Services Firm

30%

Computer Software Company

12%

Government

Insurance Company

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...

See all answers

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...

See all answers

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, ...

See all answers

What do you like most about erwin Data Intelligence by Quest?

The data mapping manager is the most valuable feature.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for erwin Data Intelligence by Quest?

The price is reasonable, and a subscription is required.

See all answers

What needs improvement with erwin Data Intelligence by Quest?

The data quality assessment requires third-party components and a separate license. I would like to have better integ...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SAS Data Management?

From my experience, SAS Data Management is an expensive tool.

See all answers

What needs improvement with SAS Data Management?

There is significant room for improvement, especially with regard to using a hybrid approach that involves both CAS a...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for SAS Data Management?

Some clients and I are using SAS Data Management for data cleansing, data warehousing, and IoT-related activities suc...

See all answers

Comparisons

Microsoft Purview Data Governance vs Alation Data Catalog

Compared 46% of the time

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

Compared 13% of the time

Collibra Governance vs Alation Data Catalog

Compared 10% of the time

Atlan vs Alation Data Catalog

Compared 4% of the time

OneTrust DataGovernance vs Alation Data Catalog

Compared 2% of the time

More Alation Data Catalog Competitors

Microsoft Purview Data Governance vs erwin Data Intelligence by Quest

Compared 34% of the time

Collibra Governance vs erwin Data Intelligence by Quest

Compared 25% of the time

Informatica Intelligent Data Management Cloud (IDMC) vs erwin Data Intelligence by Quest

Compared 9% of the time

Collibra Lineage vs erwin Data Intelligence by Quest

Compared 9% of the time

Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager vs erwin Data Intelligence by Quest

Compared 7% of the time

More erwin Data Intelligence by Quest Competitors

Informatica Intelligent Data Management Cloud (IDMC) vs SAS Data Management

Compared 21% of the time

Palantir Foundry vs SAS Data Management

Compared 14% of the time

Collibra Governance vs SAS Data Management

Compared 13% of the time

Informatica PowerCenter vs SAS Data Management

Compared 10% of the time

Ab Initio Co>Operating System vs SAS Data Management

Compared 9% of the time

More SAS Data Management Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Alation Data Catalog

July 2025

Download Alation Data Catalog product report

Buyer's Guide

erwin Data Intelligence by Quest

July 2025

Download erwin Data Intelligence by Quest product report

Buyer's Guide

SAS Data Management

June 2025

Download SAS Data Management product report

Also Known As

Alation

erwin DG, erwin Data Governance

SAS Data Management Platform, Data Management Platform, DataFlux

Overview

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.

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

The erwin Data Intelligence Suite (erwin DI) combines data catalog and data literacy capabilities for greater awareness of and access to available data assets, guidance on their use, and guardrails to ensure data policies and best practices are followed. Automatically harvest, transform and feed metadata from a wide array of data sources, operational processes, business applications and data models into a central data catalog. Then make it accessible and understandable within context via role-based views. This complete metadata-driven approach to data governance facilitates greater IT and business collaboration.

erwin by Quest

Every decision, every business move, every successful customer interaction - they all come down to high-quality, well-integrated data. If you don't have it, you don't win. SAS Data Management is an industry-leading solution built on a data quality platform that helps you improve, integrate and govern your data.

SAS

Sample Customers

Salesforce, Snowflake, Citrix, eBay, TripAdvisor, Albertsons, Nasdaq, Pfizer, LinkedIn, Finnair.

Oracle, Infosys, GSK, Toyota Motor Sales, HSBC

Data Management, 1-800-FLOWERS.COM, Absa, Aegon, Allianz Global Corporate & SpecialtyAusgrid, Bank of Queensland, Bell, BMC Software, Canada Post, Ceska pojistovna, Chantecler, Chubb Group of Insurance Companies, Credit Guarantee Corporation, Cr_dito y Cauci‹n, Delaware State Police, Deutsche Lufthansa, Directorate of Economics and Statistics, DSM, Enerjisa, ERGO Insurance Group, Florida Department of Corrections, Generali Hellas, Gitanjali Group, Gloucestershire Constabulary, GS Home Shopping, HealthPartners, IAG New Zealand, iJET, Invacare, Livzon Pharmaceutical Group, Los Angeles County, Miami Herald Media Company, Netherlands Enterprise Agency, New Zealand Ministry of Health, Nippon Paper, North Carolina Office of Information Technology Services, Orlando Magic, OTP Group, PITT OHIO, Plano Independent School District, RWE Poland, Spanish Air Force, Stockholm County Council, Telus, The Travel Corporation, Transitions Optical, Triad Analytic Solutions, UNIQA, US Census Bureau, US Department of Housing and Urban Development, USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service, West Midlands Police, XS Inc., Zenith Insurance

Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft, Informatica, Collibra and others in Data Governance. Updated: June 2025.

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