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Alation Data Catalog vs Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 3, 2024

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 Data Governance
7th
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
12
Ranking in other categories
Metadata Management (2nd)
Microsoft Purview Complianc...
Ranking in Data Governance
15th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
9
Ranking in other categories
Microsoft Security Suite (24th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the Data Governance category, the mindshare of Alation Data Catalog is 5.3%, down from 8.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager is 1.0%, down from 1.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Data Governance Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Alation Data Catalog5.3%
Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager1.0%
Other93.7%
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.…
Peter-Murphy - PeerSpot reviewer
Streamlined data management and improved compliance with efficient document classification
The most valuable feature is data classification retention since I deal with terabytes of data, and managing and monitoring it simplifies the process. Additionally, the system provides a dashboard showing our compliance status, which aids in managing compliance tasks. The compliance score feature allows me to assess and compare our compliance across organizations. I've also noticed efficiency gains, especially in handling subject access requests. Previously, these tasks were manual and time-consuming, but now they are streamlined, reducing the process from weeks to just a day.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The tool's metadata cataloging is the most valuable feature."
"The most valuable feature is cloud integration."
"Alation Data Catalog was very useful for sharing SQL queries easily in a platform."
"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."
"We can customize templates based on our use cases."
"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."
"Alation Data Catalog's best feature is the SQL query publication."
"Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager is tightly integrated with email solutions like Office 365."
"The best aspect is that it requires little to no time for implementation if I am using all of Microsoft's tools."
"The setup complexity depends on what features you want to implement in Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager."
"Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager's eDiscovery is essential for organizations using Outlook as their email service."
"We have more visibility of data and how it is being shared."
"The most valuable feature is its ability to apply regulations and ensure compliance with various policies. It also provides tools for investigation, risk assessment, and security score evaluations."
"Microsoft Purview eDiscovery is necessary when using Outlook."
"The system provides a dashboard showing our compliance status, which aids in managing compliance tasks."
 

Cons

"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."
"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 does not provide end-to-end data lineage."
"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."
"Data observability within Alation would be incredibly helpful for addressing these challenges"
"We have had issues setting up the connectors and getting Alation's support team to resolve issues."
"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."
"One area for improvement is the technical support for Purview. With all the other solutions from Microsoft we get really good technical support, but with Purview we had a compliance error and we couldn't find the solution. Purview would not point us to the correct solution, it just indicated the error. We had to troubleshoot it and find out what led to this error. We contacted technical support but it took them one week to identify the root cause of the error."
"We've had issues with data connectors for Teams."
"Integrating add-on licenses, which currently offer additional features at a cost, into the base product would be beneficial, especially for a charity organization to avoid incurring extra costs."
"Policy configuration, particularly for web interfaces and OCR scanning, presents challenges."
"When I tried to set up Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager for my organization to ensure people are not sending PII documents, especially payment cards, using keywords for flagging, it disrupted our services, so we had to deactivate it."
"Microsoft Purview has moved its portal from classic to premium with some display improvements, yet not much in options and functionalities."
"Integrating add-on licenses, which currently offer additional features at a cost, into the base product would be beneficial, especially for a charity organization to avoid incurring extra costs."
"There could be improved automation for handling tasks in bulk or in an automated way."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution is a little expensive."
"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 platform is moderately expensive compared to the other competitors in the market."
"The pricing and licensing are moderate because we have other licenses for Microsoft services. The pricing is in line with that."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
17%
Computer Software Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Government
7%
Computer Software Company
13%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Government
8%
Healthcare Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business4
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise7
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business3
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise4
 

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 Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager?
We have more visibility of data and how it is being shared.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager?
While not cheap, Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager is priced at 60% to 70% compared to some competitors. Additional costs may involve OCR page scanning.
What is your primary use case for Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager?
When I tried to set up Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager for my organization to ensure people are not sending PII documents, especially payment cards, using keywords for flagging, it disrupted o...
 

Also Known As

Alation
Microsoft Compliance Manager
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Salesforce, Snowflake, Citrix, eBay, TripAdvisor, Albertsons, Nasdaq, Pfizer, LinkedIn, Finnair.
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Find out what your peers are saying about Alation Data Catalog vs. Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager and other solutions. Updated: September 2025.
869,566 professionals have used our research since 2012.