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Apache Airflow vs Informatica Intelligent Data Management Cloud (IDMC) comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 18, 2024

Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score
5.8
Apache Airflow offers high ROI due to open-source features, Python integration, and efficient pipeline building, though measurement varies.
Sentiment score
7.1
Informatica IDMC enhances data quality, efficiency, and analytics, offering secure integration and reduced cloud migration costs for businesses.
We see return on investment from this solution in terms of time; time reduction or cost benefits is what we are getting very good results from.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.6
Users primarily rely on community resources and comprehensive documentation for Apache Airflow, with minimal direct technical assistance needed.
Sentiment score
6.9
Informatica's customer service is praised for quick, knowledgeable support, though response times can vary with customization and membership levels.
There is enough documentation available, and the community support is good.
Forums and community resources like Stack Overflow are helpful.
Due to the tool's maturity limitations, solutions are not always simple and often require workarounds.
The response time is pretty good because we have someone in-house, who is an expert from Informatica, in our team who can help us with any sort of queries usually.
If they are unsure how to resolve an issue, they keep customers informed, providing updates about progress and ensuring communication with the product team to deliver accurate responses.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.1
Apache Airflow is scalable and flexible, ideal for adaptable workflows but may pose challenges in cloud-native integration and large-scale tasks.
Sentiment score
7.3
Informatica IDMC delivers scalable, flexible data management across cloud and on-premise environments, accommodating diverse enterprise needs efficiently.
The solution is very scalable.
Apache Airflow scales well, especially when deployed in Kubernetes environments.
As a SaaS platform, IDMC is quite scalable and provides complete flexibility.
I find Informatica Intelligent Data Management Cloud (IDMC) to be a sustainable and scalable solution.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.0
Apache Airflow's stability is praised, though some face bugs, configuration issues, and performance challenges, especially in cloud environments.
Sentiment score
7.7
Informatica Cloud is highly rated for stability, despite occasional issues; support effectively resolves any reported bugs.
I would rate the stability of the solution as ten out of ten.
Apache Airflow is stable and I have not experienced significant issues.
I would rate its stability at nine out of ten.
Stability is crucial because IDMC holds business-critical data, and it needs to be available all the time for business users.
 

Room For Improvement

Apache Airflow needs improvements in flexibility, UI, documentation, scalability, performance, integration, and version control for better workflow orchestration.
Informatica IDMC requires improvements in integration, user interface, performance, support consistency, connectivity, automation, data tagging, and pricing.
It is not suitable for real-time ETL tasks.
There is no dashboard for us to check all the Directed Acyclic Graphs (DAGs); a dashboard would help us analyze the work better.
If we desire to add custom messengers or a rest API, those options are unavailable.
The tool needs to mature in terms of category-specific attributes or dynamic attributes.
I also want to see integration with other Informatica products, such as IICS, to leverage the metadata from EDC.
The licenses are too expensive compared to before, which is why customers are now preferring other data metadata management tools like OneTrust, Collibra, and Azure Purview.
 

Setup Cost

Apache Airflow is free, but enterprises may incur costs using cloud services or managed services for additional features.
Informatica IDMC, a costly solution for large enterprises, offers extensive features and flexibility, justifying its premium pricing.
I prefer using the open-source version rather than the enterprise version, which helps manage costs.
It is a sub-feature and not an individual purchase.
Apache Airflow is a community-based platform and is not a licensed product.
It ranges from a quarter million to a couple of million a year.
The licenses are too expensive compared to before, which is why customers are now preferring other data metadata management tools like OneTrust, Collibra, and Azure Purview.
I think the costs are reasonable for the kinds of features that Informatica Intelligent Data Management Cloud (IDMC) has.
 

Valuable Features

Apache Airflow offers customizable, scalable workflows with Python support, seamless integration, and strong community backing for efficiency and maintainability.
Informatica IDMC excels in data management with strong integration, AI-driven analytics, and a flexible user interface.
Apache Airflow is an open-source platform that allows easy integration with AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud Platform.
Reliability is good, and when integrated with Kubernetes, it performs better compared to on-premises environments.
We can create notifications for successful or failed tasks, providing a practical way to monitor our workflows.
The platform's ability to pull in data from other platforms without the need for an additional integration tool enhances its appeal.
Informatica Intelligent Data Management Cloud (IDMC) can connect to pretty much any application, including Oracle Analytics and Power BI, and it works quite seamlessly.
In on-premise, we call it EDC for metadata management, while in cloud-based technologies, it is known as the Metadata Command Center, which serves the same purpose as EDC concerning CDGC.
 

Categories and Ranking

Apache Airflow
Ranking in Business Process Management (BPM)
3rd
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
40
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Informatica Intelligent Dat...
Ranking in Business Process Management (BPM)
11th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
186
Ranking in other categories
Data Integration (4th), Data Quality (1st), Business-to-Business Middleware (6th), API Management (7th), Cloud Data Integration (3rd), Data Governance (2nd), Test Data Management (3rd), Cloud Master Data Management (MDM) Solutions (1st), Data Management Platforms (DMP) (2nd), Data Masking (1st), Metadata Management (1st), Test Data Management Services (3rd), Product Information Management (PIM) (1st), Data Observability (2nd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2025, in the Business Process Management (BPM) category, the mindshare of Apache Airflow is 5.7%, down from 8.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Informatica Intelligent Data Management Cloud (IDMC) is 1.4%, up from 1.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Business Process Management (BPM) Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Apache Airflow5.7%
Informatica Intelligent Data Management Cloud (IDMC)1.4%
Other92.9%
Business Process Management (BPM)
 

Featured Reviews

Madhan Potluri - PeerSpot reviewer
We efficiently manage and monitor production pipelines through job resumption and error log integration
We utilize Apache Airflow for managing machine learning production pipelines. The deployment of our machine learning models takes place through Apache Airflow. We configure pipelines, decide on the frequency of recalibration, deployment, and dataset training Apache Airflow allows us to resume…
SaurabhGaonshindhe - PeerSpot reviewer
Modular structure and AI features stream new reporting processes
One of my clients has a requirement; they want to integrate metadata into the process, which means, for example, if I just want to implement a new field into my database, that field needs to be reflected throughout, let's say, 200 mappings. This highlights the need for a data-driven approach. My experience with technical support from Informatica is quite interesting; I would rate it as nine out of ten for Informatica PowerCenter kind of products or the Informatica integration products, because my team can do some hands-on using their free licenses or one-month kind of products. However, for products Master Data Management or related to MDM or Data Governance, there is no way by which we can directly practice, and my team struggles at that point.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
25%
Computer Software Company
14%
Manufacturing Company
6%
Insurance Company
5%
Financial Services Firm
16%
Computer Software Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Insurance Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business13
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise24
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business42
Midsize Enterprise24
Large Enterprise134
 

Questions from the Community

Which would you choose - Camunda Platform or Apache Airflow?
Camunda Platform allows for visual demonstration and presentation of business process flows. The flexible Java-based option was a big win for us and allows for the integration of microservices very...
What do you like most about Apache Airflow?
Apache Airflow is easy to use and can monitor task execution easily. For instance, when performing setup tasks, you can conveniently view the logs without delving into the job details.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Apache Airflow?
We don't experience issues with pricing as Apache Airflow is part of a larger platform. It is a sub-feature and not an individual purchase.
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 transformations, allowing users to apply transformations either in code by using Power Q...
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 real data governance strategy. Additionally, PowerCenter is able to manage huge...
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 reduction by integrating data on any cloud in various ways Effective integration ...
 

Also Known As

Airflow
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

Agari, WePay, Astronomer
The Travel Company, Carbonite
Find out what your peers are saying about Apache Airflow vs. Informatica Intelligent Data Management Cloud (IDMC) and other solutions. Updated: September 2025.
867,349 professionals have used our research since 2012.