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Atlan vs SAP Master Data Governance comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Apr 15, 2026

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

Atlan
Ranking in Data Governance
12th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
5.8
Number of Reviews
10
Ranking in other categories
Metadata Management (5th)
SAP Master Data Governance
Ranking in Data Governance
19th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
32
Ranking in other categories
Master Data Management (MDM) Software (2nd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2026, in the Data Governance category, the mindshare of Atlan is 1.8%, down from 2.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SAP Master Data Governance is 1.7%, up from 1.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Data Governance Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Atlan1.8%
SAP Master Data Governance1.7%
Other96.5%
Data Governance
 

Featured Reviews

Peter Neumann - PeerSpot reviewer
IT consultant at Pathfinder
Has struggled to meet business needs but supports technical data exploration and transparency
Atlan can be improved by concentrating more on business data since it is developed from developers for developers, and it needs to be more business relevant. For instance, when re-importing data model diagrams, Atlan provides some diagram automation that is not connected to the business glossary, which I consider a significant fault. Atlan needs to improve by focusing more on the business side of data, not only on technical aspects.If you want to focus on technical considerations, it would be beneficial to have an interface with a real business data modeling tool such as Erwin or other business data tools, since data modeling is not the same as Draw.io. Additionally, Atlan can improve its workflows, which are hard to understand. Working with templates, Excel import, export, and running automations is not self-explanatory, and you always need help from Atlan support team. If business people want to use it and run their own reports, it must be easier to customize for their business needs.
reviewer2402049 - PeerSpot reviewer
Governance / Data Governance Initiative Advisory And Strategy Leadership at a consultancy with 1-10 employees
Centralized master data has improved quality and now supports consistent global governance
Regarding what SAP can do better in SAP Master Data Governance, they have an entire roadmap of constant improvements since they deployed the product, always adding new business functionality and add-ons. Each company may have different feedback, wishing for certain features. The essence of SAP Master Data Governance is to provide structure, and from my standpoint, it offers a pretty good structure. There will always be areas for improvement; for example, when I deployed it a few years ago, their approach to internal orders for finance was still new, and they were figuring out how it would work based on organizational requirements. The financial data objects are straightforward, but financial statements are a bit more challenging. It is not a one-time deployment; it requires ongoing investment in user and product knowledge, and you need to weigh the pros and cons of any IT solution. I often advise clients to walk before they run because establishing hierarchies requires having a designed structure before implementation, though you can add that later. For additional functions in SAP Master Data Governance, it is interesting because on my project, we are already using AI technology for data cleansing before records are entered into SAP Master Data Governance. It would be beneficial to have the Dun & Bradstreet add-on within SAP Master Data Governance. However, one must remember that for AI to work effectively, it requires good data. Without that, AI does not make a difference. SAP Master Data Governance will always require a human perspective, especially to identify duplicate records. While SAP Master Data Governance provides technical capabilities for identifying potential duplicates based on searches, it requires human oversight due to the complexity of analyzing data fields. I believe integrating AI into the product could work, particularly after a solid data migration, which ensures that the records are reliable before utilizing AI for analytics.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The best feature of Atlan is its integration with communication platforms like Microsoft Teams and Slack, so business users don't have to go into a data catalog to see metadata about data assets."
"By switching to Atlan, we have increased our productivity and saved a lot of business time."
"Atlas is quite intuitive."
"Atlan is helpful for identifying datasets and discovering PI data, such as the classification levels of datasets (gold, silver, bronze)."
"They also offer automated lineage embedded in the connectors, allowing us to track where the data is coming from and where it's going. We find it very efficient in cataloging data sources. Additionally, the user-friendly interface is a big plus, making it easy for users to familiarize themselves with the solution. These two features, in my opinion, stand out the most."
"By switching to Atlan, we have increased our productivity and saved a lot of business time through automation."
"Overall, I rate Atlan as a ten out of ten."
"As a senior analytics engineer, Atlan's ability to show end-to-end data lineage is the most important feature for me."
"We've managed tens of thousands of updates within 30 to 60 minutes, and we can also replicate these changes to all connected systems."
"We've found the solution to be quite flexible."
"The workflows have been a valuable aspect of the solution, and the solution is great at standardizing all of our records."
"I like how the solution integrates with other SAP tools and third-party solutions."
"Some of the features that I have found to be beneficial are the search and uploads functions."
"A good solution for large enterprises."
"The most valuable thing is what it does: data management."
"The technical support is very good; they are very helpful."
 

Cons

"One area that could be improved is the capability to find duplicates of datasets."
"Atlan can be improved by integrating agents that can support users in finding assets of interest."
"One of the main areas for improvement is its governance capabilities."
"The product could be improved by offering scheduled email reports for managed assets."
"Working with templates, Excel import, export, and running automations is not self-explanatory, and you always need help from Atlan support team."
"Customer support for Atlan is not so proactive."
"The challenge is in the lineage, where it requires improvement. Atlas needs to capture areas where organizations use less known applications."
"Certain UI changes could make Atlan more user-friendly."
"Bill of materials (BOM) creation in manufacturing needs to be enhanced in SAP Master Data Governance."
"It could benefit from integration of its components through a central console and reduction of ABAP code for custom functions using 4GL."
"The technical support should be improved."
"Overall, they just a little bit more flexibility in terms of assigning roles or adding new roles. We have a longer approval process, so we need to break it down into more roles than what is typically available and we need to hard-code it."
"I would like to see harmonizing with some of the external third-party products so that it will all be within SAP."
"In general, I want artificial intelligence added to SAP Master Data Governance since I feel it is one of the areas where the solution has certain shortcomings."
"It could be more user-friendly."
"RiverFront is a more modern and cost-effective solution compared to MDG. It is flexible and designed to handle big data, which MDG does not support well."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We pay per-user license. It's a different classification model than with other solutions, where they usually charge you for resources. So, that was a better model for us. And because of this difference in models or classification, it was cheaper for us to go with Atlan."
"SAP Master Data Governance is an expensive product."
"The cloud solution is subscription-based, it is paid monthly or quarterly. If the solution is on-premises, it is a one-time fee. As far as I am aware there are no additional costs."
"I rate the tool's pricing a seven out of ten."
"SAP Master Data Governance is an expensive solution."
"SAP Master Data Governance is a licensed product. While there might be no upfront cost for the MDG component itself, you still need to pay for user authorizations."
"We have an enterprise license. The whole SAP landscape pricing model is based on the number of users, and the number of transactions. The price could be better, there is always room for improvement in the price."
"The pricing is a bit too high."
"The solution is costly."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
19%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Energy/Utilities Company
7%
Insurance Company
6%
Manufacturing Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Outsourcing Company
7%
Computer Software Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business1
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise9
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business4
Midsize Enterprise5
Large Enterprise24
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Atlan?
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing is that the licensing cost is a bit flexible but not affordable for smaller organizations. It might be way out of their budget, but it is very ...
What needs improvement with Atlan?
Atlan can be improved by enhancing their support process by reducing the resolution time. They have really bad and incomplete documentation, so they should work on the documentation as well, especi...
What is your primary use case for Atlan?
My main use case for Atlan is to define a flexible set of metadata, including measuring the quality of said data. Atlan is also a partner of ours, so we use it to integrate with our own tool. It al...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SAP Master Data Governance?
The challenge with SAP MDG is not only the cost but the resources. The skills required are niche in the market, and while you can purchase the product either one time or on a subscription basis, th...
What needs improvement with SAP Master Data Governance?
Regarding what SAP can do better in SAP Master Data Governance, they have an entire roadmap of constant improvements since they deployed the product, always adding new business functionality and ad...
What is your primary use case for SAP Master Data Governance?
I am currently working with data governance and then advisory and expert for SAP Master Data Governance.
 

Also Known As

No data available
SAP MDG, SAP Data Governance
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
Convergent IS, CHIO Aachen, Dell, Hamburg Port Authority (HPA), City of Boston, Mozzart, Mitsui Knowledge Industry (MKI), AOK Bundesverband, eBay
Find out what your peers are saying about Atlan vs. SAP Master Data Governance and other solutions. Updated: August 2026.
909,725 professionals have used our research since 2012.