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Census vs Informatica PowerCenter 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:
 

Categories and Ranking

Census
Ranking in Data Integration
38th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
2
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Informatica PowerCenter
Ranking in Data Integration
4th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
84
Ranking in other categories
Data Visualization (12th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2026, in the Data Integration category, the mindshare of Census is 0.5%, up from 0.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Informatica PowerCenter is 3.2%, down from 9.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Data Integration Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Informatica PowerCenter3.2%
Census0.5%
Other96.3%
Data Integration
 

Featured Reviews

JeanFrancois - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Accountant at Wells Fargo
Automation has transformed our data workflows and creates one trusted source across teams
Census offers excellent integration with popular tools including Salesforce. It can be set up easily and comes with great customer support. The easy setup stands out for me compared to other tools I have used because the support has been very helpful. I love their response time, as they are quick to resolve any issues that we have. Easy setup makes this tool much more user-friendly as it simplifies the process of synchronizing data between different systems. I also love the user interface, which is very easy to navigate and intuitive. This allows us to get up and running easily in minutes with little to no training. I appreciate that it is highly scalable and can integrate with various data warehouses like Redshift and S3, making it accessible to users without technical knowledge or engineers. Census has positively impacted my organization by being a great tool. We are able to respond to customers' account health more rapidly by synchronizing our data into the various customer account management tools. As mentioned, it is able to automate various tasks, enabling us to save a lot of time. It has also helped us minimize data silos while enabling the warehouse to be a single source of truth for data. Through automation, we have been able to save between forty and sixty percent in time and cost, thanks to the automation platform and automation capabilities.
Garima Goel - PeerSpot reviewer
Associate Principal Engineer at Nagarro
Has supported complex data pipeline creation but performance tuning and monitoring responsiveness need improvement
Sometimes, I see various performance issues with Informatica PowerCenter, including caching concerns, whether it's a joiner transformation or other transformations, so I believe the team can enhance the performance perspectives of these transformations. Additionally, sometimes the Informatica Monitor hangs or takes time to open the current run or logs, which the team can also look into. Informatica is transitioning to cloud solutions and discontinuing on-premise support after 2026, so when we discuss Informatica Cloud and its support, it becomes quite expensive for the organization compared to peers such as SnapLogic or Netezza, which offer lower pricing. Informatica Cloud Intelligence's pricing is notably high.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Based on delivery metrics and team feedback, the benefit is that the time to activate new use cases was reduced from weeks to days, engineering effort dedicated to reverse ETL pipelines decreased by sixty to seventy percent, maintenance overhead for custom integration was almost completely eliminated, and marketing and growth teams accelerated experimentation cycles significantly."
"Through automation, we have been able to save between forty and sixty percent in time and cost, thanks to the automation platform and automation capabilities."
"If the systems get migrated or upgraded, the amount of resources required are very minimal, and we can change the connections and establish a new connection, which is very helpful."
"The support is valuable; when we face a production problem, being able to get support is valuable and it brings efficiency."
"It's a very powerful tool you can use to load data, get data, do the drawing between the tables, and put it into the packet in a very fast way."
"It's a very powerful tool you can use to load data, get data, do the drawing between the tables, and put into the packet in a very fast way."
"It works with any multi-database, so it works with Sybase, SQL Server, the performance is really good and it is easy to use."
"Ease and speed of building integrations, especially integrations between different applications, such as our Hospital Information System."
"I like the completeness of the way I can build ETL workflows."
"I would recommend that others considering the solution go ahead and use it for any batch and high volume loads with complex transactions."
 

Cons

"One area that may need improvement is that sometimes a custom setup is very difficult to configure."
"The areas for improvement are complex transformation logic because it must still be handled upstream in the warehouse, and cost predictability requires attention at high data volumes."
"There can be scalability issues. Huge amounts of data ingestion will impact performance."
"The price of the product is an area of concern where improvements are required, considering the fact that the present licensing charges of the tool are expensive."
"The initial setup is not straightforward. You need expertise to do it."
"Its scalability can be improved. It is not scalable."
"Its interface can be modernized. It is an old product. I have been working with it for 14 years, and it still looks the same. It hasn't been modernized much. It also needs to handle more modern formats, such as JSON files. It works with the old text files and databases, but it does not always work with the newer, modern stuff. You need to make your own programs to support that kind of stuff. Support is also a kind of difficult with Informatica. They don't do direct support and rely on using their distributors around the globe for support, which means that you kind of have to go through this layer of different companies before you get help."
"The initial setup is not straightforward. You need expertise to do it."
"There can be scalability issues. Huge amounts of data ingestion will impact performance."
"Improvement is needed in terms of some new transformation because API integration and all those things are very critical nowadays."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"We are satisfied with the pricing."
"A basic setup can be from $100,000 and up annually."
"I am not sure about the most recent price, but I think it should be $100,000 or more."
"I consider this to be an expensive product."
"The pricing for Informatica PowerCenter is expensive. Some clients have simple needs and only want to integrate and store data. Some clients have small needs, while some clients have bigger needs and focus more on performance and time. The licensing cost for Informatica PowerCenter isn't good. In my project, if I remember correctly, the company pays €20,000 per year for the Informatica PowerCenter license. I'm not aware of additional costs that you need to pay for some features of the solution. On a scale of one to five, I'm rating its price a three."
"We have found the pricing very cost-effective. The licensing is CPU and data source-based."
"Our client has purchased the license, and we are using it."
"Pricing for Informatica PowerCenter isn't cheap, but if I compare it with IBM, it's as expensive as IBM, however, Informatica PowerCenter is more innovative, especially when compared to a giant company such as IBM that has thousands of products. Informatica PowerCenter is limited only to data management, but it has new features that come out every quarter. Points for ease of use and flexibility go to Informatica PowerCenter, but price-wise, IBM and Informatica are equal because they're both expensive."
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Comparison Review

it_user90069 - PeerSpot reviewer
BI Expert at a healthcare company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Feb 20, 2014
Informatica PowerCenter vs. Microsoft SSIS - each technology has its advantages but also have similarities
Technology has made it easier for businesses to organize and manipulate data to get a clearer picture of what’s going on with their business. Notably, ETL tools have made managing huge amounts of data significantly easier and faster, boosting many organizations’ business intelligence operations…
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
No data available
Financial Services Firm
17%
Computer Software Company
8%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Government
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business15
Midsize Enterprise11
Large Enterprise73
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Census?
Census has been performing very well overall. One area that may need improvement is that sometimes a custom setup is very difficult to configure. This was the case with our Intercom segment setup. ...
What is your primary use case for Census?
Census is a versatile data synchronizing solution that solves a wide range of data management problems for our business. With Census, we were able to reduce the sync time taken to transfer data fro...
What advice do you have for others considering Census?
I would rate Census an eight out of ten according to my experience. I feel it is not quite a ten because sometimes a custom setup is very difficult to configure. This was the case with our Intercom...
How does Azure Data Factory compare with Informatica PowerCenter?
Azure Data Factory is flexible, modular, and works well. In terms of cost, it is not too pricey. It offers the stability and reliability I am looking for, good scalability, and is easy to set up an...
Which is better - SSIS or Informatica PowerCenter?
SSIS PowerPack is a group of drag and drop connectors for Microsoft SQL Server Integration Services, commonly called SSIS. The collection helps organizations boost productivity with code-free compo...
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...
 

Also Known As

No data available
PowerCenter
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, LexisNexis, Rabobank
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft, Informatica, Qlik and others in Data Integration. Updated: March 2026.
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